Note 25 — PART FIRST. OF INFLAMMATION. (continued 6)

[It is somewhat surprising that the author has made no mention, in connexion with this subject, of the iodide of potassium, so justly lauded by Mons. Ricord and some other French surgeons. For the last two years or more I have been constantly in the habit of employing this article in tertiary syphilis, in mercurial disease of the bones, and in chronic rheumatism, in which, I am convinced, it is as much of a specific as quinine is in intermittent fever and miasmatic neuralgia. The medicine, to produce its full effects, should be administered in much larger quantities than are recommended in our treatises on the Materia Medica. In my own practice, I usually commence with ten grains, repeated three or four times a day, and gradually increased until it amounts to a scruple, or even half a drachm. Exhibited in doses of this size, it is truly surprising how rapidly, in most instances, it affords relief. Patients who have laboured under nodes and nocturnal pains for months, whose health has become greatly impaired, and who have not slept soundly perhaps for weeks together, have often perfectly recovered under this treatment in less than a fortnight. A very decided improvement generally takes place within the first forty-eight hours, the local uneasiness diminishing, and the sleep being rendered more refreshing. The medicine should not be laid aside as soon as the patient experiences relief, but be continued for several weeks after the symptoms of the malady have subsided. By neglecting this precaution a relapse will occasionally occur. The best vehicle for it is distilled water with a small quantity of simple syrup. Mons. Ricord administers it dissolved in hop-tea, made with an ounce of hops to a pint of boiling water; this is allowed to stand for four hours, when thirty-six grains of the salt are added, and the whole drunk during the course of the day. When given in the large doses above mentioned, it is said to be sometimes productive of diarrhœa or gastric irritation; but no such effects have followed its employment in my own hands, and I presume therefore that they are exceedingly rare. Should they take place, the quantity must be lessened, or the medicine entirely suspended for a few days.

In obstinate cases of tertiary syphilis it may be necessary to exhibit along with this medicine the compound decoction of sarsaparilla, or some of the preparations of mercury, such as the proto-ioduret, deuto-chloride, or cyanuret. The first may be given in doses of from one-half a grain to a grain, the second, from one-eighth to a fourth of a grain, and the last, from one-sixteenth of a grain to a grain, twice or three times a day. How the iodide of potassium acts in producing its beneficial effects in the diseases in which it is now so extensively used by our French brethren, as well as by some of the practitioners of our own country, has not yet been explained. That it is a powerful alterant must be admitted, and that it greatly improves the condition of the digestive organs is equally certain.—ED.]