NOTES ON RECENT THERAPEUTICS. One of the recent remedies at home in skin diseases ia acid used in the proportion of 1 to 15 of lard. This remedy has been known in India for some time under the empiric name of Goa powder, and used in all cases of skin disease which have shown that were dependant they on a nerve weakness of the part. A good guide for its employment is the annular or serpentine character of the eruption. Dr. Crocker relates a case of bilateral psoriasis which he treated, one side of the body with chrysophanic acid ointment, the other with two drams of turpentine in an ounce of olive oil ; the strength of each preparation was increased until in twelve days pure turpentine was used on thedaily one side, and chrysophanic acid one dram to the ounce on the other The eruption had disappeared from the whole body, with the exception of a few spots, in this time. There was no advantage of one application over the other in any way. Dr. Crocker?is of opinion that any stimulating penetrating application will cure this disease.
chrysophanic
*****
It seems
a very dangerous generalisation this when the_ bilateral character of the eruption is considered, and one correspondent subsequently writing says that he saw a case of psoriasis (bilateral) cured by liawng the one aim treated with chrysophanic acid, and the other simply wrapped in cotton wool. One may call to mind the experiment conducted with 4 clinical thermometers in connection with this latter case. One thermometer being held in either hand, and the other two one in either axilla. When one hand is dipped
in cold water the
of
the other hand as registered falls, but the temperature in the two axillas remains unaltered, showing that the local peripheral action is communicated to the
temperature it
by the thermometer held in
nervous centre and reflected to the periphery of the opposits side. ***** Psoriasis is a skin disease clue to an altered condition of the nervous supply* to the skin, and if tins condition is anestcd oil the one side and this salutary state comnmnicatcd to the nervous centre it will be reflected to corresponding parts on the opposite side of the body. Experiments of this kind can never be satisfactory when carried on in the body of one
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
146
individual, for even if the remedy were applied to one side, and the progress of that side towards a cure duly noted, and
the second remedy were afterwards applied to the opposite Bide, then how much can be put down to the central cure already worked from the other side, and how much to the efficacy of the second drug ? Two cases as nearly similar as possible must be taken, and careful and complete notes taken of each, and then they can be compared. *
*
*
*
*
The new mechanical method of relieving pain, as explained and described bv Dr. Mortimer Granville, is one which bids fair to systematise the treatment of those distressing cases of neuralgia which have long been the dread of physicians. They have mostly gone empirically and haphazardly to work with the recognised specifics,?Quinine, Iron, Croton Chloral, Nitrite of amyl, etc., and have flattered themselves with a cure, when it is very doubtful if they had anything to do with the matter. The principle of the matter is exceedingly simple, and, as Dr. Granville says, only wants development Pain is an abnormal rhythmical action to be very useful. in a nerve and communicated to the sheath of the nerve which causes the sensation. If any clis cord is brought into this rhythmical movement then the pain is stopped. * # # * * "* The acute pain is caused by a high number or quick succession of these rhythmical movements, and a dull one by a low To number ; in fact like a high and a low note in music. introduce the dis cord Dr. G. has invented a machine which beats on the surface of the body where the neuralgic nerve is, and by giving a slow number of strokes an acute pain is stopped, and a quick number will introduce the dLt cord inIt seems to me that to a dull rhythmical painful sensation. the application of this principle might with great advantage when be done electricity is the therapeutic agent employed in the cure of neuralgise. A low number or weak current tried in acute pain and vice versa. *
*
#
*
*
*
Medicine is a rather grim subject, and it is but rarely one pets a chance of a laugh out of a journal connected with, and devoted to it, but your advertising columns supply the place of a facetious column, ' vide Lamplough's pyretic saline. One authority says it unfolds germs of immense benefit to mankind,' another evidently has had scarlet fever in his experience, a third must consider it a truly heavenly medicine, for ' since its introduction the fatal West-Indian What deep hidden fevers are deprived of their terrors.' meaning is contained under Rawul Pindee's observation 'I gib's it up.' Is the medicine much used in Ireland ? T. Hume. tmttuiaa,
iwn
April,
io?i.
[May 2,
1881.
chrysophanic
*****
It seems
a very dangerous generalisation this when the_ bilateral character of the eruption is considered, and one correspondent subsequently writing says that he saw a case of psoriasis (bilateral) cured by liawng the one aim treated with chrysophanic acid, and the other simply wrapped in cotton wool. One may call to mind the experiment conducted with 4 clinical thermometers in connection with this latter case. One thermometer being held in either hand, and the other two one in either axilla. When one hand is dipped
in cold water the
of
the other hand as registered falls, but the temperature in the two axillas remains unaltered, showing that the local peripheral action is communicated to the
temperature it
by the thermometer held in
nervous centre and reflected to the periphery of the opposits side. ***** Psoriasis is a skin disease clue to an altered condition of the nervous supply* to the skin, and if tins condition is anestcd oil the one side and this salutary state comnmnicatcd to the nervous centre it will be reflected to corresponding parts on the opposite side of the body. Experiments of this kind can never be satisfactory when carried on in the body of one
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
146
individual, for even if the remedy were applied to one side, and the progress of that side towards a cure duly noted, and
the second remedy were afterwards applied to the opposite Bide, then how much can be put down to the central cure already worked from the other side, and how much to the efficacy of the second drug ? Two cases as nearly similar as possible must be taken, and careful and complete notes taken of each, and then they can be compared. *
*
*
*
*
The new mechanical method of relieving pain, as explained and described bv Dr. Mortimer Granville, is one which bids fair to systematise the treatment of those distressing cases of neuralgia which have long been the dread of physicians. They have mostly gone empirically and haphazardly to work with the recognised specifics,?Quinine, Iron, Croton Chloral, Nitrite of amyl, etc., and have flattered themselves with a cure, when it is very doubtful if they had anything to do with the matter. The principle of the matter is exceedingly simple, and, as Dr. Granville says, only wants development Pain is an abnormal rhythmical action to be very useful. in a nerve and communicated to the sheath of the nerve which causes the sensation. If any clis cord is brought into this rhythmical movement then the pain is stopped. * # # * * "* The acute pain is caused by a high number or quick succession of these rhythmical movements, and a dull one by a low To number ; in fact like a high and a low note in music. introduce the dis cord Dr. G. has invented a machine which beats on the surface of the body where the neuralgic nerve is, and by giving a slow number of strokes an acute pain is stopped, and a quick number will introduce the dLt cord inIt seems to me that to a dull rhythmical painful sensation. the application of this principle might with great advantage when be done electricity is the therapeutic agent employed in the cure of neuralgise. A low number or weak current tried in acute pain and vice versa. *
*
#
*
*
*
Medicine is a rather grim subject, and it is but rarely one pets a chance of a laugh out of a journal connected with, and devoted to it, but your advertising columns supply the place of a facetious column, ' vide Lamplough's pyretic saline. One authority says it unfolds germs of immense benefit to mankind,' another evidently has had scarlet fever in his experience, a third must consider it a truly heavenly medicine, for ' since its introduction the fatal West-Indian What deep hidden fevers are deprived of their terrors.' meaning is contained under Rawul Pindee's observation 'I gib's it up.' Is the medicine much used in Ireland ? T. Hume. tmttuiaa,
iwn
April,
io?i.
[May 2,
1881.
