Author: W. Braithwaite

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-06

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9781330795187

Excerpt from The Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 6: Being a Half-Yearly Journal, Containing a Retrospective View of Every Discovery and Practical Improvement in the Medical Sciences; July December, 1842 [The chief object of this paper of Dr. Patterson's is to contradict many of the commonly received opinions of medical men with respect to the mode in which the skin becomes discoloured during the use of this drug, and also to point out a superior way of counteracting this effect. We need not particularize the spasmodic and painful diseases in which this medicine has been found efficacious; epilepsy, chorea, pyrosis, gastralgia, &c., are amongst the diseases which have been particularly alleviated by it. But its discolouring effect on the skin has always been a great objection to its continued administration. Dr. A. T. Thompson, in his Elements of Materia Medica, proposes to counteract this effect by the contemporaneous exhibition of nitric acid, on the principle that it would prevent the formation of chloride of silver. "He supposes that the nitrate is taken into the circulation undecomposed, and, arriving in that state at the capillaries of the skin, it is decomposed there and converted into chloride of silver, which is deposited in the rete mucosum. The chloride, he says, acquires a grey, leaden colour from its contact with animal matter; and as it is insoluble, it is incapable of being reabsorbed, is fixed in the rete mucosum, and a permanent stain is given to the skin; and to produce this effect, a more than usual quantity of muriates must he separated by the cuticular capillaries." Vol. i., p. 714. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.