Author:

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 9781331250456

Excerpt from E. Merck's Annual Report, Vol. 24: Of Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Therapeutics The naturally occurring compounds of arsenium, particularly white arsenic, have always played a rather important role in the treatment of various skin diseases, and ascosmetics. It has remained for the investigators of thelast hundred years to throw more light on the physiological mode of action of arsenium and of its derivatives. With the gain in our knowledge of the therapeutic value of arsenium compounds, the ill effects of arsenic treatment were also brought to light, and it was shown that the successful treatment of obstinate skin diseases requires the use of such considerable doses of the inorganic arsenic preparations as to produce appreciable injury to the organism as a whole, or to special parts of it. Thus among the secondary effects following the use of arsenic many cases have been observed) of changes in the skin, such as dermatitis, erythema, pigmentation and shedding of hair, also affections of the internal organs, including the mucous membrane of the throat, nose and eyes, also frequent disturbances of the kidneys and of the central nervous system. An attempt was consequently made to use organic compounds of arsenium, and by their agency to administer large and effective doses of arsenium, practically freefrom any toxic action; this was achieved by the use of the salts of cacodylic acid. These salts quickly took a firm place in therapeutics, and they have held their ground in spite of the introduction of newer preparations of arsenium, for they rarely produce any harmful secondary effects, nor do they subject the patient to the risk of dangerous permanent injury, such as complete blindness, as has been observed to follow the use of other organic compounds of arsenium. The chemistry of the cacodylates and of cacodyle was fully studied by Bunsen. 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.