antiphlogistic method of cure. In the class of narcotics we are acquainted with equally few constitutional antidotes, although the nature of the action of these poisons seems better to admit of them. Ammonia is to a certain extent an antidote for hydrocyanic acid, but by no means so powerful as some persons believe; and I am not sure that in this class of poisons we can with any propriety mention another antidote of the constitutional kind.
On the whole, then, it is chiefly among the changes induced by chemical affinities that the practitioner must look for counter-poisons; and the ingenuity of the toxicologists has thence supplied the materia medica with many of singular efficacy. When given in time, magnesia or chalk is an antidote for the mineral acids and oxalic acid, albumen for corrosive sublimate and verdigris, bark for tartar-emetic, common salt for lunar caustic, sulphate of soda or magnesia for sugar of lead and muriate of baryta, chloride of lime or soda for liver of sulphur, vinegar or oil for the fixed alkalis; and these substances act either by neutralizing the corrosive power of the poison, or by forming with it an insoluble compound.
In recent times a new object in the treatment of poisoning has been pointed out by the discoveries made in its physiology. As it has been proved that many of the most deadly poisons enter the blood, and in all probability act by circulating with that fluid, so it has been inferred that an important object in the treatment is to promote their discharge by the natural secretions. In support of this reasonable inference it has been lately rendered probable by Orfila, as will be seen under the head of the treatment of the effects of arsenic, that it is of great advantage in some forms of poisoning to increase the discharge of urine.
In the instance of external poisoning the main object of the treatment is to prevent the poison from entering the blood, or to remove it from the local vessels which it has entered.
One mode, which has been known to the profession from early times, and after being long in disuse was lately revived by Sir D. Barry, and applied with success to man, is the application of cupping glasses to the part where the poison has been introduced.[1] This method may act in various ways. It certainly prevents the farther absorption of the poison by suspending for a time the absorbing power of the vessels of the part covered by the cup. It also sucks the blood out of the wound, and may consequently wash the poison away with it. Possibly it likewise compresses the nerves around, and prevents the impression made by the poison on their sentient extremities from being transmitted along their filaments.
- ↑ It is not any part of the object of this work to enter into the history of toxicology, more especially in early times. But it may be well here to state, that the claim which has been made by some for Dr. Barry, of having discovered this mode of treatment, is groundless. It is distinctly laid down by Nicander, Celsus, Dioscarides, Galen, and others who lived in their times; and among the moderns who have mentioned it, Gräter, in 1767, notices it in his thesis, "de venenis in genere," printed at Frankfort. On the ancient history of toxicology the reader will find an excellent summary by Mr. Adams in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, xxxiii. 315, and a full exposition in Professor Marx's elaborate work, "die Lehre von den Giften."
