Book Description

Excerpt from The New-Hampshire Journal of Medicine, Vol. 1: August, 1850, to August, 1851 In chlorosis how ought we to give iron? In what dose? For how long a time? All questions which therapeutists have scarcely touched upon, and which few practitioners have taken the trouble to examine thoroughly. We except, however, Sydenham, who has given the basis of a good treatment, but who has not sufficiently insisted upon some minutiae of great importance as a long use of this remedy has convinced us. The insoluble preparations ought to be employed in general in the begin ning of the treatment. Iron filings hold the first -rank. They are given in powder, in a spoonful of broth or in sweetmeats, morning and evening, at the two principal meals, in the dose of from one to two grains each time. If this dose is easily borne, it is increased gradually until it reaches from fifteen to thirty grains for each meal. It is essential that the medicine should be taken at the beginning of a meal, for if it is given in the morning fasting, as many physicians do, the patients feel a weight at the stomach - a very great loathing - and lose their appetite. When the iron filings are not borne in this way, we prescribe lozenges of chalybeate chocolate, according to the formula which we give below, * and we administer ten or a dozen of them in the course of the day. If the pa tient, on the contrary, bears the iron filings well, we may pass to the soluble preparations, such as the lactate, the citrate and, the chlorides of iron. Those which we prefer to all others, are those which we have invented, and which we designate by the name of tartaric, or hydrochloric gaseous chalybeate waters, made with fifteen grains of tartrate or perchloride of iron dissolved in a bottle of artificial Seltzer water. For certain women, we prescribe the tartarized tincture of iron, iron water, chalybeate wine, &c. &c. &c. This treatment, which ought not to be suspended even in the menstrual period, should be continued till the symptoms of chlorosis have entirely dis appeared. We stop then, to resume a month after, and persist in the same means for fifteen days or three weeks. Then we leave two months interval after that We give the chalybeates for fifteen days and we should do thus for a year, and even more for, if it is easy to cure chlorosis, it is difficult to cure it so as to have no fear of relapses, if we suspend suddenly the use of the preparations of iron. 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.