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PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS.
THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS.
prophylactic. He thought that treatment should be continued for from two to four years to ensure a cure and regarded inunction as the best method.-M GRUNFELD regarded excisions as of little influence in preventing the subsequent manifestations, but it might be done as doing no barm. He preferred to use mercury by injection, as it ScHwmMER then produced less stomatitis, &c.-Professor - considered that it took many yeaxs to cure syphilis. He did jiot like calomel or the hypodermic method.-M. RAVOGLI regarded the hypodermic method as slow but sure. He had had good results from excision ; but this was of no avail if the induration had appeared, for the poison was then
961
the effects of the
remedy employed. In this way,rational therapeutics are naturally attained, and the indication of the remedy arises spontaneously in the mind of the physician. I I If we consider therapeutics by themselves we are led to remain in a state of absolute empiricism. Various are
the remedies which for centuries have been in the hands of the physician, and no real gain to scientific knowledge has accrued from their application and employment. It is sufficient to mention mercury. It may be said that till quite lately quinine itself was used empirically ; there was needed the experience which demonstrated the action of this agent on the protoplasmic organisms ; already absorbed.-MM. BRADA, ROSENTHAL, TOMMASOLI, there were needed the beautiful studies of Binz on the behaviour of the white corpuscles with quinine ; and, and several other members joined in the discussion. Professor SoHWiMMBR (Budapest) read a paper on Eczema. lastly, the studies initiated by Laveran and crowned by The term I I eczema,he said, has been long accepted, but the researches of Golgi to give a scientific solution of the Lhe exact meaning that we attach to the word has varied specific action of this remedy on malarial affections. Numbers from time to time. Willan described eczema as a vesicular of remedies await their turn, among them opium, with disease of the skin, and Hebra, who gave an accurate descrip- respect to which one must be content with thevirtus tion, which is still accepted, could not fully explain its real qaasdam dormitiva’ of classic memory. Therapeutics, mature. For a critical examination it is necessary to study like hygiene, engineering, and law, is not a science but I would not wish on that the disease anatomically and clinically. The results show an application of science. that there is a hypersemia in eczema, with a consequent account that therapeutics should not be taught; on the exudation in portions of the epidermis and the Malpighian contrary, I believe it to be the more necessary, because it ayer, which represent a catarrh of the skin. He therefore contains a series of practical and empirical rules that directly considers eczema to be a catarrhal enchydermitis, combined guide the physician in the exercise of his art, and I should with alterations of the nerves, which may be assumed although have no difficulty at all in admitting that the professor of mot yet proved. With regard to etiology we must consider the pharmacology could adopt the teachings of this most imsubject under three heads : (1) constitution ; (2) influence of portant application of science, even though more logically it the cutaneous nerves ; and (3) parasites. Eczema presents should be confded to the clinics ; but I believe it indisa complication of variations in the skin, the nerves having a pensable for the harmonious development and completion of predominant influence, and the parasitic organisms being the medical sciences and for the scientific instruction of the accidental causes in certain forms. medical student that there should be a purely scientific Professor SCHWIMMER likewise spoke on the Effect of instruction in pharmacology analogous to, and parallel with. Certain Remedies in Dermotherapeutics. Aluminol (he said) that of physiology and pathology, and, above all, not limited is a very efficacious antiseptic remedy which does not cause to the needs of therapeutics. "The ideas which I have thus expounded are certainly coagulation of the tissues, as does, e.g., nitrate of silver; consequently it penetrates into the subcutaneous tissues more those of the majority of teachers and students of pharmareadily and destroys the gonococci in blennorrhagic diseases. cology, but I believe it is necessary that this Congress He has employed it in various diseases of the skin and in should give them the value of its vote. which perhaps blennorrhagia in men and women. Solutions of 1 to 2 per will serve to call the attention of the Governments and cent. irritate the mucous membrane, while injections of 0 5 the scientific bodies on which depend the institutions of per cent. are well borne. In female blennorrhagias the medical instruction, and decide them to bestow on pharresults are excellent, not only in vaginal but also urethral macology the same means of research which are accorded and uterine discharges. For these last aluminol may be to all other medical sciences : anatomy, general pathology, employed as an injection or by means of tampons saturated chemistry, physics, and physiology. In Italy, for example, the laboratories of materia medica, except those of Turin, with a solution of from 1 to 2 per cent. are all far inferior to those of physiology ; their endowments are of surprising exiguity, in spite of the fact that pharmaPHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS. cological researches require numerous animals, delicate and Z7<6 Modern Tendency of Pharmacology considered in Relation costly instruments, and expensive chemical manipulations. In pursuance of the foregoing considerations I have the to -ZM’MCOM. honour to submit to my colleagues of the Section of PharmaAt a meeting of this section on April 3rd Signor P. GIACOSA cology and Therapeutics of the Eleventh International Medical of and Chemical at the (Professor Pharmacology Physiology Congress in Rome the following deliberations:The members ’Turin University) made the following communication :" With regard to instruction in pharmacology and materia of the Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the held in Rome, 1894, medica, as it is still usual to call it, there are two different Eleventh International Medical Congress modes for consideration. According to one, which is prin- considering that the teaching of experimental pharmacology an integral part of the fundamental scientific study of cipally found in France, England and America, those actions is of pharmacy are chiefly regarded which have a direct relation medicine, that experimental pharmacology is a biological to cure. The other method is found in Italy and in the science with a determinate scope and direction requiring the Germanic countries, and in France principally through the means of necessary research, proposes that in every uni.efforts of M. Bernard. According to this system pharma- versity and college there should exist laboratories of pharmacology, bestowing upon them the means necessary to enable cology studies the modifications caused in the functions of them to fulfil their intention; considering also that therathe organism by the presence of special agents which act peutic application is the necessary consequence of the teachto their of chemical according composition, independently of ing experimental pharmacology from the point of view of the curative applications. This second system, I think, is most reasonable and logical, and contributes to the develop- practical medicine, the above section proposes that means ment of the biological sciences, and also favours their should be afforded for teaching it.’" This proposition was unanimously approved of by the members of the section. application to the art of curing. "Modern physiology owes its greatest progress to purely pharmacological studies, and is the ally of physiology and SURGERY. pathology, but with a direction and character of its own. The field of pharmacology has been greatly amplified during the The Treatment of Spina Bifida by a Plastic Operation, nit7t East few years since the discovery of toxic products elaborated brief Reports of T,7venty Cases. Mr. A. W. MAYO RoBSON read a paper on the above by pathogenic micro-organisms, and not only is their immediate action studied, but also that action which, carried on for subject, having handed round the tabular synopsis we here long periods, creates in the tissues a characteristic power of print of the twenty cases on which he had operated. He resistance which is confounded with the so-called immunity. described the various procedures by a fuller report of several Given a perfect knowledge of the functional alterations cases. He remarked that his views had practically not exercised by a definite complex of atoms, therapeutic changed since he gave his first paper on the subject at the application naturally develops of itself, provided there be London Clinical Society nine years ago, but that a greater contemporaneously the notion of those pathological altera- experience had confirmed them ; and he was glad to find tions which it is desired to combat and counterbalance with that not only by his colleagues and other surgeons in
prophylactic. He thought that treatment should be continued for from two to four years to ensure a cure and regarded inunction as the best method.-M GRUNFELD regarded excisions as of little influence in preventing the subsequent manifestations, but it might be done as doing no barm. He preferred to use mercury by injection, as it ScHwmMER then produced less stomatitis, &c.-Professor - considered that it took many yeaxs to cure syphilis. He did jiot like calomel or the hypodermic method.-M. RAVOGLI regarded the hypodermic method as slow but sure. He had had good results from excision ; but this was of no avail if the induration had appeared, for the poison was then
961
the effects of the
remedy employed. In this way,rational therapeutics are naturally attained, and the indication of the remedy arises spontaneously in the mind of the physician. I I If we consider therapeutics by themselves we are led to remain in a state of absolute empiricism. Various are
the remedies which for centuries have been in the hands of the physician, and no real gain to scientific knowledge has accrued from their application and employment. It is sufficient to mention mercury. It may be said that till quite lately quinine itself was used empirically ; there was needed the experience which demonstrated the action of this agent on the protoplasmic organisms ; already absorbed.-MM. BRADA, ROSENTHAL, TOMMASOLI, there were needed the beautiful studies of Binz on the behaviour of the white corpuscles with quinine ; and, and several other members joined in the discussion. Professor SoHWiMMBR (Budapest) read a paper on Eczema. lastly, the studies initiated by Laveran and crowned by The term I I eczema,he said, has been long accepted, but the researches of Golgi to give a scientific solution of the Lhe exact meaning that we attach to the word has varied specific action of this remedy on malarial affections. Numbers from time to time. Willan described eczema as a vesicular of remedies await their turn, among them opium, with disease of the skin, and Hebra, who gave an accurate descrip- respect to which one must be content with thevirtus tion, which is still accepted, could not fully explain its real qaasdam dormitiva’ of classic memory. Therapeutics, mature. For a critical examination it is necessary to study like hygiene, engineering, and law, is not a science but I would not wish on that the disease anatomically and clinically. The results show an application of science. that there is a hypersemia in eczema, with a consequent account that therapeutics should not be taught; on the exudation in portions of the epidermis and the Malpighian contrary, I believe it to be the more necessary, because it ayer, which represent a catarrh of the skin. He therefore contains a series of practical and empirical rules that directly considers eczema to be a catarrhal enchydermitis, combined guide the physician in the exercise of his art, and I should with alterations of the nerves, which may be assumed although have no difficulty at all in admitting that the professor of mot yet proved. With regard to etiology we must consider the pharmacology could adopt the teachings of this most imsubject under three heads : (1) constitution ; (2) influence of portant application of science, even though more logically it the cutaneous nerves ; and (3) parasites. Eczema presents should be confded to the clinics ; but I believe it indisa complication of variations in the skin, the nerves having a pensable for the harmonious development and completion of predominant influence, and the parasitic organisms being the medical sciences and for the scientific instruction of the accidental causes in certain forms. medical student that there should be a purely scientific Professor SCHWIMMER likewise spoke on the Effect of instruction in pharmacology analogous to, and parallel with. Certain Remedies in Dermotherapeutics. Aluminol (he said) that of physiology and pathology, and, above all, not limited is a very efficacious antiseptic remedy which does not cause to the needs of therapeutics. "The ideas which I have thus expounded are certainly coagulation of the tissues, as does, e.g., nitrate of silver; consequently it penetrates into the subcutaneous tissues more those of the majority of teachers and students of pharmareadily and destroys the gonococci in blennorrhagic diseases. cology, but I believe it is necessary that this Congress He has employed it in various diseases of the skin and in should give them the value of its vote. which perhaps blennorrhagia in men and women. Solutions of 1 to 2 per will serve to call the attention of the Governments and cent. irritate the mucous membrane, while injections of 0 5 the scientific bodies on which depend the institutions of per cent. are well borne. In female blennorrhagias the medical instruction, and decide them to bestow on pharresults are excellent, not only in vaginal but also urethral macology the same means of research which are accorded and uterine discharges. For these last aluminol may be to all other medical sciences : anatomy, general pathology, employed as an injection or by means of tampons saturated chemistry, physics, and physiology. In Italy, for example, the laboratories of materia medica, except those of Turin, with a solution of from 1 to 2 per cent. are all far inferior to those of physiology ; their endowments are of surprising exiguity, in spite of the fact that pharmaPHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS. cological researches require numerous animals, delicate and Z7<6 Modern Tendency of Pharmacology considered in Relation costly instruments, and expensive chemical manipulations. In pursuance of the foregoing considerations I have the to -ZM’MCOM. honour to submit to my colleagues of the Section of PharmaAt a meeting of this section on April 3rd Signor P. GIACOSA cology and Therapeutics of the Eleventh International Medical of and Chemical at the (Professor Pharmacology Physiology Congress in Rome the following deliberations:The members ’Turin University) made the following communication :" With regard to instruction in pharmacology and materia of the Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the held in Rome, 1894, medica, as it is still usual to call it, there are two different Eleventh International Medical Congress modes for consideration. According to one, which is prin- considering that the teaching of experimental pharmacology an integral part of the fundamental scientific study of cipally found in France, England and America, those actions is of pharmacy are chiefly regarded which have a direct relation medicine, that experimental pharmacology is a biological to cure. The other method is found in Italy and in the science with a determinate scope and direction requiring the Germanic countries, and in France principally through the means of necessary research, proposes that in every uni.efforts of M. Bernard. According to this system pharma- versity and college there should exist laboratories of pharmacology, bestowing upon them the means necessary to enable cology studies the modifications caused in the functions of them to fulfil their intention; considering also that therathe organism by the presence of special agents which act peutic application is the necessary consequence of the teachto their of chemical according composition, independently of ing experimental pharmacology from the point of view of the curative applications. This second system, I think, is most reasonable and logical, and contributes to the develop- practical medicine, the above section proposes that means ment of the biological sciences, and also favours their should be afforded for teaching it.’" This proposition was unanimously approved of by the members of the section. application to the art of curing. "Modern physiology owes its greatest progress to purely pharmacological studies, and is the ally of physiology and SURGERY. pathology, but with a direction and character of its own. The field of pharmacology has been greatly amplified during the The Treatment of Spina Bifida by a Plastic Operation, nit7t East few years since the discovery of toxic products elaborated brief Reports of T,7venty Cases. Mr. A. W. MAYO RoBSON read a paper on the above by pathogenic micro-organisms, and not only is their immediate action studied, but also that action which, carried on for subject, having handed round the tabular synopsis we here long periods, creates in the tissues a characteristic power of print of the twenty cases on which he had operated. He resistance which is confounded with the so-called immunity. described the various procedures by a fuller report of several Given a perfect knowledge of the functional alterations cases. He remarked that his views had practically not exercised by a definite complex of atoms, therapeutic changed since he gave his first paper on the subject at the application naturally develops of itself, provided there be London Clinical Society nine years ago, but that a greater contemporaneously the notion of those pathological altera- experience had confirmed them ; and he was glad to find tions which it is desired to combat and counterbalance with that not only by his colleagues and other surgeons in