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ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF JALAP.
859 EFFECT OF DIGITALIS ON THE FŒTUS IN UTERO.
ACTIVE
PRINCIPLE OF JALAP.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—Through the medium of your Journal, 1 wish to call the attenSIR,—Having had occasion to doubt the propriety of ernploying digitalis to any tion of the profession to a new remedy in considerable extent in the treatment of the class of purgative medicines. disease occurring during pregnancy, I am It has often been a matter of regret to anxious to learn from those who have had me during my practice that we had no more extensive experience in such cases purgative at once safe and mild in its than myself, whether or not this drug is action, which could be conveyed in a miinjurious to the foetus in utero. My own ’ nute quantity, when the stomach was in experience leads me to think that it may an irritable state, or the patient averse at times exercise a baneful influence on from medicine (which is particularly the the foetus. My impression on this subject case with children), who frequently will was first derived during m attendance on ’ allow nothing of the kind to be given. a woman in the fifth month of pregnancy, ! However, Mr. Osborn, a scientific chemist, about thirty years of age, who was labour- of Southampton, has succeeded in procurthe active principle of jalap in a very ing under typhus fever. She was twice bled at the beginning of the fever, each pure state, which he considers entitled to " time to the amount of sixteen or twenty name of Jalapine." This preparation after which she took a the ounces, quantity of half a grain given by febrifuge in mixture, containing Tinct. Digitalis. The ! itself, or combined with hydrarg. subwoman ultimately recovered, and was, at or hyd. c. creta, can by given to an the end of the proper period of utero-ges- infant in a little of its food with perfect tation, delivered of a living child, whose safety and ease. From one grain to two, natural bulk of body was considerably di- given in the form of pill or in a draught (if minished, and whose skin was shrivelled the latter, a little spirit must be added to and wrinkled all over, as if absorption of hold it in solution), is a sufficient dose for the substance within had been caused by an adult. Some cases may require three the action of some stimulating medicine. grains, but this will be but seldom needWhether this appearance arose from the ful. The preparation possesses the valudepletion which was necessary for the re- able quality of not producing constipation its use. Trusting you will give this moval of the excessive arterial excitement present at the onset of the complaint, or statement a place in your next Journal, 1 from the stimulating effect of the digitalis, remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, W. HAMILTON KITTOE, I cannot presume to say, but I am strongSurgeon. ly borne out in my previous views of the influence of this drug on the uterine sys- Southampton, Feb. 26, 1835. tem, by the recent clinical observations of Professor Thomson, recorded in a No. of the present volume of THE LANCET.
valuable
ing the
mur.
after
APPARATUS
FOR
OBLIQUE FRACTURE Of
THE CLAVICLE.-LITHOTRITIC INSTRUIt may be argued that digitalis, like the MENT. secale cornutum, may stimulate and excite the uterine functions without deleteriously affecting the foetus. I have frequently To the Editor of THE LANCET. given the secale cornutum in protracted SIA,—I have forwarded by my son a labours, without the production of any of which, about a year and a half the but bad effects on there machine, child, apparent seems evidence of an opposite kind with since, I sent you a description, and which I have found extremely useful in oblique regard to the internal use of digitalis. fractures of the clavicle, particularly I am of opinion myself, that if it do pro- where, as is sometimes the case from a duce injury to the child, it is not the sti- horse falling upon a person, the shoulder, mulating, but the sedative effect of the ribs, or soft parts, are much injured. Another instrument, to be worn under the digitalis which does the mischief. I am, Sir, clothes, I sometime since gave to Messrs. Yours, very respectfully, , late Savigny’s in St.James’s-street.* E. WILKINSON. Respecting the lithotritic instrument
Aspatria,
Feb. 6, 1835.
* The apparatus forwarded by ifr. Jones may be seen by any profesional gentleman on appliedtion at THE LANCET Office.—ED. L.
ACTIVE
PRINCIPLE OF JALAP.
To the Editor of THE LANCET. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—Through the medium of your Journal, 1 wish to call the attenSIR,—Having had occasion to doubt the propriety of ernploying digitalis to any tion of the profession to a new remedy in considerable extent in the treatment of the class of purgative medicines. disease occurring during pregnancy, I am It has often been a matter of regret to anxious to learn from those who have had me during my practice that we had no more extensive experience in such cases purgative at once safe and mild in its than myself, whether or not this drug is action, which could be conveyed in a miinjurious to the foetus in utero. My own ’ nute quantity, when the stomach was in experience leads me to think that it may an irritable state, or the patient averse at times exercise a baneful influence on from medicine (which is particularly the the foetus. My impression on this subject case with children), who frequently will was first derived during m attendance on ’ allow nothing of the kind to be given. a woman in the fifth month of pregnancy, ! However, Mr. Osborn, a scientific chemist, about thirty years of age, who was labour- of Southampton, has succeeded in procurthe active principle of jalap in a very ing under typhus fever. She was twice bled at the beginning of the fever, each pure state, which he considers entitled to " time to the amount of sixteen or twenty name of Jalapine." This preparation after which she took a the ounces, quantity of half a grain given by febrifuge in mixture, containing Tinct. Digitalis. The ! itself, or combined with hydrarg. subwoman ultimately recovered, and was, at or hyd. c. creta, can by given to an the end of the proper period of utero-ges- infant in a little of its food with perfect tation, delivered of a living child, whose safety and ease. From one grain to two, natural bulk of body was considerably di- given in the form of pill or in a draught (if minished, and whose skin was shrivelled the latter, a little spirit must be added to and wrinkled all over, as if absorption of hold it in solution), is a sufficient dose for the substance within had been caused by an adult. Some cases may require three the action of some stimulating medicine. grains, but this will be but seldom needWhether this appearance arose from the ful. The preparation possesses the valudepletion which was necessary for the re- able quality of not producing constipation its use. Trusting you will give this moval of the excessive arterial excitement present at the onset of the complaint, or statement a place in your next Journal, 1 from the stimulating effect of the digitalis, remain, Sir, your most obedient servant, W. HAMILTON KITTOE, I cannot presume to say, but I am strongSurgeon. ly borne out in my previous views of the influence of this drug on the uterine sys- Southampton, Feb. 26, 1835. tem, by the recent clinical observations of Professor Thomson, recorded in a No. of the present volume of THE LANCET.
valuable
ing the
mur.
after
APPARATUS
FOR
OBLIQUE FRACTURE Of
THE CLAVICLE.-LITHOTRITIC INSTRUIt may be argued that digitalis, like the MENT. secale cornutum, may stimulate and excite the uterine functions without deleteriously affecting the foetus. I have frequently To the Editor of THE LANCET. given the secale cornutum in protracted SIA,—I have forwarded by my son a labours, without the production of any of which, about a year and a half the but bad effects on there machine, child, apparent seems evidence of an opposite kind with since, I sent you a description, and which I have found extremely useful in oblique regard to the internal use of digitalis. fractures of the clavicle, particularly I am of opinion myself, that if it do pro- where, as is sometimes the case from a duce injury to the child, it is not the sti- horse falling upon a person, the shoulder, mulating, but the sedative effect of the ribs, or soft parts, are much injured. Another instrument, to be worn under the digitalis which does the mischief. I am, Sir, clothes, I sometime since gave to Messrs. Yours, very respectfully, , late Savigny’s in St.James’s-street.* E. WILKINSON. Respecting the lithotritic instrument
Aspatria,
Feb. 6, 1835.
* The apparatus forwarded by ifr. Jones may be seen by any profesional gentleman on appliedtion at THE LANCET Office.—ED. L.