Des Arc citizen., 1860-05-05
BY s. CHENIvA, M. D.
PART SECOND.

PART SECOND.
 It has been asserted by some of the advo
 cates of Caomel, that whenever saivatiol could be brought on, the patient recovered
 this may sometimes be true, although gres ' many instances are known to have occurred, il which death ensued, although salvation ha
 been excited, many of which happened iron the effects of the medicine; but in the ordi , nary cases, where inflammation existed, and il the ordinary operation of Calomel on tht sallvary glands, patient to whom this medi;
 cine Is administered, will be either dead, pasi recovery, or out of danger, before the time ir
 which salvation is generally excited but allowing that the irritation of mercury on the sallvary glands, the evacuation produced there
 by; and the fetid Liberation of the gums and
 fauces, may be seful in the same way, as
 blisters, or Gas it is Fashion to say) by caus.
 ing new action in the system. Yet this does
 not prove that the salivaton is the cure, be-
 cause it takes place in a case favorabIy, any
 more than the free discharge and suppuration Of blister in similar case, proves the cure
 of the distemper, solely by the blister. It appears to be more just to suppose that sali- vation, when it arises in favorable cases, is coincident with, and sign of recovery, rather
 than the cause of it. Besides, the patient is
 exposed to the dangers of this formidable agent, which is acting by prompting the dis
 solution of the blood, and the erosion of the capillary vessels, so common effects of Mer- cnry, and so fatal symptoms in levers, or by
 determining violently the force of the circua lation to the head, another effect of mercury,
 dangerous in every febrile disease, or finally, by exciting gangrenous alteration of the
 fauces and gums, a third effect of mercury. The reflections this subject have given rise
 to, have been suggested from being a witness to the danger arising from the indiscriminate l nt of tho profession. For even at the present day, there is scarcely family, country store, a grocery. that is not supplied plentifuly with calomel in pills and powder. Fatal instances of the misapplication of which, in such hands, are of daily occurrence.
 Fortunately however, in our time the use, or rather abuse of this formidable agent, is | dwinding down fast into oblivion, and the ad- vocates of such system. have purged them selves of into eternity. Twenty years ago, people were purged for everything and for nothing at all, they got in the habit of purg- | ing themselves every Saturday night or Sun. day morning, for fear they would get bilious. Purglng was emphatically purging in those days. patient would tell you. that he had | taken medicine which operated finely, if it had given him dozen or two passages. Thirty grains each of calomel and jalap, was then the standing PULv. CATHARTIcUs.
 
 medicine, more worthy of the adopts of Van Belmont, and such chimical visionaries, than Of the present day. and which has too long been in the hands of the inexperienced For every one knows that the system of over purging either produces permanent looseness of bowels, or It is followed by costiveness; and imported feces in the cells of the colon, which generally occasion ulceraton of that organ, and with it the interminable chain of
 it's sequences.
 MEANS FOR PREVENTION OF THE MORBID AGENCY OF MALARIA. A rational plan of preventing the maladies to which we are sub Ject, must be founded upon one of three things, viz: knowledge of the physical action of the cause, or of it's physical and chemical properties, of the circumstances under which it is generated Of the mode of &C., tion of malaria it was already said in the former number, that we can scarcely be said to know anything; of its chemical properties, very little and 1t IS therefore the more neccs- sary, in an attempt to prevent its effect, to show the physical circumstances on which its productions diffusion and energy depend.
 With an accurate knowledge of the condi- tions indispensable to the existence of mala- dy, its prevention seems obviously within our power, and it is a wonder that the simple means by which il may be effected, should have been overlooked or neglected; for by a pIOpeI peISOHdi ueSCfIptlOH on tue part or tue individual to be benefited, malaria may be rendered innocuous. The prevention of the morbid influence of malaria exerts too important bearing over the happiness and prosperity of man, not to have engaged, at all times, his serious atten- tion. Many devices, founded upon the gener- ally received opinions of the chemical nature of malaria, or its supposed mode of action on the animal econonmy, have been proposed for this object; but they have been for the most part, of simply reputed efficiency, or were real, have proved trivial and inadequent.-- Though universally looking to the atmosphere as the source of the poisonous influence, no Judiciously directed effort has ever been made, like those upon water, to filter and depurate it.
 As malaria acts through the atmosphere, it is apparent that its morbid influence might be as efectually prevented by depurating it as by obviating it's formation in the earth. But as we know that it's sources occupy portions of earth's surface too large to admit of useful interference, with it's generation, so the super incumbent portions of the atmospheric ocean which it contaminates are too vast to be acted upon by human power. It is then plain that no plan of preventing the influence of malaria can be universal, in it's operation; nor even so general as to supercede care and attention, on the part of the individual whom it is to benefit. But within limited space, as room, a dwelling house, hospital, etc., these objections do not apply: It is quite possible to depurate such insulated portions of the general atmosphere of any maignat volatile substance they may contain; and as will be presently shown, it is the air of such spaces, and of those alone, which does, or ought to, come in contact with the lungs of person during the period of chief danger from Ma laria. Instead, therefore, of any general scheme for subverting malaria, propose sim ply to place it in the power of every man to neutralize and modify the effects from ma 1 laria, through the following means, that may | be considered under four heads, viz:
 | FIRsr-Most prominent among these means are artificial fires. Heat being a powerful | rarifier and exciter of @rlal currents, and within house, an efficient ventilator and dl- utter of gases therein contained; its salutary | effect has been attributed to the substitution ] of pnre in -place- of contaminated -alr--t must, however, be evident, from the general connection of malaria with the atmosphere, that its chief effect in this relation can only be the substitution of one impure air for another. Something is due to the power of | it's carbonaceus emanations, in the form or smoke, of decomposing and forming new com binations of organic products. Carbon in | E-a~ kant