The Shasta courier., 1863-07-18
Highly Important Discovery

1t has been often remarked that the great
est evils that have afflicted the human race
have not been without their cnmpensating
benefits. This maxim finds partial verii-
cation in the important additions made and
in progress in medical and surgical science
resulting from the immense fields of labor
opened in hospital practice to the profession.
foremost among these discoveries is the treat
ment of pyaemia, hospital gangrene, erysipel
as, and malignant diptheria by the local ap-
plication of Bromine Dr. NJ Goldsmith of
this city, to whom the country is indebted for
the discovery, has given to this treatment
such a full and thorough trial during the
past winter that its complete success is nc
longer an open question. Hospital gangrene,
that scourge of military hospitals, yields to
Bromine as promptly and certainly as inter
mittent fever yields TO quinine. The am
NAL poisen.i is neutralized end the sloughing
wound or stump at once takes on healthy
action.
Military surgeons will understand the value
Of this new remedial agent when they learn
that the popliteal and brachial arteries pull
satiug in the midst of a gangrenous slough
supervening upon amputation have been re-
tied, Bromine applied to the sloughing sur
face. and a rapid recovery resulted One
hundred and thirteen severe cases of hospi-
tai gangrene have been successfully treated
with Bromine in the hospitals of this city,
large portion of which would unquestiona
bly,, have died under any formerly known sys-
tenn of treatu ent If there is such thing
as IA specific in medicine, Bremine has been
shown by the experience of last winter to be
specific in hospital gangrene.
In erysipelas its success has been equally
marked. In no one instance has it failed to
arrest promptly the disease by neutralizing
and destroying the virus, upon the presence
and continued reproduction of which the
disease depends for its continuance and its
propagation to new subjects Over two hun
dred and fifty cases of erysipelas have been
treated with Bromine, and in no one of these,
where other fatal complications did not ex-
list, was there an unfayorable termination.
In pyemia the cases treated have been
few in number, and though. the results have
been highly fatteriBg, future experiments
must determine its value in this almost uni
yersally fatal disease.
In malignant diptheria but little oppor-
tunity has been offered in the hospitals to
test its value, but in outside practice its use
has been more extensive, and has been ac-
companied with a success no other remedy
or combination of remedies has heretofore
attained.
In smallpox 1t mas been used In some III
teen or twenty cases with results that have
surprised even those who hoped the most
from its use. 1t has in these cases cut short
the disease at once, result heretofore deem
ed impossible to be attaice by any treat
ment.
1t would follow theoretically that if its To-
cal application thus effectualy destroys the
animal poison and arrests the diseases de-
pendent upon It's generation it should, as
disinfectant, efeetually prevent the spread Of
infection when diffused through the atmos-
phere of the hospital, and this has been
found to be the practical result of its use.
An elaborate report, embracing a large
number of cases, has been made by DR.. Gold
smith tot she Surgeon General, which. will of
course be published in due time. Distin
guished Surgeons have been sent to this city
By tiie Surgeon General from the various
large hospitals at other points to investigate
the results, and. upon the reports made by
them, the use of Bromine has been adopted
in many of the hospitals of the Government
at other places. Various experiments are
now in progress to determine the most effec-
tive mode of use and the quantity to be used
in the various diseases to which it is appli-
cable, and so soon as satisfactory conclusions
are reached on these points we will resume
the subject and lay the result before the pro-
1esslon.- Louisville Journal.