Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-22
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE,
Physician Says Ii Will Cure
DiPhtheria as Well as Kill
Bedbugs.

p" Is it true that you have been experi-
menting with new cure for diphtheria 2"
inquired reporter of Brooklyn ply
stefan yesterday.
Do you mean the bed-bug cure ?"
asked the doctor, with a twinkle in his
eye.
No news of the bed-bug cure has
reached me" was the reply, "but heard
that you had been experimenting with
corrosive sublimate."
Same thing" said the doctor. at
is no invention or discovery of mine. 1t
has been known to the reading and in
telllgent portion of the medical frater-
nifty about a year."
" But why do you call it the bed-bug
cure 30
Because the use of it for diphtheria
came about in this way. A physician in
pennsylvania, country doctor, had
patient, child, very i'll with diphtheria.
The case had advanced very far before
he was called. He found the disease SO
lar advanced that he had little hopes of
the child's recovery. He gave pre-
scrlptlon and told the child's mother not
to send for him unless there was some
marked change. AS he was leaving the
house the mother asked him to tell her
what to use for bed-bug poison. He gave
her the form of a solution of corrosive
subllmate and went home. The mother
came to him subsequently and said the
child was doing well. He told her to
continue the treatment. The next day
he called to see the chi d, and found it
much better. He was little astonished,
but concluded that it would be safe to
continue the treatment, and said to the
mother: will give you another pre-
scription.' The mother replied: That is
not necessary. l have plenty of the
other left Not necessary said the
doctor with surprise. why, l only left
you a dose for a day Well, / have
big lot left continued the mother. Let
me see it, said the doctor. Then the
mother brought out the bed-bug poison.
The doctor looked at the bottle first with
horror, then with amusement, and finally
with interest.
care you sure you gave the child
that" he asked.
{" 4 am sure, and the child began to
get better immediately persisted the
mother
"'Well, 90 on with the treatment,
said the doctor. The mother did go on,
and the child got well.
The mother had got Hurried, and had
mistaken the one solution for the other.
The doctor was thoughtful man. He
remembered the next time he got a diph-
liberia patient, and kept on trying until
he concluded he had hit upon an almost
certain cure. He had the manliness and
humanity to give his discovery to the
world through a paper read before a
PENNSYLVANIA medical society. Then the
medical journals took hold of it, and for
the last year many physicians in all parts
of the world have been paying attention
to it. In Germany the blood has been
photographed in every stage OF the dis
ease, and the improvement under the
bed-bug treatment actually shown by a
series of pictures.
"But, is not corrosive sublimate an
active poison?"
eyes; so are arsenic, morphine and
strychnine, and lots of other medicines
known to be of inestimable value in med
: icine and surgery. They are useful wher
they are properly used"
GLOW do you account for the success o
r the medicine?'
: cit is simply germanicide, or the kill
2 ing of the germs OF the disease. VIZ
? know that in diphtheria there are count
a less germs called bacteria. They perme
Q ate the blood. The corrosive sublimat'
o begins to kill these germs at once, ant
h soon disposes of them altogether Now
Of you will recollect that the corrosive sub
~ Innate was intended to kill very small
e. insect. The mothers mistake simpl
or gave the bacteria the dose intended 70
k. the bed-bug. When you come to think c
ID it, it is not so very surprising that a medi
IN cine that will kill bed-bug or a man vii
he also kill bacteria"
le "But is there not danger that the use {
j. such a medicine will poison people?"
ct eyes, the same danger that there is i
| using any other powerful remedial agen
Sc 1t must be used with care and INTEL
-y gence. 1t so happened that the mothe
who first used it did not do any harm
to Others might not be so fortunate"
e, "Have any physicians tried the ne
lie remedy and abandoned ito"
VS. eyes; but l think that has general
d been the result of timidity. Diphtheri
J. is a terrible disease and requires heroi
to remedy The treatment heretofore ha
fit been to brace up the patient with tonic
e. Various investigations have shown tn;
IS 80 per cent. of diphtheria patients die
o. exhaustion. The new remedy eradicate
Q +l,a dicooSa c,,aadi1v ,,-Neqp York Sam