AGARICIN. — Agaricin is obtained from white agaric. It is a white, crys talline powder, soluble in alcohol, and but slightly so in cold water and ether. Agaricic acid, the pure active principle of agaricin, is generally used.
Dose.—The dose of agaricic acid is V, to grain, administered in pills. Hypo dermically its effects are more active and the dose should be one-half smaller.
Physiological Action.—The physiolog ical effects of this drug are not known, but they are supposed to resemble those of pilocarpine, or to act mainly upon the nervous supply of the sweat-glands.
Agaricin checks pathological sweating, not by a central action, but by directly influencing the glands themselves. In this only does it resemble atropine.
Small doses, '/, to '/, grain, preferred to a single large dose. The action is slow, but lasts a long while. Hofmeister (Ar chiv 1. Exp. Path. and Pharm., vol. xxv, '89).
Therapeutics. — Agaricin is especially valuable in the treatment of the night sweats of phthisis. If the gastric diges tion is good, it will be well tolerated and produce its effects in from two to six hours. Administered before retiring, it sometimes acts as a preventive of the exhausting perspiration attending ad vanced cases. It is not effective in all cases, however. (Hare, Butler.) Sweat is always decreased, thirst and the excretion of the urine are dimin ished, the functions of the lungs and skin are not interfered with, and there are no bad effects. The administration of pure agaricic acid greatly lessens the danger of vomiting and purging. The subcutaneous injection of the soluble sodium salts should not be used, as vio lent inflainnia ticn may follow. W. T.
Thackeray (Chicago Med. Jour. and Ex aminer, June, 'S9).
Seventeen cases in which agaricin was found to possess most excellent anti sudorific properties, the effect being pro nounced not only in tuberculosis, but in other forms of poisoning and infection. This agent, even in the third stage of pulmonary tuberculosis, was able to suppress the distressing night-sweats, its action being manifested in from two to six hours after the ingestion of the drug and lasting about six hours. No evil after-effects of any kind were observed. The dose employed was from V. to grain in pill form. Combemale (Bull. Gen. de Then, May 30, '91).
Agaricin most successful of all drugs in combating night-sweats in phthisis. Its active principle, agaricic acid, may be used in V,- to 1-grain doses. Method of administering which has given most ex cellent results is as follows: Give 'A grain at first dose and follow with V, grain every four hours until the sweating is checked, then continuing its use—but lengthening the interval—until the small est quantity necessary to control sweat ing is reached. Rufus D. Boss (Amer. Therap., Mar., '98).
Minute doses are sometimes as effect ive as the larger ones, and had better be tried before resorting to the full doses.
Agaricin in pill form, in doses of grain at bed-time, or given late in the afternoon and repeated in four or five hours, was the most successful of all the drugs used in the night-sweats of pul monary tuberculosis. Conkling (Brook lyn Med. Jour., July, '94).