The dangerous and uncertain action of antipyrine in many cases renders precaution highly necessary. When the drug is known to disagree its use should be avoided. When disease of the heart, functional or organic, or of the kidneys is present, antipyrine should not be given or if necessary or expedient, it should bP carefully guarded by administering stim.
ulants simultaneously. During lactation antipyrine should not be given unless we wish to control the function or cause the milk to disappear.
Antipyrine in nineteen cases to sup press the lacteal secretion. It was given every two hours in capsules containing 4 grains, and a longer interval was allowed to pass between the dose which preceded and that which followed the two meals of the day. The results in all the cases were very favorable. After the absorption of the antipyrine the breasts became empty and soft, and the lacteal secretion was completely ex hausted. Antipyrine is one of the most inoffensive medicaments for the suppres sion of the lacteal secretion known. Culbert (Jour. des Prat., Apr. 17, '97).
Antipyrine certainly passes in a nat ural state into the milk. Given in large doses, in two capsules each containing 15 grains, at intervals of two hours, it may be detected in the milk in from five to eight hours after its ingestion, while from nineteen to twenty-three hours afterward none can be found; hence elimination lasts eighteen hours at the maximum. The antipyrine during this time passes into the milk only in an ex cessively weak proportion, very much less than fifty parts in a thousand; it is only in exceptional conditions—for instance, when 60 grains are adminis tered in sixteen hours—that it per ceptibly reaches this proportion. It does not influence, in any way, the quality of the milk and, particularly, the lactose, the casein. or the fat. It seems to have no action at all on the secretion, which always remains very abundant, provided the woman continues to nurse. From the absence of general symptoms and from examinations of the weight, the in finitesimal quantity absorbed by the nursling does not seem to have any un favorable action. M. G. Mew: (Bull. MM., Sept. 5, '97).
Arteriosclerosis and depressed condi tions of the system (typhoid fever ciated with weak heart, typhoid pneu monia, etc.) contra-indicate the use of
Treatment of A ulipyrine P oisoning.— If a patient is already suffering from antipyrine poisoning our chief reliance must be placed upon stimulants: brandy, ether, ammonia, atropine, and heat ap plied to the extremities seem best to meet the indications. As the symptoms are those of collapse, all efforts should tend toward the restoration of body-heat and normal heart-action. The presence of any renal difficulty will suggest its own appropriate treatment, in addition to that used primarily to combat the toxic effects of the antipyrine on the heart. Sodium bicarbonate is recom mended as an antidote to antipyrine by Lepine, of Lyons, who prefers it atropine.
Local Use. — Saint-Hilaire and Cou pard have employed antipyrine locally in affections of the throat and larynx attended with symptoms of exaggerated sensibility, and have demonstrated its anmsthetic properties. They advise a solution of 1 part of the drug to 2 parts of distilled water, used in an atom izer. Cazeneuve, of Lyons, has found antipyrine serviceable in cystitis with ammoniacal urine used in a 4-per-cent. solution. The pain is diminished and the character of the urine modified.
For operations in the pharynx and larynx, a 10-per-cent. solution of cocaine should be applied, followed by parenchy matous injection of 50-per-cent. anti pyrine, the dose of the latter being 3 to. 6 grains. Complete local anaesthesia en sues in from 10 to 15 minutes and lasts S to 12 hours. Wroblewski (Medicine, Feb., '98).
In cases of acute tonsillitis a gargle. composed of 2 drachms of antipyrine.. 2V, drachms of chlorate of potassium. 3 ounces of peppermint-water, and S. Ounces of distilled water, is useful when ever the painful crises occur.
As a substitute for cocaine in a num ber of cases of urethrotomy, a 10-per cent. solution of antipyrine in 1-per-cent.
solution of carbolic acid used. The solu tion appears to be quite as efficacious as cocaine. The solution should be fresh, and should be allowed to remain in the urethra for ten minutes, as a rule. Un like cocaine, the styptic effect of anti pyrine is not followed by vascular re laxation and often almost uncomfortable haemorrhage. G. Frank Lydston (Jour. Cut. and Genito-Urin. Dis., May, 'OS).