FEVERS AND SEPTIC DISORDERS.—A favorite treatment for enteric fever with some is a combination of 1 part of car bolic acid and 2 parts of tincture of iodine; 2 or 3 drops are given in water every three or four hours. R. H.
Quill uses carbolic acid and spirit of chloroform (3 to 10). Charteris advises 2 grains, absorbed by some inert powder, in pill coated with keratin.
Results of carbolic-acid treatment in typhoid wards of General Hospital, Now shera, India: 79 cases were treated, with 11 deaths, giving the average mortality of 13.9 per cent. On arrival of patients, after being washed and placed in bed, carbolic acid was prescribed, four doses of 4 minims each, well diluted with iced water, being ordered in the twenty-four hours. This was supplemented during the night, if the skin was hot and burn ing and the temperature running high, by two full doses of ordinary diaphoretic mixture. Formula generally used for carbolic acid was Calvert's pure carbolic acid, 4 minims; spirit of chloroform, 15 minims; compound tincture of carda moms, 20 minims; with syrup and water to 1 fluidounce. This mixture was kept in the ice-box. Without any exception it was well tolerated by the stomach and caused no unpleasant symptoms. Complications, however, were frequent and severe.
The following favorable signs appeared after the administration of the acid: 1. A rapid cleaning of the tongue with the abolition of the characteristic un pleasant typhoid odor from the breath.
2. A sustained and remarkable lower ing of the febrile temperature, with a well-marked morning remission in many cases.
3. Marked improvement in the un pleasant odor from the stools, which in a few days became practically deodor ized.
4. Tympanites, diarrhoea, and delirium were rarely excessive and easily under control.
5. A most favorable convalescence with a sound recovery. R. C. Thacker (Brit. Med. Jour., Sept. 24, 'OS).
Septic disorders — as variola, septi caemia, puerperal fever, etc.—have been successfully treated with the carbolates; the sulphocarbolate of zinc may be given in doses of 2 or 3 grains four or five times daily.
Account of excellent results obtained in employment of carbolic acid internally in the treatment of small-pox in the Hospital Militar de Zaragoza is as fol lows: (1) the drug diminishes the tem perature, which ascends again when the treatment is suspended; (2) it dimin ishes the number of cardiac pulsations, at the same time increasing their force; (3) it lessens the extension and duration of the eruption, checks the production of pus, and shortens the period of sup puration, especially when it is adminis tered at the beginning of the disease; (4) in many cases the pustules of the confluent form become shriveled up and dry in a few days under the influence of the remedy; (5) in advanced cases it does not greatly modify the eruption, but will, nevertheless, influence favor ably the fever and the general state of the patient; (6) the liability of com plications is diminished. The results obtained seem to indicate that in the treatment of small-pox carbolic acid has as much value as quinine has for inter mittent fever. The number of cases ob served was 44,—IS of the discrete and 26 of the confluent form.
The mortality was 0.5 per cent. The acid was given in doses of from to 31 grains in the course of the twenty four hours, in solutions of the strength of per cent. Manuel Case y Abril (Revista medico-farm. de Aragon, Nov. 16, '91).