Stertorous breathing; cold, clammy skin; pinched face, anxious expression, abolition of reflexes; weak, thready, and often imperceptible pulse; feeble respira tion, and, above all, the odor of the drug are the prominent symptoms of poison ing. Death occurs from failure of respi ration, and the heart is arrested in di astole.
I According to the. 13ulletin of Phar macy for December, much of the com mercial article sold as "creasote" is not the creasote intended by the "Pliarma copceia," made from bcech-wood, but is instead liquefied carbolic acid made from coal-tar: a distinctly poisonous article not to be administered for the purpose for which true creasote is indicated. rn prescribing this drug the physician should be careful to specify the official article, unless he is satisfied that the prescription will be filled by a pharma cist who submits all of the drugs he dis penses to pharmacopceial tests. Edi torial (Penna. Med. Jour., Dec., 1902).
Treatnient of Poisoning.—If seen in time, the stomach should at once be washed out. Epsom salt, demulcent drinks, heat to body and limbs, and atropine and strychnine hy-podermically are indicated; coffee, digitalis, and opium for the relief of pain, are often de manded. Soluble sulphates have been credited with powers as antidotes.
Derivatives.—The creasote prepara tions and derivatives differ little from the drug itself as to physiological action. Most have been exploited on the score of greater palatability or as being less nox ious, but the evidence as regards the lat ter rests upon a very slender foundation.
Creasol is more astringent, and creasote carbonate more palatable.
Creasote carbonate is better borne than P ordinary beech-wood creasote. lt has, in many cases, a tendency to diminish secretion; it seems to have no influence upon peristalsis. Occasionally it excites fluid stools, but these vanish in one or two days and normal evacuations suc ceed; occasionally it appears to induce costiveness. There is no unpleasant ac tion on the stomach: eructations and vomiting are rare, and only appear after large doses have been ingested, and even then rapidly disappear without with drawal of the remedy. It increases ap petite, diminishes and deodorizes the se cretion of lung and kidney, and exerts generally a favorable effect upon nutri tion. Reiner (Ther. Woch., Jan., '96).
Paracreasotic or creasotinic acid has been employed along the same lines as creasote carbonate.
No marked effect is produced upon the healthy human organism by doses of 40 to GO grains, with the exception of a feeling of great fullness of the blood vessels of the skin, a light pulsation of the arteries, and a moderate perspiration. No influence is exercised on the digestive functions. In some eases, however, the drug induced collapse and erythematous eruption. As a rule, children bear the drug well. Thus, in a boy, 12 years old, 15 grains were given every five hours, and even larger (loses produced no after effects. The temperature was reduced 2
degrees. Demme (Wiener mcd. Blatt., Apr. 15, '90).
Cresotic (not Creasolic) Acids—Para and proposal to utilize these chemical compounds as remedies for in ternal administration, led to a study of their effects. These seem to centralize upon the spinal cord.
The fatal dose of paracresotic acid is about 3 grains per pound-weight of an imal; double this killed a rabbit of V/2 pounds in three hours, and 12 grains, in the same time, one a pound heavier. One grain of the ortho-acid per pound of body weight is sufficient to cause death in from twelve to thirty-six hours, this being preceded by symptoms of paralysis, especially of forelimbs. A combination of both drugs resulted in increased poi sonous properties. Charteris (Brit. Med. Jour., Mar. 2S, '91).
Therapeutics. — GASTRO-INTESTINAL DISORDERS.—In vomiting, gastrodynia, nausea, etc., creasote is a remedy of great power and an excellent rival of hydro cyanic acid. Even in the vomiting at tendant on malignant disease of the stomach, duodenum, liver, or pancreas, it is often most effective, though the re lief afforded is necessarily but temporary. In the diarrhceas of children and infants, especially those peculiar to the heated term, it is of great utility, arid not infre quently it serves a most excellent purpose in the management of tropical diarrhcea and dysenteries.
ILEMORRHAGES.—}fere the drug has been employed with great advantage, both topically and internally. Few rem edies are so valuable in hoemoptysis, in lunmatemesis, hmmaturia; it is invalu able in the washing out of bladder, in testinal hmmorrhages of continued fever, etc. In superficial bleedings from wounds, leech-bites, after the extraction of teeth, the topical application is al most magical in results; and the late McCormack, by its aid, once arrested hpemorrhage from the carotid artery. Though there is no definite record of its use in cases of hmmophilia, such would seem to have definite basis, though from a palliative rather than remedial stand point.
DIABETES.—It has been observed when this drug is administered in small doses, thrice daily, in diabetes, gradually increasing by 1 drop every alternate day until the point of toleration is reached, that it has a very beneficial action on diabetes; but aperients should be fre quently employed in order to assist elim ination by the bowels. Usually the urine is much improved in quantity and char acter, and there is frequent micturition.
Creasote, when administered inter nally, is of considerable value in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. In two cases 4 drops were given daily, and grad ually increased 10 minims, under which the sugar gradually disappeared from the urine, and even a return to starchy food did not cause any reappearance of sac charine matter. Valentini (Les Nouv. llemkles, Mar. S, '91).