SKIN DISORDERS. — Chloride of cal cium will often abort furuncles and pro duce a salutary influence upon all stru mous cutaneous affections: acne, lupus, etc. It has recently been recommended as a depilatory.
In many in,tames it will abort tu mmies, but the most marked effect of calcium chloride is in acne. All stru mous cutaneous affections. especially lupus, are often benefited by it. The caries and necrosis of the same diathe,i-. rickets, indurated glands. and mesent erica are also conditions in which it may be employed with some expecta tion of benefit. Ovarian and uterine tumors are reported to have decreased in size under long-continued use of the drug. It is also a powerful irritant and cathartic.
In all itching skill diseases calcium chloride may be given after meal-. There are no absolute failures. but it remains to be determined in what Oa-, of cases it is most useful. Saville (Brit. Med. Jour., vol. i, '97).
Calcium sulphide recommended as a depilatory. It is perfectly harmless to the skin and does not irritate abraded surfaces. It can be made by heating a granulated mixture of plaster of Paris (calcium sulphate) with granulated wood-charcoal (to take oft the oxygen). A high temperature is necessary, sand it is best obtained by means of gas. A muffler is used—i.e., set in cinders or bone-ash—and the mixture is heated to redness. The dry, rose-colored or whit ish product is applied to the skin in a wet condition, or it may be put on dry and then wetted. A. W. Brayton (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., Apr. 16, '98).
PNEUMONIA.—In the past the remedy has been much lauded in pneumonia, and lately it has again been recom mended in this malady.
In lobar pneumonia calcium chloride reduces temperature and keeps it within safe or normal limits in spite of the con tinuance of physical signs. Moreover, there is a tendency for the morbid proc ess to be arrested at whatever stage the drug is given in efficient doses, whereby the course of the disease is shortened or rendered milder. Also there is singular freedom from all anxiety, distress, and danger: a freedom not usually asso ciated with continuous high tempera ture. Crombie (Practitioner, London, '96; Med. Age, Mar. 10, '96).
— On the plea that chloride of calcium was capable of in creasing the coagulability of the blood Wright, Freudenthal, Perry, and others have tried this preparation in the bleed ing of hmemophilia. It is to be given in 2-grain doses every four hours.
Acting on Freund's theory that co agulation of the blood is directly pro portionate to the excess of calcium phosphates, these salts were employed in serious haemorrhages; 15 grains were given every 2 hours in water until 2 or 2 V, drachms of the hypophosphite of calcium was administered. Metror rhagias, intestinal haemorrhages (ty phoid), gastrorrhagia, and epistaxis were very rapidly checked. For check ing most haemorrhages this may be re lied upon. M. Silvestri (Bull. Med., Feb. 6, TS).
INFLUENZA.—In doses of 1 grain daily calcium sulphide has, on various occasions, shown a very favorable action over influenza, and not infrequently the attack is aborted.
Calcium eosolate is valuable in the treatment of diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, and chronic ulcerative phthisis. Dose is from 4 to 10 grains three or four times a day. It is soluble in from 8 to 10 parts of cold and in 7 parts of hot water. H. Stern (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., xxxiv, p. 467, 1900).
CAMPHOR.—This is a peculiar, con crete, volatile substance obtained by sublimation from the Cinnamomum cam phora : a native of China, Japan, and some of the isles of the East Indian Archipelago. Camphor is also found in white crystals in the fragments in the wood of Dryopalanops eamphora. It appears in small quantities in various other plants, and Tenasserim camphor, which is of fair quality, is a yield of the leaves and stalks of Blumea grandis (or camphor). It is sparingly soluble in water, but freely so in alcohol, ether, chloroform, and fluid and volatile oils; with chloral or carbolic acid it forms a clear liquid. As found in the shops, it is a white, translucent gum of tough, almost crystalline structure, possessed of a pungent, bitter taste that leaves in the mouth a feeling of coolness. Camphor is incompatible with acids, iodine, etc.