In a desperate ease of mitral regurgita tion, accompanied with great dyspnrea, cedema, constant gastric pain, and scanty urine, digitalis had signally failed to give relief. Excellent results were obtained from the use of calomel in 10-grain doses at a time, administered on alternate nights. All the distressing symptoms dis appeared gradually, and in fifteen days the patient was in comparatively good health. William Carter (Liverpool Afedico-Chir. Jour., Jan., '91).
Calomel is an excellent diuretic, and is especially useful in cardiac dropsy. The action is greater in the absence of renal complications. Dosage must be guarded (maximum 1 TA, grains every two hours) and first symptoms of mercurial poison ing closely noted. In ease of a Iveak heart, a combination of calomel rind digitalis recommended. Finkelstein (In ter. klin. Rund., ,Tuly 25, '95).
Calomel is the best cardiac diuretic, if given in suitable doses and for a sufficient length of time. It may be given in severe cases of dropsy due not only to valvular disease, but also to cardiac failure from fatty degeneration, atheroma, and myo carditis. In fatty heart it is a specific, as it not only causes profuse diuresis, but causes the absorption of fat. When using calomel as a diuretic it should be given for six to eight days in about 1-grain doses five times in twenty-four hours, at intervals of three to four hours. Profuse diuresis sets in, as a rule, on the fifth day. When this occurs, calomel should 4- 1 - 1 1 at till , .1 -11-41, sith or ,11 0..11 diar. -as is fully estab .1 . 111:ly he pre - idol. nal b in lit. If the , ' 1 -...1 dIsai vii«.1 after the first t ay s tl ? trcatment may - - 4.. I r 1.111,0 of eight days.
. 1. by sucking pieces rge ..t.tistimpt ton of fluids I,- StOnlatitiS, :I. 1.', i 1 dy stools, hoarse . r, I t int(rrupt the calomel en. Inmever, diarrlura --t - 1) I se may be retluced to r f ..ir id (IL rs a day. Arbold 111.11, r m«I. Presse, No. 29, -0 betn used as a din r. P,IP, I (Iatie disorders, but the ,rts Face been contradictory.
'1, r ;1. tl.e treatment of cardiac . '4, -(n.1 tc1 demonstrate that i inh'bit diuresis; hence it F,1 tiler it can even be pre -1.4 .1 n'o. siy'etv.
In 1 f lateen eases of well ? t's disease. accompanied - mel was found superior r diuret Sklidowski ^ .1r. b. k lin. Aled., II. 52, . 4 .41 .
- - p. ti.. disorders. especially . reported seem to a 4'.rel.11- trial of calomel as a . ....mall doses are recom , -rn -1f..ly 1)e administered.
: hiliary affections, as di r I -1"-trrl al icterus, and even in cirri e-is of the liver, in =su.I treatment fails. the use I nai r n enbcd. It mu.st be 7 4. ,r, lb f I grain every hour for d !cur- and the same dose --it , c«ry -vo }curs until the pain N . . tcmperature returns -- rr; I. il-klarine ,Medvevna, No. I, r..-1"ts cbtained from calomel - -1. ( yrcrtrephie cirrhosis in a vc .r= Durin.: the first month air..n six times a day (every it .1T% . evry three days of treat meta tieing, followed by three days of repose. The second month, four doses per day were given for three days, and again followed by three days of repose. The pain ceased, icterus disappeared, and there was a notable diminution in the size of the hypertrophied liver and spleen. Iodide of potassium entirely failed in this ease. L. Sior (Berliner klin. Woch., No. 52. '92).
In gall-stones and diseases of the bil iary passages calomel acts not by increas ing the biliary excretion, but by its dis infecting properties, thus diminishing the abnormal irritation of the mucous mem brane of the gall-bladder. V. Schultz (Berliner klin. Woch., No. 6, '94).
Calomel has recently been used with advantage in lupus. It was given hyp odermically in small doses.
Fourteen out of twenty-five eases of tubercular lupus in which calomel treat ment has been tried, all the injections have been made with V, grain in the but tocks; at first, on the average, about ten in ten days; then longer intervals were necessary. owing to pain, induration, etc. The action of calomel upon true tubercu lar lupus is certain and indisputable. Improvement is most marked after first injections. This treatment appears to be of use in old ulcerated tubercular lupus, with profound infiltration. The more superficial forms and lupus crythematosus are less affected. Asset bergs (Ann. de Derm. et de Syph., Jan., TS).