The most constant and formidable of the symptoms of plague is the profound cardiac depression and weakness, and this i'nust be promptly treated by frequently repeated hypodermic injections of Strychnine, and this drug has been considered by some observers to possess a specific influence upon the progress of the disease.
Proceeding upon similar lines, Choksy has obtained excellent results from Suprarenal Gland preparations administered hypodermically and by the mouth alone, or alternating with injections of Strychnine gr., Sparteinc Sulphate gr., and Atropine gr. Thornton reports most satisfactory results from 3o-min. closes of Adrenalin Chloride with io-min. Weak Tincture of Strophanthus every four hours by the mouth in routine cases and hypodermically in very severe cases.
With the view of destroying the bacillus in the blood, every known antiseptic has been tried, hut even those which can be administered safely in large doses, as Quinine, Arsenic and Mercury, have proved useless. Oxygen inhalations give some relief in the fatal pneumonic type of the disease. The local treatment of the buboes should consist in antiseptic
or ice poulticing and free incision as soon as suppuration has shown itself. Thorough drainage must be provided, and some authorities recommend excision or curetting when the tumours are few.
The injection of antiseptics into the swollen glands has produced no benefit, but Thornton recommends the injection of Adrenalin Chloride Solution (2o mins.) into the vicinity of the tumours when these are large.
Alcoholic stimulants and feeding by concentrated soups are indicated in most cases. In the hremorrhagic type of the disease, Calcium Chloride may be administered in order to control the bleeding from the mucous surfaces. Pestis Minor or the condition characterised by slight enlarge ment of the inguinal lymphatic glands without any malaise, which some times occurs in individuals before the advent of an epidemic, requires no treatment, and the same remark holds true of the mild type of bubo which is met with at the termination of an outbreak, and which is known as Pestis ambitions.