C84

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

System, as arsenic, mercury, copper, zinc, bismuth, si'lver, and many othermetals. It must not, however, be imagined from these remarks, that tbe prepa-rations of iron never operate injuriously. On the contrary, we see them some-times acting as local irritants on the alimentary canal, as already noticed; and bythe use of them in too large quantities, or for too long a period of time, theybring on a hypersthenic or phlogistic diathesis.

Uses. «. Of Mctaiiic iroa.—Iron filings have been used in those cases wherethe chalybeate preparations generally have been administered, and which will behereafter noticed. In some instances, however, the efficacy of iron depends onits being employed in the uncombined State. Thus, when used as an antidote topoisoning by the salts of copper, it is necessary that the iron be administered inthe metallic State, in order to reduce the cupreous salts. Iron filings have beenregarded as anthelmintic, especially in the small thread-worm (the Ascuris Ver-rnüularis;) they have been used also as an astringent application, to repressfetid secretion of the feet.

ß. Of the Pcrrnginous Compounds.—By a careful attention to the known phy-siological effects of the ferruginous Compounds, the indications and conlra-indi-cations for their employment may be in great part learned. Thus, the impro-priety of administering them where there is irritation or inflammation of thealimentary canal, in plethoric habits, and in persons disposed to inflammatorydiseases, ov to apoplexy, will be obvious from che foregoing remarks. On theother hand, in all cases characterized by feebleness and inertia of the differentOrgans of thebody, by a soft lax condition of the solids, and by a leucophleg-matic State of the System—where the patient appears to be suffering from a Stateof general ansemia, already described—the preparations of iron are indicated. Itis hardly within the scope of my present object to inslance particular diseaseswhere this metal may ho used, but rathcr to point out those conditions of Systemwhich affect the employment of iron in diseases generally. I may notice a fewcases by way of illustration.

As externa! or local agents we rarely employ the preparations of iron, since wehave other more efßcacious and powerful remedies. Occasionally, however, theyhave been used as astringents, styptics, and caustics. Thus solutions of the sul-phate and chioride have been used in the form of injection, in discharges from theUrethra and vagina; and the tincture of the chioride is now and then applied as astyptic, or to repress the growth of spongy granulations.

The ferruginous preparations are usually resorted to with the view of affectingthe general System. They are frequently given to protnote the uterinefunctions,as in chlorosis, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhcDa, and menorrhägia, and often withsuccess. When chlorosis depends on, or at Ieast is accompanied by, that condi-tion of the system before described under the name of anaemia, the ferruginouspreparations are frequently useful; but if it occur in patients of a füll habit, or ifit arise from inflammation of some organ (as the lnngs, stomach, orboweJs,) chaly-beates will do härm. In cases ofimpotence, connected with or arisingfrom gene-ral feebleness, it may be now and then useful; but in nine out of ten cases whichwe are calied on to treat, this condition arises from indulgence in bad habits,which no medicine can affect. Sometimes iron is resorted to in sterility (thoughDioscorides says the rust of iron hinders women from conceiving,) but the condi-tions under which it is likely to be useful are prccisely those before mentioned forother diseases. In discharges from the genital organs, as gleet and leucorrhcea,the internal employment of the tincture of the chioride of iron, sometimes con-joined with the tincture of cantharides, has been found useful.

In some periodical diseases —namely, ague, asthma, and tic doloureux—the fer-ruginous preparations have gained considerable repute. In the first of these dis-eases (that is, ague,) the sulphate has been used by Marc 1 and others,. the subcar-

Rccncrchrx sur rKmjiloi du SlUf. de Per da-n.s le Truitemp.nl des Fjdvres Inicrm. Paris, 1810.