Disturbances of the Heart / Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure

by Oliver T. Osborne

IRON

It is essential for the welfare of the patient, especially after a long illness before the complication of endocarditis could occur, and in rheumatic fever, in which all meat and meat extractives have been kept from the diet, that small doses of iron should be administered daily. Not only the fever process, but also the salicylic acid tends to prevent the healthy normal growth of red corpuscles. and such patients suffering from rheumatism are often seriously anemic after the aente inflammation has ceased. The iron administered may be 5 drops of the tincture of the chlorid, in lemonade or orangeade, twice in twenty-four hours (and it should be remembered that lemon and orange burn to alkalies in the system and do not act as acids); or 0.1 gm. (1 1/2 grains) of reduced iron in capsule twice in twenty-four hours, or a 3 grain tablet of saccharated ferric oxid (Eisenzucker) twice in twenty-four hours.