ON THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE NATURAL ORDER RANUNCULACEÆ; AND MORE PARTICULARLY ON THE ALKALOIDS, VERATRIA, SABADILLINE, DELPHINIA, AND ACONITINE.
"In our last number we expressed a hope that the experience of others might confirm that of the author, promising at the same time that we should communicate the result of our own trials. It is unnecessary to assure our readers that on this, as on every other subject of professional inquiry, our minds have not been biased either by prejudice or partiality. Truth and justice are ever the only guides of our conduct.
"We are satisfied that the medicine exerts a very peculiar effect as a counter-irritant; it seems to differ from all others in this respect, that its operation is confined solely to the nerves of the part, the blood-vessels being scarcely affected.
"It is therefore our decided opinion that Veratria is a useful and very potent medicine in certain nervous affections, and that it deserves to be, and no doubt will become, an established member of the Materia Medica."—Editorial Remarks on Veratria, Dr. Johnson's Medico-Chirurgical Review, July, 1834.
"I have often cured most successfully cases of Tic-Douloureux of the face, by sprinkling small blisters, made in the course of the affected nerves, with one or two grains of Veratria, and repeating it every three or four days. I use the same means, and with equal advantage, in cases of paralysis. I need not add, that in these cases the application should be made in the course of the facial nerve."—Majendie's Formulary, 8th edition, 1835.
"I have now made a very considerable trial of the Veratria ointment as an external application in gout, and with such share of satisfaction in its effects, that I acknowledge myself much indebted to the work of Dr. Turnbull for the possession of a very useful remedy.
"My conclusive opinion of the action of the Veratria ointment in gout is, that we may consider it to be entirely a local remedy. I have not detected any constitutional effects to be produced by it in any case of gout in which I have prescribed it. Probably the absorbents of a part affected with gout are in a torpid state. It is no small praise of the application, that it does not produce any inconvenient effects, and the patient is pleased with its mode of operation."—Sir C. Scudamore's Principles of the Treatment of Gout, 1835.
"Veratria has, since the last year, become so important a medicine, having been recommended first by Dr. Turnbull; and now fairly ranking among the most salutary ingredients in Materia Medica, it must naturally be of great interest to the pharmaceutical and medical world to obtain so valuable a substance in its purity."—Silliman's American Journal, April, 1836.
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