AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
EFFICACY OF COMMON SALT,
IN THE CURE OF
HÆMOPTYSIS.
From the present established opinions and practice respecting the cause and cure of hæmoptysis, the last medicine that would occur to a regular-bred physician for the cure of it, is COMMON SALT; and yet I have seen and heard of a great number of cases, in which it has been administered with success.
The mode of giving it is to pour down from a tea to a table-spoonful of clean fine salt, as soon as possible after the hæmorrhage begins from the lungs. This quantity generally stops it; but the dose must be repeated daily for three or four days, to prevent a return of the disease. If the bleeding continue, the salt must be continued till it is checked, but in larger doses. I have heard of several instances in which two table spoons-full were taken at one time for several days.
It sometimes excites a sickness at the stomach, and never fails to produce a burning sensation in the throat, in its passage into the stomach, and considerable thirst afterwards.
I have found this remedy to succeed equally well in hæmorrhages, whether they occurred in young or in old people, or with a weak or active pulse.
I had prescribed it for several years before I could satisfy myself with a theory, to account for its extraordinary action upon the human body. My inquiries led me to attend more particularly to the following facts:
1. Those persons who have been early instructed in vocal music, and who use their vocal organs moderately through life, are seldom affected by a hæmorrhage from the lungs.
2. Lawyers, players, public cryers, and city watchmen, all of whom exercise their lungs either by long or loud speaking, are less affected by this disease, than persons of other occupations.