This was given in doses of one grain, and repeated two or three times a day. He had also succeeded in some cases with a mixture composed as follows:
| ℞. | Sulphur Sub., | grs. iv. |
| Gum Guaiac, | grs. ij. | |
| Charcoal, | grs. ij. | |
| Camphor, | gr. j. | |
| Opium, | grs. ss.—Mix. |
Dose, one to ten grains, repeated every ten minutes until relief is obtained. In some cases, however, this compound did not appear to exercise any beneficial influence. In cases of excessive irritability of the stomach, oat-meal cake coffee was given, for the purpose of allaying its irritability, with admirable effect. The saturated tincture of prickly-ash berries,[XII] combined with tincture of opium, was used in some cases as an injection, with very good effect.
Dr. R. S. Newton observes that he had also used a preparation composed of equal parts tannin, capsicum, camphor and kino, with considerable success, to be given in doses of four grains, and repeated at short intervals until the discharges were checked.
He considered the saturated tincture of xanthoxylum fraxinifolium bac.[XIII] the most valuable of all the remedies for the cholera which he had tested. When the stomach would not retain it, he gave it as an injection. It had a peculiar influence on the system, and having taken the remedy, he could speak from experience of its effects. When given as an injection, the effect produced was almost instantaneous; the sensation was as if he had received an electric shock; its use was very soon followed by a copious perspiration. He had more confidence in this than any other one remedy with which he was acquainted.
Dr. Wright observes that he had also used the neutralizing extract, saturated tinc. xanthox. fraxi. bac., and the compound tincture of guaiac.[XIV] He had succeeded best with a mixture of equal parts tincture of prickly-ash berries and neutralizing extract.[XV]
He had always found it necessary to attend strictly to the surface. The best external application he found was equal parts of capsicum, salt and mustard.
Dr. Chase states that, "in the early period of the disease, he had used the leptandrin, combined with neutralizing extract,[XVI] very successfully. He thinks opium can be dispensed with in the treatment of cholera altogether. In typhoid cases, he pursued an entirely different course, and remarked that many cholera cases presented symptoms similar to those described in Wood's Practice, as belonging to pernicious fever, which must be treated according to their peculiar character."
Such, it is said, is the more general and successful practice in the Mississippi Valley, where the disease has several times prevailed in its most malignant form. For its curative efficiency much is claimed. Its utility, however, must be measured, as in all other cases, by the unerring rule, the actual results sustained by incontrovertible facts. The nearer any mode of practice accords with the general principle of pathology, the greater must necessarily be its success, for it is not in this disease, or in any other, that the bold, energetic and heroic practice, which is inconsistent and incompatible with this principle, cures, however extensively adopted and rigidly pursued. For this principle must direct and govern the practice, or else it becomes necessarily experimental or empirical, and must be inevitably attended with the most lamentable results.