Salicin,62 ergot, guarana, have all been spoken of by enthusiasts as possessing valuable properties in diarrhoea.
62 Lawson, "Diarrhoea and its Treatment at the London Hospitals," Med. Times and Gaz., vol. ii., 1868, p. 122; Bishop, "Salicin in Diarrhoea and Dysentery," Southern Med. Rec., vol. iv., 1874, p. 585; "Comparative Value of Opium and Salicin in Diarrhoea and Dysentery," Detroit Review of Med. and Pharm., vol. x., 1875, p. 387.
Alum is not often prescribed. Sulphate of copper is fitted for cases in danger of passing into the chronic stage. Sulphate of zinc might be more generally ordered than is the case. The sulphate of iron and the fluid preparations of iron—tincture of the chloride, solution of the pernitrite, and persulphate—are astringents, and could be tried if other remedies fail. The effect of nitrate of silver is to constrict vessels, to coagulate and disinfect excretions, and to form an adherent protecting membrane (Phillips). It occupies the next place to lead, and is suited to a subacute stage when acute symptoms have subsided. It is warmly recommended by William Pepper and others.63 The oxide of silver has been preferred by some writers.64 For the protracted diarrhoea of children, in whom follicular ulcers form so rapidly, the nitrate of silver is of special value. To adults it is administered in a pill freshly made in doses of one-eighth to one grain. A solution in distilled water with syrup answers well for children, the dose varying from one-twentieth to one-fourth of a grain.
63 J. Maggregor, "On the Internal Use of Nitrate of Silver in Inflammation of the Intestines," Lancet, 1841, vol. ii. p. 937.
64 Lane, Med.-Chir. Rev., July, 1840, p. 289 et seq.; Eyre, The Stomach and its Difficulties, London, 1852.
The theory of the germ origin of diarrhoea has naturally brought into notice antiseptic remedies. Carbolic acid,65 creasote,66 naphtha,67 sulpho-carbolate of calcium,68 salicylic acid,69 and chlorine-water have each been advocated. Practice does not support their claim to be considered remedies for intestinal inflammation.
65 Habershon, Lancet, London, 1868, vol. i. p. 7; C. G. Rothe, Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, 1871, p. 527.
66 Southern Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. ii., 1846, p. 583; ibid., vol. iii., 1847, p. 147; London Med. Gaz., vol. ix., 1849, p. 254; ibid., vol. xii., 1851, p. 235.
67 Gaz. des Hôpitaux, 1849, p. 46.
68 Tr. Obstet. Soc. Lond., vol. xii., 1870, p. 12.