Salicylic Acid

Authorities. 4, Dr. Ball, Archiv. der Heilk, I, 1877 (Med. Record, vol. xiii, 1877, p. 72), general effects on patients; 5, Dr. H. L. Chase, New Eug. IMed. Gaz., vol. xii, 1877, p. 564, effects of the crude and 3d dec. ; 6, Dr. Sciuire, Brit. Med. Journ,, April, 1877, p. 428, general effects; 7, Dr. Wheeler, quotes a case, Horn. Times, vol. vi, p. 27 (Organon, vol. i, 1878, p. 302), Dr. Allshorn, took lO grain doses of the acid, every four hours, for acute rheumatism ; 8, Goullon, A. H. Z., 97, p. 68, a strong healthy man, suffering from gout, took Salicylic acid in large doses, which relieved the gout, but produced a series of interesting symptoms.

The unpleasant nervous symptoms, such as tinnitus aurium, deafness, delirium, and mania, which sometimes supervene during its employment, usually disappear spontaneously, and are not dangerous,*.—First, he was taken with confusion of the head, a reeling sensation like vertigo. The patient expressed it as a sensation one might experience on rising suddenly after lying a long time. This soon became asst)coated with acoustic symptoms. The patient thought he heard music ; the sensation repeatedly woke him from sleep). Soon he compared these illusions to a swarm of bees or the buzzing of Hies. At this time he broke into a copious perspiration, with red urine depositing a copious sediment. After three or four days, he complained of violent constant pressure in the abdomen, with a feeling of incarcerated flatus. The seat of this distressing pressure at one time was at the side of the navel, in the hypochondrium, at another rather lower down, in the lower abdomen. Associated with it was constipation, for several days. After taking the remedy he had no natural stool. Not the least important was a firmly seated pressure at the side of the sternum, as large as the hand, with a feeling as if the bone were sore. Another symptom was a bitter bilious taste, which he could not get rid of,®.—Buzzing sensation in the interior of brain, as if blood were forced violently through a contracted vessel,k—Slight burning in throat, as from pepper, after each dose,k—It has a slight tendency to produce constipation,®.—[^0.] It is readily found in the urine after its administration in rheumatic fever,®. —From doses of 5 grains of the crude drug he got no marked symptoms ; but from doses of the 3d decimal attenuation he experienced soreness and pain in right deltoid and right gastrocnemius, changing on the next day to the left wrist and forearm. There was some soreness to touch, and great soreness on moving the limb. No heat. The succeeding day the same pain upon the palmar surface of the left forefinger ; when the pain appeared in one part it disappeared in the part previously painful,^