On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds : also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds : being the Harveian Prize Essay for 1842 / by R. M. Glover.

  • Glover, Robert Mortimer, 1816-1859.
Date:
[1842]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological and medicinal properties of bromine and its compounds : also on the analogies between the physiological and medicinal properties of these bodies, and those of chlorine and iodine, with their correspondent compounds : being the Harveian Prize Essay for 1842 / by R. M. Glover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Generalizations of the kind alluded to are valuable as guides in therapeutics on account of the great difficulty which exists in ascertaining the effects of remedies. Having before us as data, the possession of certain physiological and medicinal properties by chlorine and iodine, and their respective compounds, and the ex- istence of bromine and its compounds in a definite chemical posi- tion between the two other classes of bodies, we then find for the group which more immediately concerns us a physiological place corresponding analogically to that which is held by it chemically, and we make use of the physiological relations which we have disco- vered as guides in the therapeutic part of our inquiry. If we do not thus dispense with the necessity of trying the medicinal pro- perties of some of the bodies, we at least gain points of elevation whence to view the medical facts that may occur ; or obtain use- ful guides and illuminating beacons amidst the obscure and con- tradictory evidence so often furnished from the treatment of dis- ease. The idea of a relation between the chemical and physiological properties of bodies, similar to that which exists between the ex- ternal forms of many plants and the action of the same plants on the animal economy, has been more than once expressed. Mr Blake, in his laborious and ingenious researches into the action of inorganic bodies introduced into the circulation, endeavours to connect the physiological properties of the bodies with their che- mical relations viewed through the medium of the doctrine of iso- morphism. In the present crude state of this doctrine, it appears to me more satisfactory to take into account the broad chemical analogies of bodies than their relations solely as to crystalline form. If some isomorphous bodies are similar in physiological action, there are others between which it would appear difficult to trace any great resemblance; for example, the compounds of arsenic and phosphorus.* Mr Blake's statement, that the properties of a base are but little modified by combination with the strongest acids, if true, appears somewhat in contradiction with the promi- nence which he attaches to isomorphism as a guide to the physio- logical action of substances, for isomorphism is frequently to be traced as much produced by the acid as by the base. Non om- nia possumus omnes; and it seems to me that the valuable re- • I have experimented on rabbits with arsenic and phosphoric acids, and the al- kaline arseniates and phosphates. Four grains of arsenic acid dissolved in two mea- sured drachms of water and introduced into the stomach of a stout rabbit, killed the animal in four hours, with symptoms of strong irritant, and corrosive artion and also of affection of the nervous system. Fifty grains of glacial phosphoric acid in the same quantity of water similarly administered to a rabbit supposed equivalent to the other, pro<luced no effect. Great difference also appears to exist between the ac- tion of the alkaline arseniates and phosphates, so given to rabbits, the former being more irritant and acting more powerfully on the nervous system. These are, how- ever, I conceive, exceptional cases : but such exceptions are probably very numerous.