SOCIETY MEETINGS.

THE ECLECTIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI. The eleventh annual session of this Society was held in the American Medical College, St. Louis, commencing January 15, 1880, and holding two days. At the calling of the roll the following officers responded: J. T. McClanahan, President; J. T. Kent, Vice President; J. W. Thrailkill, Secretary; E. Younkin, Treasurer; J. E. Morris, Corresponding Secretary; and George C. Pitzer, Foreign Correspondent.

The attendance was unusually large, many counties in the state being represented-some by two and others by three delegates. Quite a number of the Illinois members were present -Wheeler, Turner, Bennett, Hobson, Clyde, Stevens, Ellis, Wilcockson, Coffield, Clark, Stout, and others.

The session was a most interesting and pleasant one, nothing occurring to disturb the harmony of the proceedings in any way. Many interesting cases were reported, clinics presented, surgical operations performed, essays read, speeches delivered, and the usual business transacted in a manner satisfactory to all.

On the evening of the second day, the following officers were elected and appointments made for the ensuing year; President, E. Younkin; Vice President, John W. Thrailkill; Recording Secretary, J. T. Kent; Treasurer, William M. Gates, of Carthage; Corresponding Secretary, J. E. Morris; Foreign Correspondent, George C. Pitzer. Censorial Committee-D. B. Huddleston, H. H. Brockman and P. D. Yost. OratorW. V. Rutledge. Executive Committee J. H. Wright, A. Churchell and F. McClanahan. Essayists-P. D. Yost, J. E. Morris, J. A. Munk, J. M Wilhite, William M. Gates and A. Churchell, of Missouri; R. F. Bennett, William D. Turner and A. W. Foreman, of Illinois. Representatives to National Eclectic Medical Association, to meet at Chicago, June 16, 1880-J. T. Kent, W. R. Coryell, George C. Pitzer, P. D. Yost, W. V. Rutledge, J. T. McClanahan, J. E. Morris, A. Merrell, C. F. Kaltmeyer, E. Younkin, A. Churchell, William M. Gates, H. H. Brockman, J. H. Wright and J. A. Munk. J. T. KENT, Secretary.

BY RICHARD E. KUNZE, M. D., OF NEW YORK CITY.

[Read before the New York Therapeutical Association, February 9, 1880.] White Arsenic or ratsbane has been used from time immemorial in the arts, in medicine and the toilet, both by the ancients and moderns of our day. The crude article of the drug under consideration is naturally found, as you well know, in combination with cobalt, iron and nickel, which exist in large quantities throughout the world. It is then known as orpiment or native tersulphuret of arsenic, used as a pigment under the name of King's yellow. Arsenic is separated from the ores by sublimation, and is then known as impure arsenious acid. After purification, it forms the arsenic and arsenious acid employed in the manufacture of many arsenical prepara

rations.

Therapeusis—

"In the treasury of Nature there are many gems; but those only are worth carrying away, which we know how to set.'

-Dr. Honigberger.

In reviewing the medical properties of this baneful drug, I shall restrict myself to the able testimony of competent therapeutists and acknowledged authors, who are not obliged to

hide their heads under a bushel measure before they dare give to the world their clinical observations. For my own part, I never used arsenic except to poison rats and cats, while there are those who cannot treat all the ills to which flesh is heir without employing this drug. From a humanitarian's point of view, I respect a patient too much either to set up an inflammatory condition of the alimentary tract or to load his system with a substance, the entire disposition of which is even now so little understood.

Gastritis, the result of indigestion, is already becoming of national repute, due in a great measure to the stimulating effects of our American food and drink. If the dermoid affection of acne in any form warrants the use of this agent, it is only accomplished at the setting-up of another pathological condition, known as eczema arsenicale. If the latter is less hideous, it is perhaps fully as loathsome as the former.

But there are other scruples that I have as a member of the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York for not using arsenic as a medicine. The Constitution of that body, to which I have subscribed my name, contains a clause, "That we reject wholly and unqualifiedly all preparations of mercury, arsenic, antimony and lead in the practice of healing the sick, etc." Conscientiously, I cannot use this agent, and, certainly, I will not, while so many safer remedies are at my command. Eventually, arsenical dosing will not bear investigation any more than the misplaced confidence of our patients.

Its Action on the System.-When considered that arsenic is recommended as an antiperiodic, anticonvulsive and antisquamic, it is no wonder that so much is constantly used. What is more interesting, however, is its action on the economy. Many physicians seem to think, that the injurious effects of taking arsenic is counterbalanced by its rapid elimination in the urinary organs. But all doctors are not agreed on this point. Headland, in "Action of Medicine," says: "Arsenic, when given in too large a dose, or, indeed, when given at all, in most cases becomes a poison." Again he says: "Arsenic is foreign to the blood, and is in every way a catalytic medicine. But the dangerous nature of its action is such as to demand

considerable care in the administration of arsenious acid." Regarding its threefold action, Headland says, "that must of necessity be a various and obscure agency, which is gifted with the power of arresting and controlling so great a variety of morbid actions."

Rinz, in "Elements of Therapeutics," says: "Arsenic, administered in very small quantities and with attention to certain precautions, has the power of aiding the deposit of fat in the tissues of the body, as is proved by the arsenic-eaters of the Tyrian Alps, and by its effects on horses. Larger doses have a very poisonous action; but many points connected with their poisonous properties are still unexplained. The condition of the intestine, whether the drug be introduced by the mouth or skin, assumes the form of a paralytic inflammation of the whole mucous membrane." Bouchardat holds, "that blood is a true tissue, which may be poisoned like other tissues. And it serves as a vehicle by which the poison is distributed to all parts of the body and brought in contact with the liver, kidneys, muscles and nervous system. The liver, as has long been known, is the channel for arsenic, antimony and acids. As to the muscles and their relations with the blood, they are immediately impressed by the presence of any poison in the circulation."

In Waring's "Therapeutics," it is stated that arsenious acid possesses a powerful antiseptic property, arresting, in a manner almost peculiar to itself, the process of putrefaction. Again, others claim for arsenic a preservative quality of dead animal tissue, because it enters into a combination with the gelatine. But this is not attributed to its effect on living tissues. But, why do Austrian peasants take it in such large quantities to render themselves long-winded, if it were not in a measure to prevent a too rapid oxidation of tissue? Some of those men have taken with impunity from four to five grains of arsenic twice a day, up to a good old age. Yet, had they left off taking arsenic or decreased its quantity, symptoms of poisoning would have manifested themselves. Now, then, should such isolated cases be taken as the standard to guide us in administering so dangerous a medicine? If so, we might

as well take the professional opium-eater or habitual drunkard to lead the way for us in these two extremes of using stimulants.

Farquharson gives the indications of the accumulation of arsenic in the system. Waring says, "Small doses, long continued, accumulate in the system, and occasionally produce serious and even fatal effects." Taylor says that "Arsenic is not an accumulative poison, but is rapidly eliminated by the urine." Whom are we to believe? Says Bouchardat, "First, we see arsenic retarding tissue transformation, then giving activity to nutrition, and finally becoming an active destructive poison, steatogene, or an "atrophiant." We have already seen that arsenic-eaters follow the habit because it rounds off their contour or makes them long-winded, and, for similar reasons, farriers give arsenic to horses, if they wish to sell a poor old nag. So will alcohol fatten hogs and human beings, but it can never compare with the solid meat of corn-fed animals or the compact muscles of our race brought about by a judicious and nutritive diet. If arsenic in small doses is cumulative, then the old Scotch saying that, "Many a mickle makes a muckle," is but too true in proving the danger of slow poisoning.

Those therapeutists who, regardless of any scruples, give arsenic in ague, claim that it proves curative frequently in cases which are not controlled by quinia. Such physicians claim that arsenic, on account of its catalytic action, is capable of antagonizing the poisons of intermittent disorders. Truly, this might be likened to the law of "Contraria contrariis curantur," in the fullest sense of the meaning. The disease gives way to a stronger poison than that under which the system is laboring. In other words, a supplantation of disease. Now, we also find the defenders of "Similia similibus curantur" contesting in the field for a remedy, which, according to its pathogenesis, covers all the ground claimed for it in infinitesimal doses. Surely, the hobby, which is ridden so hard by dissimilar schools of medicine, must be of doubtful origin and cover a multitude of sins.

Toxicosis. When, several years ago, it was made known that arsenic could safely be used as a cosmetic in various ways for