Adiabene

“ While the attention of the Romans was occupied by the struggle between Severus and Niger, Vologases fomented a revolt in Osroene and Adiabene, and troops from these districts besieged Nisibis. [80] After the death of Niger they sent ambassadors to Severus to lay claims before the Emperor by virtue of the aid which they had given him in attacking a city which had sheltered his opponent's sympathizers! They also promised to restore what spoils remained as well as the Roman prisoners. ”

“ Do we know any thing more of the action of a purgative? It is said to stimulate the larger or the smaller intestines, and iodine may be said to stimulate the absorbent vessels; and after we have said this, are we at all wiser than we were before? The only questions now before us, those which alone appear worthy of discussion, are, Do we in iodine possess a remedy for the diseases in which I have said it is useful? and if we do, on which of the living textures does it seem most particularly to exert its action? ”

“ The iodine combined with starch amounts at the utmost to 7·5 per cent. The compound is most readily formed in the presence of water, and then produces a deep indigo-blue. Almost all other substances capable of penetrating starch grains, weaken the colour of the iodine compound to violet, reddish yellow, yellow, or greenish blue. These different shades, the production of which has been described by Nägeli with great diffuseness, are merely the colours which belong to iodine itself in the solid, liquid, or gaseous form. ”

“ I have not been able to find a cure for it, though I have often relieved it for a time by the use of medicine and nourishing diet. A medical friend has treated one case by the external application of iodine with some little benefit, but without effecting a cure. The patient, I hear, is now near death. He pronounces the complaint incurable. Men and women are alike subject to it; the cases I have met with have been persons in the prime of life. No post-mortem examination has been made in any case, so that little is known of the peculiar features of the disease, or its cause. ”

“ It is a curious fact that barbarous people have long chewed seaweeds as a remedy in diseases for which physicians now prescribe iodine. Iodine is a violet dye, and the bluish and purple tints of many algæ, shells, and sea-animals appear to be due to the large amount of this element in sea-water. ”

“ In medicine iodine is frequently applied externally as a counter-irritant, having powerful antiseptic properties. In the form of certain salts iodine is very widely used, for internal administration in medicine and in the treatment of many conditions usually classed as surgical, such as the bone manifestations of tertiary syphilis. The most commonly used salt is the iodide of potassium; the iodides of sodium and ammonium are almost as frequently employed, and those of calcium and strontium are in occasional use. ”

“ I am glad, however, to add my testimony to that of Coindet, de Carro, and others, that this medicine may most certainly be deprived of all its hurtful qualities, by using it cautiously and watching its effect. Like all other powerful medicines, when its action is not controlled by the hand of a master, its energies become a source of mischief and ruin, instead of restoring the blessings of health and strength; but when well managed, it is a most useful remedy, and a valuable addition to our materia medica. ”

“ Thus the alien elements, those which do not properly enter into the composition of any living tissue, are the most to be suspected, —mercury, lead, antimony, silver, and the rest, for the reasons I have before mentioned. Even iodine, which, as it is found in certain plants, seems less remote from the animal tissues, gives unequivocal proofs from time to time that it is hostile to some portions of the glandular system. ”

“ Our most important consideration is the cure of these painful affections. In the choleric disease the first remedy of all, and that without which we can have little hope of subduing the disease, is opium. If called early to the patient, before the bowels have yet thrown off their acrid contents, I have generally waited a little before exhibiting opium. ”

“ Such persons expose themselves to ridicule when we see them reject a remedy so active [Pg 59] as iodine, and continue to trust, for the cure of the severest diseases to which the human frame is liable, to medicines allowed on all hands, and even by themselves, to be absolutely useless.
The value of iodine as a remedy, however, does not depend on the testimony of any individual, however high his name. Its use is established by a long series of facts observed by physicians and surgeons of different countries. ”

“ When we administer iodides we give in them the main element of the thyroid gland—iodine, so that iodide treatment acts on these glands and increases their iodine contents. Iodine is a rational remedy for preventing old age, for the reason that, as Baumann and Jollin have found, the thyroid gland of aged persons contains but little iodine. We know, through the researches of Blum, Baumann, Kocher, Aeschbacher, etc., that by administering iodide we increase not only the iodine content of the thyroid, but also, as the experiments of Garnier show, its colloid substance. ”

“ We shall first consider the use of iodine in the treatment of bronchocele, the disease for the cure of which it was introduced into practice. All the physicians who have employed it bear unequivocal testimony to its efficacy. It seldom fails of effecting a complete cure, and when it does, it almost always reduces the swelling very considerably. ”

“ The tincture of iodine, or a liniment containing sulphuric acid, may sometimes be applied with the same view. There is no doubt whatever, that much of the benefit that attends upon counter-irritation, both in the human body and in the lower animals, is to be attributed to the rest that is at the same time enjoined, and often indispensable. ”

“ It contracts the pupil, and in no case have I seen it dilate it. [Pg 9] Its vapour rises very readily, and does not leave the yellow disagreeable colouring on the skin produced by the vapour of iodine when uncombined, which is a great drawback in the use of iodine in diseases of the eye.
The last medicine which I have employed is the bisulphuret of carbon, which is so volatile, that the application of it to the eye, when the bottle is held in a warm hand for a few seconds, is as much as can be borne, in consequence of the intense prickling heat and flow of tears which it occasions. ”

“ A magistrate of Geneva, high in office, robust, corpulent, and of an athletic form, was so much reduced in flesh, that he was not known by his oldest acquaintances. I have seen emaciation, in one case, proceed to such an extent in a short time as is almost incredible. A young English lady, at a boarding-school, at Paris, had for some time been afflicted with goitre. Her brother was prosecuting the study of medicine there. With the characteristic zeal of a young man, as soon as he heard of the wonderful effects of iodine, he determined on making trial of its powers on his sister. ”

“ Such an agent is iodine. Its effects on the absorbent system are incontrovertible. They are as speedy as they are certain, and so powerful are they, that if the medicine be not duly and cautiously managed, we [Pg 35] have already seen what havoc may be the result. A few, a very few, cases have occurred to myself, in which the constitution was altogether insensible to its action; I believe a greater number have occurred to others ”

“ They possess all the virtues of iodine in a very remarkable degree, but they will be found to fail more frequently than the hydriodatic salts; and, if I may draw any [Pg 42] conclusion from the few trials I have given them, they are more apt to excite disorder in the system. I have generally ordered half a dram of the hydriodate of potass to be united to an ounce and a half of axunge, and desired the patient to rub in a dram of this ointment over the surface of the tumor, night and morning. When the tumor is painful, it is not necessary to rub in. ”

“ In certain persons, indeed, of peculiar habits of body, it cannot be exhibited so as to affect the constitution in any manner, without in some shape or other producing unpleasant nervous symptoms, [Pg 14] such as dimness of vision, indistinct hearing, fallacious touch, insomnia, breathlessness, palpitation, and all the countless forms of inward nervous derangement. But the symptom to which we shall more peculiarly confine our attention, is a degree of tremor which generally comes on when the patient is under the full constitutional influence of iodine. ”

“ The medicines which exert their action on particular textures or systems are extremely few indeed, and the few we possess are so uncertain in their operations, they are liable to such frequent failures, that sceptical [Pg 61] physicians doubt of their efficacy altogether, and even of the efficiency of medicine. There is something peculiarly gratifying to their vanity in supposing themselves freed from the common errors, and above the credulity of the vulgar. Iodine, however, is not liable to the sneers of such narrow minds. ”

“ Iodine.—Jute absorbs iodine from its solution in potassium iodide. This action is characteristic of all lignified tissues, the quantity of iodine taken up being proportional to the amount of lignification. If the physical conditions remain the same, the amounts of iodine absorbed will be found to be constant for each particular fibre. This constancy points to the formation of a definite chemical compound, probably resembling the blue compound of starch and iodine. This property may be made available for the estimation of the {18} amount of mechanical wood-pulp in papers ”

“ EFFECTS OF IODINE.
The discovery of specific remedies has always, and most justly, been considered one of the most important benefits to be conferred on the practice of medicine. Much dispute has been carried on respecting their nature, but all are agreed about their existence. They have been defined by Dr. Young to be medicines which cure diseases, “without any perceptible connexion between the immediate effect and the benefit obtained.” While their operation is thus obscure, the mode of their employment, and their peculiar virtues, must be subjects of much doubt and uncertainty ”

“ Yet no medicine varies more in its effects than this. Some persons take it in large doses for a great length of time with perfect impunity; while others, from that peculiar, undescribed and unintelligible state of constitution, called by physicians an idiosyncrasy, are speedily and violently affected by very small doses. Mr. Magendie, whose accuracy is well known, states that he had swallowed a spoonful of the tincture, containing about a scruple of iodine, without any bad effect ensuing. ”

“ There is no doubt that some medicines, such as Iodine, Bromine, Mercury, and Iron, tend especially to affect the blood and the blood-making organs, as the liver and spleen, rather than to act on the nervous or glandular systems. That some tend particularly towards the nerves, and prefer individually different parts of the nervous system, as Opium acts on the brain, Aconite on the superficial sensory nerves, Digitalis on the organic nerves of the heart, and Stramonium on those of the [Pg 38] lungs. Again, it is evident that some medicines tend to act on the organs of secretion ”

“ A bronchocele, to be benefited by Iodine, should consist of a simple enlargement of the gland, not of very long standing, nor painful to the touch. All scrofulous affections, whether of the glands, joints, liver, or other parts, are more or less benefited by the use of Iodine. Iodine has been used in simple enlargement and induration of various organs, particularly the uterus. Dr. A. T. Thomson speaks highly of its efficacy in ovarian dropsy.
It is probable that Chlorine, Bromine, and their compounds, closely resemble the preparations of Iodine in their therapeutic operations. ”

“ A great many experiments which I tried last autumn, for the express purpose of clearing up this point, have convinced me that, cæteris paribus, the addition of free iodine to the iodizing solution, tends to diminish the sensitiveness of the subsequently formed iodide of silver. On paper, this diminution of sensitiveness is attended with some advantages, so that at present I hardly know whether to introduce the free iodine or not; but in collodion, as far as my experience goes, I see no reason for retaining it; on the contrary, everything seems to be in favour of its removal. ”

“ This preparation can dissolve an additional dose of iodine; a formulary, however, to which I seldom, if ever, have recourse. I have found that the deleterious action of the medicine on the bowels was more marked, in proportion to the quantity of free iodine it contained. For this reason, also, I now seldom have recourse to the tincture, a form much used, because it is less expensive. Practitioners will, in general, find an advantage in confining themselves to the external use of iodine for the cure of bronchocele, and tumors, which do not arise from any vice in the constitution. ”

“ The pyrenoids, especially when the plant has been exposed to the light for some time, are surrounded by a circle of small granules, which become bluish when iodine is applied, showing them to be starch. (To show the effect of iodine on starch on a large scale, mix a little flour, which is nearly all starch, with water, and add a little iodine. The starch will immediately become colored blue, varying in intensity with the amount of iodine.) The cells divide much as in Cladophora, but the nucleus here takes part in the process. ”