THE HEW REMEDY FOR DIPHTHERIA.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 134, 5 September 1868, Page 3

THE HEW REMEDY FOR DIPHTHERIA.

As many of oar readers take an interest in anything likely to be serviceable in arresting the disease which has visited us with such fatal effects lately, we have been at some little trouble to procure the latest information respecting the new cure that has been talked about so much during the past week. The remedy itself is very old, and has been used in medicine for numbers of years, hut it remained for Dr. Dewar, of Kircaldy, N. 8., to be the first to call attention to the great benefit to be derived from its use in that most fatal disease—Diphtheria. Whether it was worked out by induction, or whether it was accidentally discovered, Dr. Dewar deserves the credit for bringing the Sulphurous Acid treatment into general use. His little pamphlet on the subject, which has ran through ten editions in a very short time, we have had the pleasure of perusing, having been favoured with the loan of a copy, thi'ough the kindness of a fellow-townsman. The pamphlet contains the modus operandi of the treatment to be followed in Diphtheria and numerous other diseases, and to our mind it is this latterfact that detracts in a great measure .from

the value of the book, because it appears as if the learned Doctor had made a hobby of Sulphurous Acid, and it is in danger of being done to death through claiming for it the power to eftect too much. Diseases of a most opposite character —from toothache to sciatica—are reported to have been cured by the remedy, and any medicine that is said to possess such wonderful virtues stands a chance of being altogether neglected. The science of medicine is very conservative, and practitioners look with suspicion upon a remedy which, like Howlaway’s Pills and Ointment, is said to be an effectual cure for all diseases. This much may be said against the Sulphurous Acid treatment, but it possesses merits of its own that cannot be overlooked. It is a powerful disinfectant, and is capable of destroying miasma from whatever cause arising; it acts as a poison on all lower forms of vegetable and animal life, and it is on this supposition that its use is indicated .in the treatment of Diphtheria, because some physicians Dr. Dewar for example—are of opinion that the poison of Diphtheria is a fungoid growth attacking the throat, and anything capable of destroying such local growth offers the best chance of staying the disease. Other physicians who are of opinion that Diphtheria is a disease of the blood, of which the throat affection is only a symptom, are justified in using Sulphurous Acid, on account of the oxygen it contains, acting as a direct blood purifier; to whichever class practitioners belong to, they can try Dr. Dewar’s plan without doing violence to their opinions. Another thing in favour of Sulphurous Acid is that it is quite safe, and if it does no good will do no harm ; this is only a negative virtue, but it is one. As numerous medicines taken without professional advice will increase the disease they are taken to cure, sulphur fumigation, recommended to be used with the acid treatment, will disinfect an apartment, and destroy all noxious germs floating in the atmosphere, so that all air which enters the lungs is quite pure, except that it is mixed with the fumes of sulphur. Common sulphur, or sublimed sulphur as it is called, is not the kind to be employed for fumigation, because during the process of manufacture, the sulphur is subject to the action of heat, and a portion of the acid vapour is lost, so that sublimed sulphur is minus a portion of the acid that proves so useful for disinfecting. We must caution our readers against making a mistake between Sulpha ric and Sulphurous Acid —one is a pungent corrosive poison, and the other (as we have stated) is nearly harmless. We are advised by a Chemist to state that Sulphurous Acid should not be used after it has been bean kept for some time, because it takes up an atom of oxygen from the atmos phere, and becomes converted into Sulphu-' ric Acid, or vitriol. In Diphtheria, pure Sulphurous Acid is painted over the throat, and from live to twenty drops given internally in water every three or four hours, according to age; at the same time sulphur fumigation is to be xised in the sick-room.

We have written the above for the benefit of our country readers, but in all cases where possible, it is advisable to obtain medical assistance ; until that can be procured, no harm can be done by using the Sulphurous Acid treatment, in trying to arrest the disease of Diphtheria, or. analagous affections. ; In confirmation of the above, we may state upon the authority of Dr. Horne, of this town, that last week he had a case of Diphtheria which had taken the worst form, so that little hopes were entertained of saving the life of the patient, especially as four fatal cases had already occurred in the same house. When the news of the Sulphurous Acid treatment arrived here, he determined to give the remedy a trial to test its efficacy. The pure acid was applied to the throat on Sunday last—the first time it was ever employed in Marlborough—since which time the patient has been rapidly recovering, and is now considered quite out of danger. In addition to the treatment with the acid, constitutional treatment was adopted, with the results as we have stated. This success occurring in our midst is a better proof of the value of the remedy than any number of reported cures taken from a book. W e hope Dr. Horne will pardon us using his name, but the interest of the public demanded that we should give the authority upon which our assertion was made.