Treatment of Rheumatism by Quinia and Veratria.—The treatment
of acute Rheumatism by Quinine, commenced by M. Briquet, and to a
certain extent discontinued, on account of the doubtful character of the
termination of one or two cases in which large quantities were adminis-
tered, has been very much revived of late, and the impression respecting
it gains favor daily. I have seen M. B. give it with good effect quite
often. M. Valleix employs and recommends it at La Pitie, and I hope
to be able to send a paper on the subject by a gentleman who attends
his Services and Lectures. One gramme (15 grains) is administered
once or twice a day, and the patient kept partly quininized. The
gravity of the usual symptoms daily decreases, and it seems not to be at
all hostile to cardiac complications. M. Trousseau, in commenting upon
this and expressing his favorable impression, alluded also to the expenses
attending the use of this agent, accompanying it at the same time with
the relation of a remarkable instance of recovery from acute articular
Rheumatism, which was then in his wards. It was true, he added, that
it was as yet an isolated case, but the repetition of the means used
might give equally favorable results. It followed the employment of
Veratrine after the method recommended by M. Daniel (?). The
patient, a woman under middle age, suffered intense pain in the articu-
lations, high fever with endocarditis exhibiting itself by a derangement
of the first sound at the base of the heart—(sigmoid valves of aorta)—
with a souffle prolonged into the large vessels, and accompanied with an
alteration in the left ventricle also. In sixty-two hours she was abso-
lutely cured, leaving not the slightest trace of febrile excitement, the
presence of a slight souffle alone remains. One half of a milligramme
(about l-10th of a grain?) was given in the form of pill, each day in-
creasing the quantity, and, when the pains were relieved, continuing it
in the same dose every second day. Its influence on the circulation in
this case was prodigious, to use M. Trousseau’s expression; the pulse
fell to 42, and when I heard of the patient two days after, it was still at
this reduced rate. Veratrine, we are aware, is one of the active prin-
ciples of colchicum, and it is, therefore, not surprising that it should
possess some power in acute Rheumatism, more particularly in those
dependent upon the arthritic diathesis, gout, etc.—Ibid.