Treatment of Lead Poisoning by Iodide of Potassium.—The number
of cases of poisoning by lead, received at the New York hospital during
the past season, has been quite large. Some of them have been traced
to the influence of lead paint as a cause, either in painters or in those
who have remained in rooms newly painted ; but, in many cases, the
mode in which the poison was introduced into the system could not be
detected. In cases of constipation, strychnia in doses of one-sixteenth
of a grain, three times a day, has been given, and continued until the
bowels were opened, or until the specific effects of the drug were pro-
duced. Other means have been used to assist its action; and evacua-
tions from the bowels have been produced in some cases by croton oil,
and, in other cases, by turpentine enemeta, when croton oil has failed,
The strychnia is thought to obviate the tendency to costiveness which
follows the use of drastic cathartics. One patient was permanently cured
of the constipation by strychnia alone. The blue line about the gums
has been recognized in every instance; and in one case there was a
patch of deep blue color, of the size of a shilling piece, on the membrane
lining the lower lip. All the cases of this disease, after the urgent
symptoms are relieved, are now treated with the iodide of potassium, in
doses of five grains three times a day, gradually increasing to ten grains,
according to the plan proposed by M. Melsens, the results of whose
researches have been repeatedly verified by finding lead in the urine
after the exhibition of this remedy, when none could be detected in the
urine of the same individual before taking it.—A; K Medical Times
October, 1853.