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ART. I.-TREATMENT OF RHEUMATISM BY INOCULATION WITH MORPHIA.

BY Q. GIBBON, M. D.

Salem, N. J., May 19th, 1841.

To Professor Dunglison. Dear Sir,-A wish to present to the profession what I deem a useful fact, has induced me, though at the risk of intruding upon the time of one with whom I have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance, to offer for your consideration the following remarks:

Having seen in your work upon "New Remedies," published some time since in the "Library,' an article upon the beneficial effects derived from inoculation with morphia in the treatment of local diseases, I determined to make a trial of the plan in local rheumatism, an affection which I have frequently found great difficulty in managing. I was not long afterward called to treat an obstinate rheumatic affection of the knee-joint, which had resisted the usual general and local means. One quarter of a grain of the sulphate of morphia was inserted, by means of punctures, in the skin over the affected part, twice a day for two days, with the most marked and satisfactory results. The patient, who for two weeks previous had suffered extreme pain upon the slightest motion of the limb, was, at the expiration of this period, able to walk with slight inconvenience, and upon the third day, threw aside the crutch with which he had before hobbled across his room. Friction with stramonium ointment, two or three times repeated during the fourth day, removed all remaining disease in the affected part.

The next case was a rheumatism of the wrist, in which no previous treatment had been practised. In this case, which was recent, two applications of the morphia, upon two succeeding days, so effectually removed the pain and tenderness, as to allow of the free use of the hand on the third day.

The third trial was made upon an obstinate rheumatism of the knee-joint, remaining after the subsidence of general rheumatism The patient, a robust boy of sixteen, after having been rendered motionless for several days by a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism of the whole system, recovered under the free use of tart. antim. opium, and colchicum, with the exception of the knee in question, which remained exquisitely painful, and tender upon pressure in one spot of about an inch in diameter upon its inner side. The insertion of a quarter of a grain of morphia, produced in a few hours a decided impression upon the pain, and by the second day, the symp

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