BOTH KILL AND CURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7891, 22 December 1903, Page 2

BOTH KILL AND CURE.

\ SOME EXPLOSIVES TlUt ARE | USED AS MEDICINJSS. ' Nitro-glycerine tas so long been, associ- * ated in the public mind with outrages comb mitted and juttempted' by desperate Anar- \ chists that the statement by thie fla'ckney L cororer at a recent inquest that it iM a l "good thing" for angina petitoris aroused { dohsitterable ihterest and surprise. '. ' Thfe fact, ■however, i* that nitro-glycerihe * is pretty largely liSed) in the medical pro--1 fession as a reiriedy iri cases bf angina pec--1 toria, asthma ahd Bright's disease. As a ntedicihe it seems to require even 1 more careful handling than as an «plbsive. 1 It is given in two forms — as a chocolate h " tablet containing a hundredth part of ai grain, of which one or two constitute . a dose, and, in. a i "per cent solution, whea ' one drop 'in two tablespoonfuls of water is prescribed. There is an instance of an. 1 asthnlii patient xeceiving instant relief in a paroxysm through the stopper of a bottle of a 5 per cent solution being^ placed in his mouth. It is an irritant poison. Another explosive given in. the Pharmacopoeia is picrio acid, whicn is used in a strong alcoholic solution for burns and in some cases of eczema. Neither is dangerous as an explosive in, the diluted forms in which it i» ti&fed in medicine. Chlorate" of potash is perhaps best mown as a remedy for certain forms of sore thro&t, but gfbu"nd witfe stigair it isxplodesj and with sulphur forms a viblenb explosiye.