Gold and Sodium Chloride

Other tomes: Potter

Formula—AuCl3+NaCl.

Synonym—Chloride of gold and sodium.

PREPARATION—

Made by adding to a solution of the gold chloride, a solution of an equal amount of the pure sodium chloride. The mixed solutions are thoroughly stirred and evaporated and the double or mixed salt is thus precipitated. The crystals are of a golden yellow color and are permanent in the air. It is soluble in water and partially so in alcohol.

Dose, from one-twentieth to one-fourth of a grain.

Specific Symptomatology—The direct indications for its use in gastric troubles are a red, sleek or glazed tongue, anorexia, pain increased on the ingestion of food, extreme epigastric tenderness with bowel movements apparently induced by the taking of food.

It is indicated also in general exhaustion of the nervous system, especially if complicated with an impairment of the blood, or with constitutional dyscrasia, as it is an active alterative, acting much as mercury and its salts are claimed to act.

Therapy—The chloride of gold and sodium is of value in the hypochondria and nervous weakness of tertiary syphilis . It is of value in all forms of Bright's disease, but should be used cautiously, if at all, in the latter stages. It is useful in tuberculosis, in chronic diarrhea to sustain the nervous forces, and in chronic dyspepsia, and other hindrances to appropriation and assimilation.

In general impairment of the digestion and nutrition it is an excellent stimulant to the stomach and nutritive functions of the intestinal canal. It is a stomachic tonic of much value, In these cases it should be given in doses of not more than the sixteenth of a grain and even down to the one hundred and twentieth or two-hundredth, and repeated every two or three hours. Its influence upon the liver at these times is believed to be most satisfactory, especially if catarrh of the bile duct or duodenum is present.

It seems to exercise a selective action for the genito-urinary organs. It has been commended in chronic irritation and even in chronic inflammation of the uterus and of the ovaries, where this condition has made a profound impression upon the nervous system, and induced nervous exhaustion with a general atonic condition of the system. It has been long used in syphilis and other blood dyscrasias where the results named were marked, and where there was impaired nutrition, also where there were enlarged lymphatic glands and scrofulous swellings or ulcerations. In diabetes mellitus the agent has been spoken well of, and in some cases it is an important addition to the treatment. The chloride and the double chloride are both used in the treatment of dipsomania, seldom alone, but usually in conjunction with the sulphate, or the nitrate of strychnine and atropine, and for its moral effect, 'in some cases with apomorphine.

The results of the combined treatment have been, no doubt, satisfactory, as the statistics of "retreats and reform institutions" show nearly ninety-nine per cent of cures. It would be gratifying indeed if but a fraction of this number could be cured of the deadly habit, and most satisfactory to know that the administration of these agents hypodermically, and other agents, such as capsicum, per os, and strong concentrated nutrition, will cure many cases. A discouraging relapse, from the continued influence of vicious associates, or the entire physical or mental collapse of an occasional patient whose constitution was completely undermined by previous indulgence, should not deter the physician and friends from making a most determined and persistent effort to restore every patient desiring restoration. It is useless to undertake to cure one who does not desire to be cured, as future indulgence will render his physical and mental condition more debased than before.

Some of those who have used mercury in the treatment of syphilis, believe that all the alterative effects of that agent are found in this, and in addition the profound nerve tonic and restorative influence of this agent renders it much superior.

The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.