Epsom Salts and Iron in Dropsy.

There is nothing new about the treatment of excessive dropsical effusions, with very large doses of epsom salts. The older physicians have frequently carried extreme hydragogue catharsis through a course of from three to five or six days, during which time some gallons of water would be evacuated, and the patient would be greatly reduced.

Dr. Whitford has made a practice for forty years of adding five grains of the carbonate of iron, to each dose of epsom salts. He claims that the results on the dropsy are the same, and that a large proportion of the patient's strength is retained. I have adopted this course with good results in a number of feeble cases, especially where anemia was a conspicuous complication.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.