Sulphur Sublimatum.

Dose.—As a laxative, the dose of sulphur is ʒj. to ʒiij.; as an alterative, excitant and diaphoretic, ʒss. It may be administered in molasses, syrup, or honey, in the form of an electuary, or in milk or spirits.

Therapeutic Action.—Sulphur is laxative, diaphoretic, stimulant and alterative. In large doses it acts mildly as a laxative, and as such is prescribed with advantage in diseases of the rectum, as hemorrhoids, stricture, prolapsus, etc. In order to render it more active, it is often combined with bitartrate of potash or magnesia, and then forms a very pleasant cathartic in pregnancy.

It is a popular remedy in many cutaneous diseases, particularly scabies, or itch; in prurigo, impetigo, and other diseases of a similar nature, it often proves valuable. In chronic catarrhs, asthma, and other chronic pulmonary diseases, it may occasionally be employed with advantage.

In small doses sulphur acts as a gentle stimulant to the organs of secretion, particularly the cutaneous, renal and pulmonary, and serves to promote them by increasing the capillary circulation in these organs. It frequently proves valuable as an alterative in constitutional taints of the system, as scrofula, secondary syphilis, glandular enlargements, rheumatic and gouty affections, mercurial rheumatism; etc., together with the long list of cutaneous diseases.

It is not only valuable as an internal medicine, but also as an external application in the form of an ointment, or of the sulphurous acid gas, as a bath, the head being protected from its effects. In these forms it is mostly employed in cutaneous diseases, particularly in scabies.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.