Observations on the Action of Antimony in Diseases of the Skin

antimony in some rather intractable affections of the skin, in a series of cases already published by one of us,1 encouraged a further trial of the remedy under conditions which admitted of a more careful study of its action, with the object of determining, as far as possible from clinical facts, its mode of operation, and of perhaps affording more precise indications for its successful employment. The following investigations have been carried out in the recently established wards for Diseases of the Skin in the Royal Infirmary. Antimony had, after being too extravagantly praised, fallen much into desuetude, in an exactly similar manner, though to a greater degree than mercury, which was distrusted at a not very distant period as a remedy for syphilis, a result which surely followed from the crude and unscientific mode in which it had been till recently employed. Another reason for the comparative neglect of antimony may possibly be found explained in that study of the natural course of disease, so persistently advocated by the late Professor Hughes Bennett, which the revulsion against the routine and heroic use of drugs had brought so prominently forward, and which has since yielded such valuable conclusions. Hence the statements in the text-books both of medicine and therapeutics are, to a large extent, not based on observations of very modern date. Thus among other points careful records of the temperature, in cases where antimony has been given for long periods,are deficient. Skin diseases offer an unequalled field for testing the value of such a powerful drug, but before proceeding to relate the cases we have