Cerium oxalicum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

Pharmacology. — This is a salt obtained as a precipitate by adding a solution of oxalate of ammonium to a soluble salt of cerium. The formula, according to the old nomenclature, is 2CeOi C4 06 +6HO; according to the new, Ce2 CO4 +3Hs 0.

Tt is a snow-white granular powder, without smell or taste; insoluble in water, alcohol, or ether; soluble in sulphuric acid.

Owing to the insolubility of the oxalate, a nitrate has been made, and is used in the form of an effervescent salt.

This nitrate is readily soluble in both alcohol and water.

Officinal Preparations. — (1) of the oxalate — triturations only; (2) of the nitrate — tincture with strong alcohol on the decimal scale.

Analogues. — Arsenicum, Bismuth, Kreosotum, Cuprum (?) etc.

° Obstinate vomiting during pregnancy. (Simpson.)

° Morning sickness of pregnancy. (Drs. Charlton, James.,

Moore, and many others.) 0 Arrests vomiting of mucus, ingesta, etc., but does not stop

the nausea. (Hale.) "Eruptions on the mucous membrane of the stomach, causing

severe vomiting (?) (Simpson.)

(See Therapeutics, Vol. II.)

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

no good effects. Dr. Moore relieved some cases with it. Dr. J. E. James used it in three cases without results. Dr. McClatchey had the same results from its use. Scattered through our journals a large amount of testimony for and against this drug is to be found. All agree that if it does no good, it does not aggravate the symptoms.

Dr. Peters reports four cases of obstinate vomiting, associated with different forms of disease, all of which had been benefited in a very striking manner by the use of large doses of Oxalate of cerium, after an almost endless variety of measures had been unsuccessfully employed. In one of them, a case of cancer in the stomach, the Oxalate was administered in a dose of four grains every two hours, while the patient was awake, and continued until probably six hundred grains were taken within three weeks, not only without inconvenience but with such marked benefit that food was taken and retained with comparative comfort. — “ The Medical Review.”

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My experience with it is that in the worst cases of vomiting of food, half-digested matters, mixed or not with blood, with great pain during or after vomiting, it sometimes affords material relief. In some cases it arrests the vomiting, but the nausea remains. This would seem to indicate that its action was on the motor nerves of the stomach (or perhaps the oesophagus). In mild cases of morning vomiting, it often affords prompt relief. It is probable that the reason of the uncertainty of its action lies in the fact that we have no proving to disclose its characteristic indications. A characteristic indication is often discovered by close observation during the empirical use of a medicine. Some acute observer may observe the keynote of Oxalate of cerium.

Dose. — Allopathic physicians give about five grains of the crude drug before meals. Homoeopaths have usually used the lower triturations. I have obtained the best results from the 1st decimal trituration. Believing that, like Bismuth and some other agents, the drug has to come in contact with the coats of the stomach in order to act on that organ, I think it should be given suspended in water or some bland liquid. (Two or three grains of the 1st, before each meal.)

Oxalate of Cerium in Chronic Cough. — My attention was first called to the Oxalate of cerium in chronic cough, something over a year ago, since which time I have used it in a goodly number of instances, until I have come to regard

it as one of the principal remedies in the treatment of this distressing malady. Coughs resulting from chronic bronchitis, phthisis, and chronic laryngitis, have promptly yielded to this remedy in my hands, after both the internal and external administration of other drugs had signally failed. In giving it to adults in only one instance have I ever experienced any ill effects from its use. Upon this occasion I used seven grains at first, which produced narcotic effects. I then reduced the quantity to five grains, which quieted the cough without the deleterious effects first produced. When I first began using Oxalate of cerium I produced decidedly narcotic effects in two instances from the administration of five grains to children of from ten to thirteen years of age. In prescribing this drug I invariably direct it to be taken half an hour before rising in the morning ; and I may say that although I have used it frequently, I have in only one or two instances been disappointed in the effects produced. I give five grains to adults, and diminish the dose, when treating children, in proper ratio, according to age. — Frank Allfoiit, M.D., in “New York Medical Record.”