A capillary poison producing vasodilatation of peripheral origin. The drug is toxic and irritates tissue cells. Its irritating effect upon the stomach results in nausea and vomiting. When applied to the skin a local dermatitis results, which may terminate in pustules. Antimonium tartaricum is decomposed by acids with the formation of directly acting compounds. Hence, when applied to the skin, necrosis occurs only in those areas where it is decomposed by an acid secretion and changed into an active form, e. g., in the mouth and follicles of the cutaneous glands.

The irritation produced by the drug upon the stomach and skin produces nerve reflexes; salivation and an increase in the gastric secretions are thereby produced.

Diarrhea is another physiological effect of antimony; collapse, due to a direct depressant toxic action on the heart muscle, follows if the amount taken is much above the therapeutic dose. In addition to the slowing of the heart, the blood pressure is lowered.

Fatty degeneration of various organs has been produced by the prolonged use of salts of antimony. (Some authorities consider the so-called " fatty degeneration" to consist rather of an unequal distribution of fat in the body, its total amount remaining unchanged, than an actual tissue change.)

The respiratory tract is influenced by Antimonium tartaricum. The bronchial secretion is increased and in subacute cases of poisoning a capillary bronchitis has resulted. Animal experimentation (guinea pig) shows that "consolidation of the lung is produced and that the preponderance of leucocytes in the exudate is diagnostic of gray hepatization. Desquamated epithelium is found in the bronchial exudate."

Excretion of the drug takes place by the respiratory tract, urine and feces.

Therapeutics

Tartar emetic: This remedy is indicated in torpid phlegmatic patients who are melancholic, bad humored, who despair of recovery and complain of an indescribable anxiety and oppression of the chest and stomach. Subjects at the extremes of life.

Its great characteristic is large accumulations of mucus in the bronchial tubes, expectorated with difficulty, as is observed during the second stage of broncho-pneumonia when the bronchi are loaded with mucus. There is short, hoarse, weak, nearly suffocating breathing, with whistling noise; throat expands with difficulty, the head is thrown backward with great anxiety and prostration, the face is livid and cold and the whole body may be covered with a cold perspiration. The pulse is feeble and accelerated. It should be remembered in bronchial catarrh of children and the aged. The child may exhibit sudden and alarming symptoms of suffocation. In the aged it is useful in chronic bronchitis, and especially for the acute exacerbations occurring in these chronic cases, when associated with emphysema. There is an abundance of mucus in the bronchial tubes, but the expulsive power of the cough is feeble. Cyanosis is common and the patient suffers from a dyspnea which causes him to sit up. A condition of asphyxia may be present if the aeration is deficient. It should be remembered in cholera morbus with bronchial catarrh, when there are nausea, vomiting, loose stools, prostration, cold stupor or drowsiness. Through its action on the skin in general, it is a most important remedy in variola during the stage of pustu-lation, with deep red areola, which leaves cicatrices. The patient craves acids or alcoholic stimulants.

Weakness, prostration, drowsiness, are characteristic.

Characteristic Symptoms Of Tartar Emetic

1. The head trembles, particularly when coughing, with an inward trembling and drowsiness, more in the evening and in warmth.

2. Beating and throbbing in all the vessels of the body.

3. Painful urging to urinate, scanty discharge, dark red or bloody, with stitches in the bladder and burning in the urethra.

4. With children much rattling of mucus in the chest, sometimes vomited.

5. Coughing and gaping consecutively, particularly children, with crying or dozing, and twitching of the facial muscles.

6. Intense and long-lasting nausea and vomiting, with great anxiety.

7. Thick eruption like pocks, often pustular, large as a pea.

8. Cannot keep the eyes open, irresistible sleepiness, and dull stupefied sleep; when awake, hopelessness and despair, or chill and fever, or vomiting of food.

9. Prostration, especially in bronchitis or in bronchopneumonia. Cyanosis.

10. Heat aggravates; cool air relieves.