Cerii Oxalas

Cerium oxalate. A white powder, insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether. Dose, two to live grains in pill form, as it is insoluble in the ordinary menstrua. It may be suspended in mucilage.

Sir James Simpson was the first to propose the use of oxalate of cerium to restrain vomiting arising from various causes, especially from pregnancy; and he brought forward many cases illustrative of its value. As he pointed out, it sometimes succeeds immediately, but usually the best effects are experienced after several days' use. The oxalate of cerium sometimes succeeds remarkably in vomiting due to serious organic lesions, as in cancer (Peters). It has been narrated in one case that four grains were administered every two hours until about 600 grains were taken. The good result which followed this large administration of the drug indicates that, in vomiting from similar causes, larger doses may be sometimes necessary to secure the best curative effects. In chronic diarrhoea cerium may take the place of bismuth.

In cases of cough associated with vomiting, excellent results have been obtained from the oxalate of cerium. It is probable that the cough is reflex in origin, the point of irritation existing in the terminal filaments of the pneumogastric in the gastric mucous membrane.