Effects on the System

The influence of the sulphites and hyposulphites upon the system in health is inconsiderable. No poisonous effects have been produced by the largest quantity of them which has ever been swallowed. The experiments of Polli show that half an ounce daily is perfectly well borne by men or animals for several days successively; and Dr. De Ricci, of Dublin, states that he has himself taken six drachms in 24 hours, without any injury whatever. {Dublin Quarterly, Nov. 1866, p. 360.) That, after having been taken into the stomach, they are in part absorbed and enter the circulation as sulphites, is proved by their presence subsequently in the urine and other secretions. if the urine be examined, a few hours after the exhibition of one of these salts, it will give evidence of the presence of a sulphite. But it appears that they gradually undergo, in the body, the same change that takes place out of it, when their solution is exposed to the air. That is, the sulphurous acid unites slowly with oxygen so as to become sulphuric acid; and, if the urine be examined 24 hours after the taking of the salt, it will be now found, instead of the sulphite, to contain a sulphate. it is asserted, however, of the hyposulphites, that they remain unchanged even after that time. (Dr. Constantin Paul, Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim., Janv. 1866, p. 63.) According to Dr. Polli, the sulphites given to dogs can afterwards be detected, if the animals be killed, in all the fluids and solids of the body; whereas, if none of these salts have been administered, no evidence of the presence of a sulphite is afforded on examination. From the largest doses of the sulphites no other effect has been obtained than a slight irritation of the alimentary canal, perhaps a mild laxative operation, and an increased secretion of urine. The last seems to be the most decided effect on the system, and so frequently noticed that these medicines might almost take rank with the diuretics.

Medical Uses

One of the first, if not positively the first medicinal application of the sulphites, was to the treatment of the sarcina ven-triculi, a curious microscopic fungus, which was discovered in the stomach in certain cases of yeasty vomiting. This use of the remedy was, I believe, made at the suggestion of Prof. Graham, and was founded on the fact, familiar to him, that sulphurous acid is peculiarly hostile to the lower forms of vegetable life. The medicine was found effectual in the destruction of the sarcinae, but had little effect in relieving the disease, of which the fungus was merely an attendant, and not a cause. Afterwards one of the sulphites was employed, upon the same principle, by Dr. Jenner, of London, and others, with satisfactory results, in the treatment of the cutaneous diseases known to be connected with or dependent on microscopic fungi in the skin. it was but a single step in advance to apply the remedy to the destruction of morbific fermentative processes, believed to depend upon the action of the minute organisms always found associated with them. The idea of this use of the remedy seems to have first occurred to Dr. G. Polli, of Milan, whose numerous experiments have gone far to prove the reality of such a power in the sulphites, and their consequent applicability to the treatment of a large circle of diseases.

Having convinced himself by his experiments on dogs, that certain specific diseases are produced by the entrance of specific fermentative poisons into the system, and aware of the fact that the sulphites were competent to prevent and arrest common fermentation, he determined to ascertain how far they might have the power to prevent or arrest the analogous processes, which he had proved to be the source of peculiar diseases when introduced into the system. He had ascertained that, after the sulphites had been administered to dogs in certain amount, they might, on post-mortem examination, be detected in all the fluids and solids of the body; while animals which had taken none gave no such evidence. But the most remarkable fact yet noticed was that, while the flesh of the animals unprotected by the sulphites was undergoing putrefaction, that of the dogs to which they had been given remained fresh for five clays; thus proving that the preservative influence might be made to pervade the system by the exhibition of these salts. The next step was to ascertain how far the poison, after entering the system, could be neutralized by the sulphites. To a certain number of clogs the sulphites were exhibited in various quantities, while others were left unprotected. Upon injecting putrid blood into the veins, he noticed that the unprotected animals suffered as usual; those which had taken of the salts moderately but insufficiently were affected by the disease in a moderate degree; and a third set, to which the salts had been given freely, escaped altogether. Moreover, upon injecting a mixture of the putrid blood and a solution of one of the sulphites, he found animals to recover from the consequent symptoms, which would probably have perished but for the antidotal influence of the salt. These results fully justified him in pushing his investigations into therapeutics, and ascertaining whether the so-called zymotic diseases might not be favourably modified, if not quite prevented or cured by the sulphites, given internally, and applied to the surface in cases seeming to call for this mode of application. The trials which have been made by himself and other physicians, not only in Italy, but elsewhere on the European continent, in Great Britain and Ireland, and in this country, though perhaps not absolutely conclusive, especially in the face of contrary results said to have been obtained by others, are certainly very encouraging, and should stimulate to still further efforts to determine this most important practical question. Among the complaints in which the sulphites are recommended, under this view of their action, are all suppurative, sloughing, and ulcerative affections in which the system might already be labouring under purulent infection, or the typhoid condition designated as septicaemia. Among these may be ranked puerperal fever, certain erysipelatous cases, and all the affections arising from poisoned wounds, as that often occurring from dissections, etc. in these of course the remedy is to be applied both internally and locally. The various contagious fevers, as typhus, small-pox, the plague, scarlatina, diphtheria, measles, etc.; all those arising from specific causes originating without the system, as the yellow and malarial fevers; and, in fine, every morbid affection, as cholera for example, which could be probably traced to a cause analogous to the admitted vital agencies, may be included in the list to which the treatment is applicable.