| Description Of Item | A small cylindrical medicine vial with screw top lid labelled ‘Nitro-Glycerin Comp.’. The vial is filled with a number of greyish pills that, according to the label, consist of Nitro-Glycerin 1-100 gr., Tr. Digitalis 2 min., Tr. Strophanthus 2 min, and Tr. Belladonna 1-4 min.
While used as an explosive in its pure state, nitro-glycerine was employed in the 19th century, and still is today, ‘as a useful drug in those instances where a somewhat rapid and powerful effect is to be exercised over the vascular system’ (Hare, 1897, p.283). According to William Murrell, the substance was discovered by Ascanio Sorbero in 1847 (1882, p.1), but it is the former who first used it to treat angina pectoris, which remains its key medical purpose in the present day. According to Murrell, the manufacture of nitro-glycerine in the 19th century primarily existed in Scotland and required great care, the glycerine being added ‘drop by drop’ - the end product was ‘inodorous’ with ‘a sweet pungent aromatic taste’, slightly soluble in water (1882, pp.1-2). Most acclaimed for ‘relieving the heart of strain’, the drug was also administered to treat nephritis, asthma, vomiting in cases excepting pregnancy and peritonitis, and ‘sometimes in epilepsy’ (Hare, 1897 p.283).
Approximately twenty-five years before Murrell’s use of nitro-glycerine to relieve angina, discourse began amongst physicians regarding the drug’s safety, stemming from the experience of a Mr. A. G. Field who endured a number of distressing symptoms following consumption of the medicine; these included a full feeling in the neck, nausea, headache, a rushing sound in the ears, sweating, pain in the stomach, fatigue, and constriction of the head (Murrell, 1882, pp.4-5). For several years, medical professionals continued to debate the true nature of the drug, and curiosity eventually got the better of Murrell himself who tried a very small amount of the substance in the 1870s, experiencing a violent pulsation in the head, increased heart rate, and a splitting headache (Murrell, 1882, pp.12-12).
Digitalis, strophanthus and belladonna also all affect the heart. Native to Britain, digitalis is a ‘powerfully narcotic’ plant with a ‘bitter very nauseous taste’; during the 19th century, the specific effect of digitalis on the body was generally not understood, physicians having ‘considerable difficulty in ascertaining its real effects’. They knew, however, that it reduced the force and frequency of the pulse and circulation (Thacher, 1817, p.212). Strophanthus is a vine regional to Eastern Africa that has been used historically by local indigenous peoples as arrowhead poison. During the 19th century, Western doctors employed the plant in cases that required marked action against ‘cardiac muscular fibre’, to treat ‘irregularity of rhythm’ and other heart related illnesses (Wilcox, 1897, p.2). Strophanthus is still used to treat heart problems today, while belladonna is a member of the nightshade family of plants, also known as deadly nightshade, that was used in the 19th century ‘as a direct and powerful stimulant to the sympathetic nervous system, or in other words, to the heart and bloodvessels’ (Harley, 1869, p.244).
References
Hare, H, A. 1897. A text-book of practical therapeutics: with especial reference to the applications of remedial measures to disease and their employment upon a rational basis. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co.
Harley, J. 1869. The old vegetable neurotics: hemlock, opium, belladonna and henbane; their physiological action and therapeutical use, alone and in combination being the Gulstonian Lectures of 1868, extended and including a complete examination of the active constituents of opium. London: Macmillan.
Murrell, W. 1882. Nitro-glycerine as a remedy for angina pectoris. London: H.K. Lewis.
Thacher, J. 1817. The American new dispensatory: containing general principles of pharmaceutic chemistry ; chemical analysis of the articles of materia medica ; pharmaceutic operations; materia medica, including several new and valuable articles, the production of the United States ; preparations and compositions ; with an appendix, containing an account of mineral waters; medical prescriptions ; the nature and medical uses of the gases ; medical electricity ; galvanism ; an abridgment of Dr. Currie's reports on the use of water ; the cultivation of the poppy plant, and the method of preparing opium ; and several useful tables ; the whole compiled from the most approved authors, both European and American. Boston: Thomas B. Wait and Sons.
Wilcox, R, W. 1897. Strophanthus: A Clinical Study. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. |