Iron as a Medicinal Agent [pp. 608-609]

608 IRON AS A MEDICINAL AGENT.
Stonelands, the seat of the late Judge A. P. Butler, United States Senator, is
four miles north of this place, and Redcliff, the home of Senator Howard, is also
in the southwestern part of this district.
The Press is ably represented by our mutual friend, Col. Arthur Simkins, the
editor of that stanch state-rights democratic journal, " The Edgefield Advertiser,"
which has a large circulation. It is one of the best conducted country papers in
this State.
I find the citizens of Edgefield so pleasant to me that I regret to leave them
and hope soon to return to share again their generous hospitalities.
Yours, G. H. STUECKRATH.
2.-IRON AS A MEDICINAL AGENT.
The uses of iron, like that of cotton, are becoming infinite. In medicine,
which adopts most of the metals, mercury begins to give way to iron. Hence
the frequent pills and potions containing as their base this great mineral agent.
Hence Peruvian Syrup, which claims,to maintain the protoxyde without further
oxydation. Says a medical authority:
To persons unacquainted with physiological chemistry it may appear strange
that iron should form an element of the human body, and to many it may seem
unimportant whether the quantity contained in the system is large or small. The
"blood is the life," for, from this vital fluid, each tissue of the body absorbs such
material elements as are necessary for its nutrition and growth.
The blood, which to the naked eye seems a simple red fluid, is in reality a transparent, yellowish and watery fluid, in which float very minute solid bodies, visible
under the microscope, and called "blood globules."
It is to these globules that the blood owes its red color, and also its power of
exciting and preserving the vital forces. If they are reduced in quantity by
bleeding and disease, to that extent are the vital forces impaired.
The red coloring matter of the globules contains a large amount of the oxyde
of iron, which cannot be diminished below a certain quantity without rendering
the blood unfit for the perfect nutrition of the organs. In such cases the fact is
made apparent by general paleness, weak circulation, debility, palpitations, difficulty of breathing, dropsical swellings, cold extremities, bleeding from the nose,
&c. In this condition of ancemia, in which there is a deficiency of the red globules, it is certain that if the necessary iron can be supplied to the blood, the red
globules will be restored to it, in the requisite quantity, and the symptoms of
disease will, consequently, cease. There is in this instance a very intimate connection between cause and effect, and every one will therefore perceive why iron
is an important element of the blood, and why it should be given as a medicine
when this fluid is impoverished.
It may be asked,',From what is the blood derived " We answer, principally, from the food. But if the food is not properly digested, good blood cannot
be produced any more than good bread can be made without mixing and cooking
good materials in a proper manner. The lacteals and absorbents take up what
is presented to them, and pour it into the blood. If the materials supplied are
insufficiently or imperfectly prepared, the fault is in the stomach and not in the
suffering organs. The bad blood will irritate the heart, will clog up the lungs,
will stupify the brain, will obstruct the liver, will deaden the intestinal motions,
and will send its disease-producing elements to every part of the system. The
feeble girl will suffer from chlorosis and menstrual irregularity, the adult from
painful dyspepsia, neuralgia, and head-aches; many will suffer from boils and
cutaneous diseases; the bilious from congestion of the liver, dropsy, and constipation; the care-worn and hard student, from the thousand nameless ills known
as "general debility," and every one will suffer in whatever organ may be predisposed to disease.