Acidum Gallicum.
Related entry: Tannic acid
Synonyms—Gallic acid, Trioxybenzoic, Dioxysalicylic acid.
Specific Symptomatology—This is specifically a remedy for passive hemorrhages, when the patient is greatly enfeebled, the functions of the body at low ebb, the shin and extremities cold, with relaxation of the capillaries. It has proved in the writer's hands an exceedingly valuable remedy in the treatment of hematuria. I usually combine it with other indicated remedies,
Therapy—In acute Bright's disease, where the patient is growing rapidly worse, with a very large quantity of albumen in the urine, and where blood is found persistently present, this agent has first place. In no case has it failed to produce some beneficial results. Ten grains should be given in water every one and a half or-two hours, sometimes alternated with ten minims of the tincture of the chloride of iron. The patient should be placed in bed and kept comfortably warm, and fed with a, very mild diet. The administration of large quantities of skimmed milk will aid the influence of the remedy.
In chronic Bright's disease, where there is a small quantity of urine, with a large quantity of white albumen precipitated, this agent will sometimes restrain the excretion of the albumen. The writer has obtained no benefit from it in those cases where there was but little albumen in the urine. In passive hemorrhages from the stomach or intestinal canal, resulting from chronic ulceration, good results are obtained from this remedy. Like geranium, it exercises a beneficial influence upon the stomach, as it does not interfere with the processes of digestion, but rather facilitates them. Where there is pyrosis, or other excessive discharges from the stomach or from the intestinal canal, it may be satisfactorily administered.
A number of writers claim to have obtained good results in the treatment of diabetes insipidus, or diabetes mellitus, but it is doubtful if it permanently influences these conditions.
The most satisfactory field of action of the remedy will be found, as we have stated, in its influence upon the various forms of passive hemorrhage. Externally tannic acid is a more active remedy than this, but internally administered this agent is in every way superior, as there is but little doubt that tannic acid sustains a chemical change within the system and is changed into gallic acid.
The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine
