Potassii Bromidum.

Dose.—From two to thirty grains.

Therapeutic Action.— In moderate doses bromide of potassium lessens the excitability of the nerve centers, quiets pain and produces sleep. In large doses it is an irritant to mucous surfaces, and if contained produces symptoms of bromidism.

Though freely prescribed by many physicians, we think its narcotic power very much over-estimated. If the cases are well selected, and care is used to keep everything quiet, it will cause sleep. It has been combined with chloral, and the combination has been deemed better than the single remedy.

It is recommended in delirium tremens, but will hardly take the place of chloral, or the hypodermic injection of morphia. It is of use in the delirium of acute disease, but is only of advantage in cases showing muscular tremor.

It is a valuable remedy in some cases of cholera infantum, restlessness and sleeplessness being prominent symptoms

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.