Creosote still refuses to move on into obscurity with the numerous
“cures” for consumption which have recently made their exit from the
therapeutic stage. On the contrary it is used to a greater extent than
ever before, and the testimony as to its value gets stronger each year.
It is interesting to note here that a writer who is by many regarded as
the leading American authority on therapeutics feels justified in
ignoring the whole matter in the last edition of his work recently
published. Such is the perversity of the human mind—or at least of his
human mind.
In giving creosote, it will be found that most patients take it in the
form of sugar-coated pills more readily than in capsules or liquid
mixtures. This statement is deliberately made after thoroughly trying
every known method of administration in a large number of cases during a
period of eight years.
Patients who have sensitive stomachs can frequently take, at first, only
one or two minims per day; but by slowly and carefully increasing the
dose, they eventually consume twelve to fifteen minims each day without
suffering from gastric irritation.
The success of the creosote treatment is seen most plainly in those
patients who have taken it uninterruptedly and in full doses for several
years. Many of these people improve in health from year to year,
without, however, losing all their symptoms.