The Shasta Courier

Bromide of Potassa as a Remedy for Blood Poisons.
The account published in the newspapers recently of the cure of an Indiana case of hydrophobia by the use of bromide of potassa has elicited the following letter from Dr. Benjamin Woodward, of Galesburg, Illinois, to the Register, of that place:
The case is one of great interest to all, but especially to me, as I was the first to point out the value of this remedy in what are known as "blood poisons."
In the fall and winter of 1862, while I was in charge of the Park Barracks hospital, in Louisville, Kentucky, erysipelas of a very fatal character, prevailed there. and the vapor of the bromide was used with the best effects as a disinfectant. So marked was its value that I was led to make an extended series of experiments with the use of this remedy in blood diseases. The success was so great that Professor Goldsmith, the medical director, ordered me to make a full report on the subject, which was done, and a copy sent to the Surgeon General of the army, at Washington, and he published it, and sent copies to all the hospitals in the North,
I used it in scarlet fever, diphtheria, erysipelas, typhoid, dysentery and hospital gangrene; and in every case where it was faithfully and properly used, recovery took place.
The experiments were carried on through two years, and in one of my reports I urged the trial of the drug in hydrophobia. The New York Medical Times and London Lancet republished three of my reports.
While I was in charge of the gangrene hospital, known as "No. 7," at Murfreesboro, after the battle of Stone river, many gentlemen of the profession came there to watch the effect of the treatment, and among them Professor Frank Hamilton, Professor Gunn, of Ann Arbor; Professor Post, of New York; and Professor Brinton, of Washington. These gentlemen remained from two to three weeks, and so highly were they pleased that, on their return to their respective homes, they made reports on the subject, and Professors Post and Gunn lectured on the subject to their colleges.
Since that time I have used the remedy in more than two hundred cases, and not one has died in which the remedy was used early and faithfully. I have labored to get it into use here; but with a few exceptions it has not been noticed. Some men who have never even seen it tried, say they have no confidence in it; but the united testimony of hundreds who have used it, is that we have no remedy of equal value. In the treatment of scrofula, the early stages of consumption, erysipelas, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and gangrene, it is far beyond all other remedies. One of the most prominent physicians requested me, last fall, to go and use it in cases of gangrene of the leg, after amputation. The action of the remedy was prompt, and successful, and the lady made a good recovery.
If by this article I shall succeed in getting any one of our physicians, who have not used the article, to give it a faithful and impartial trial in cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria, now so fatal, I shall effect the object I have in writing it, for I feel confident that the lives of many children will be thereby saved.