Rational Therapeutics and the Use of Common Remedies.

A History of Multiple Sclerosis Investigations in Canada Between 1850 and 1950

“…Mirroring the unclear characterization of the various neurological disease entities during this period, the available therapies also appear to have been applied generously to a varied host of diseases, with the lines between treatment for MS and competing diagnoses becoming rapidly blurred. While some physicians used treatments experimentally to confirm their diagnoses, as with Samuel West's use of iodide of potassium 103 , the evidence for most treatments was at best sparse, and Canadian physicians were keenly aware of the extant quackery, as illustrated through contemporary publications 104 .…”

“…Some treatments also took on a diagnostic value. in the 19th century, iodide of potassium, now typically used for various inflammatory dermatoses, as well as sporotrichosis and thyroid storms 102 , was recognized to help diminish the superficial lesions in syphilitic patients, with a 1896 report in The Maritime Medical News praising "the rapidity with which tertiary lesions such as periosteal nodes, skin eruptions, and iritis, disappear under its action" 103 . perceiving this to be a reflection of a positive effect on the syphilitic infection itself, Canadian physicians appear to have used trials of the agent as a method to distinguish between neurosyphilis and multiple sclerosis.…”

“…1863? ), describes a man whose symptoms "might have been due to advanced multiple sclerosis or even, except for want of mental symptoms, general paralysis of the insane, in whom no history of syphilis could be obtained" 103 . iodide of potassium was prescribed and appeared to precipitate a rapid cure, leading West to conclude that "the case was doubtless of a syphilitic nature" 103 -although, in retrospect, this dramatic recovery could very well have been an instance of spontaneous remission from an attack of MS.…”