First report of Dr. John Francis Churchill's free stœchiological dispensary, for consumption, and diseases of the lungs, windpipe, nose and throat : with an appendix on croup, diphtheria, and hay-fever / [John Francis Churchill].

  • Churchill, J. Francis (John Francis)
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of Dr. John Francis Churchill's free stœchiological dispensary, for consumption, and diseases of the lungs, windpipe, nose and throat : with an appendix on croup, diphtheria, and hay-fever / [John Francis Churchill]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/30 (page 7)
    The hypophosphites used are not pure, or some of those prescribed are the very ones that I have shown ought not to be given in Consumption, The hypophosphites are used with other drugs or even with poisons, which interfere with their curative action, or counteract it altogether. The specific action of the remedy is not carefully kept within the sphere ©f phenomena, indispensable for it to produce its curative effect, which phenomena I determined experimentally and carefully pointed out more than twenty years ago. .From one or several of these causes many patients after improving for a time with the Hypophosphites fall back and die and the treatment is said to have failed. But whenever these conditions, are understood, accepted, and acted upon by the Profession and the Public, when the Hypophosphites instead of being taken empirically, as in most cases at present, are given scientifically under the superintendence and advice of the physician, the number of persons who die annually of Consumption and allied tubercular diseases, instead of being as now 50,000 out of a population of 26,000,000, will shrink to a few hundreds. With regard to the cases of Consumption treated at the Dispensary two points are particularly worthy of note :— Proportion of Cures and Influence of Weather. The first is, that in spite of the extreme severity of the past winter, which at one time raised the mortality from Lung Complaints from 100 to 160, that is 60 per cent, the improvement of the patients was hardly ever seriously disturbed or prevented by atmospheric variations, and that out of 33 patients only one died. This will compare well with the results obtained at the Brompton Hospital, where according to one report the number of cures was only 4J per cent, where according to a second report there were only forty-one cases of arrest or cure out of 5564, and with the official report made to the French Grovernment, which gives but twenty-four cases of cure out of 5270. Freedom from Hemorrhage. The second is the rare occurrence of haemoptysis. Although the proportion of cases of phthisis affected with spitting of blood given by different observers differs very considerably, it is hardly ever less than 50 per cent. Walshe represents the frequency at 80 percent., Louis at 67 ; The first medical report of the Brompton Hospital, 63 ; The Second Medical Beport gives 62 ; Dr. C. T. Williams, 57 ; Dr. Cotton puts it at 53 ; Dr. Thompson at 45 per cent. Out of the 33 cases treated at my Dispensary, blood-spitting occurred five times in patients whilst under treatment, which gives a per centage of only 15 per cent. Even then, this was always in cases wrhere it had shown itself previously to the patients coming to the Dispensary : it was always slight, and easily yielded to treatment. This agrees with the uniform results of my experience for many years past, in my private practice. I find that haemorrhage among my patients is a very uncommon symptom. When it does occur, it is in those who have a strongly-marked predisposition, and then only for a short time at the beginning of the treatment. When this is fully established, haemorrhage is, eo to speak, almost unknown.