Thoughts on the present theories of the algide stage of cholera / by John Cockle.

  • Cockle, John, 1814-1901.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on the present theories of the algide stage of cholera / by John Cockle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    a ter go, viscidity of fluid, low temperature of the surface,* and almost universal arrest of nutrition. Now it is readily conceived that a poison, as, for example, serpent poison, may vitiate the quality; but what disease but cholera can so completely diminish bulk of blood, and in what way save that of transudation ? But other factors, coextensive in their operation, weigh with cumulative force. As a direct result of loss of blood and fluid pressure, conjoined with the exhaustive influence of the in- cessant vomiting and purging, profound disturbance of the spinal centre, abdominal and cardiac ganglia further diminish both temperature and cardiac power. When, finally, we super- add the action of a poison either existing in the blood or sucked in from the intestinal canal and carried to the right chambers of the heart, the sum of fatal operations is complete. That this analysis finds some support from observation I do believe, but that it is very far from perfect no one can feel more than myself. That cases can and will be cited in dis- prooff I admit indeed, all must admit that there are still re- sidual difficulties in the study of cholera—gaps which require filling in—awkward cases that will not, seemingly, mould themselves to any extant theory—changes peculiar to the different epidemics probably dependent upon the constitutio anni and upon individual peculiarity,—are facts forced upon us by our daily experience. The circle of inquiry, however, appears now so much narrowed that we must hope these diffi- culties are not invincible, and that ere long we may be re- warded with a pathology sufficiently comprehensive to warrant a more uniform plan of treatment than at present exists; for it is certain that one or other theory must be radically wrong, and consequently, in its application, proportionately destruc- * Dove’s experiments on the influence of temperature over the transit of fluids. t Perhaps best from liombcrg, Epidemic, 1855.