Reports on the diseases of London, and the state of the weather, from 1804 to 1816 ; including practical remarks on the causes and treatment of the former ; and preceded by a historical view of the state of health and disease in the Metropolis in past times ; ... / By Thomas Bateman.

  • Bateman, Thomas, 1778-1821.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the diseases of London, and the state of the weather, from 1804 to 1816 ; including practical remarks on the causes and treatment of the former ; and preceded by a historical view of the state of health and disease in the Metropolis in past times ; ... / By Thomas Bateman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    a contagiqus disorder *, and a specific contagion m the only cause of the disease. This is an extraordi- nary opinion; for, if we are allowed to consider, with Sydenham t and Sir J. Pringle, that, together with some febrile symptoms, small, but frequent stools, of a slimy and frothy matter, preceded by gripes, and followed by tenesmus, constitute dysentery, whether blood is passed or not, such a disease is extremely common in this country, as the result of cold, of un- usual irritations of the bowels, &c.; and is very rarely observed to pass by contagion from one individual to another, in ordinary life. But little fever accompa- nied the dysenteric symptoms, in most of the cases in the list, although in eight of them a considerable quan- tity of blood was discharged by stool. The gripes, but more particularly the tenesmus, and frequency of stools, were much complained of:—feculent matter made no part of the stools, in general, which wese watery, or bloody, with little smell, and contained fragments of apparently coagulated mucus. The ap- pearance of sa/bala, or formed fasces, was generally followed by relief. The commencement of the dis- ease was not often witnessed : in some the complaint was of five or six weeks standing, at the time of ap- plication to the Dispensary. Exposure to cold was the cause generally assigned for its origin. The plan of cure consisted of the combination of anodynes and purgatives, as already stated, (Report for July 1808,) in preference to the alternation of them, as recom- mended by Sydenham. When the bowels have been » Nosolog. Method. Gen. XLI. and First Lines, § MLXXV. f Epidemic Constit, Sect. TV. Chap. S.