Letters on the cholera asphyxia, as it has appeared in the city of New York : addressed to John C. Warren, M.D., of Boston, and originally published in that city. Together with other letters, not before published / by Martyn Paine.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters on the cholera asphyxia, as it has appeared in the city of New York : addressed to John C. Warren, M.D., of Boston, and originally published in that city. Together with other letters, not before published / by Martyn Paine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of heat, vomiting and purging,—almost invariably of a fluid resembling rice water,—very generally spasms, cold sweat, corrugated skin and bluenesa of the fingers, cold tongue, cold breath, suppres- sion of the glandular secretions, &c. The morbid appearances on dissection have been less uniform than the symptoms, and our pathology has been consequently much embar- rassed. The small intestines commonly exhibit some appearances of congestion either of the mucous or serous coat, generally of the former ; the large intestines commonly blanched, especial- ly if the diarrhoea has been profuse ; the stomach nearly natural; liver sometimes greatly injected, but often very natural; kidneys, spleen, and pan- creas natural; bladder empty and generally con- tracted. The gall bladder contains from one to two ounces of black, green or yellow bile. There is generally, though not always, an absence of this fluid in the intestines, which usually contain a substance similar to that evacuated during life. It has been well compared to rice water, with flocculent matter, which is soon deposited. The texture of the small intestines, particularly, is often softened, which has induced some physi- cians to ascribe this result to a violent inflamma- tion of these organs, and to regard this action as the proximate cause of the disease. But so far as symptoms and appearances, that usually denote inflammation, are necessary to this theory, they are certainly nearly wanting in Cholera As- phyxia,—venous congestion being almost the