Brief remarks on cholera : being the result of observations during the two last outbreaks of cholera in England, and an attempt to advance a theory of that disease which shall lead to a more consistent method of treatment : to which is added a short table of practical rules for general use during an epidemic / by Robert J. Spitta.

  • Spitta, Robert John.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brief remarks on cholera : being the result of observations during the two last outbreaks of cholera in England, and an attempt to advance a theory of that disease which shall lead to a more consistent method of treatment : to which is added a short table of practical rules for general use during an epidemic / by Robert J. Spitta. 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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    though frequently repeated, doses ; a grain every half-hour in the smallest possible pill;—and discon- tinued either on the abatement of sickness ; (should sickness be a prominent feature of the attack) ; on the least increase in the power of the pulse ; or on the slightest tinge of bile in the evacuations. Immediately the medicine has displayed these effects, or any of these effects, it should be abandoned. For just as too much opium, in the first stage, may cause undesirable congestion, so too much calomel, in the second, may produce most unwelcome saliva- tion—two conditions to be equally and most sedu- lously avoided. And the calomel having been dis- continued, no other medicine need be exhibited. The case may be left to the regimenial treatment above described (§ x.); and it will generally go on steadily to a cure, without any complication. XIII. Probably it will now be expected that the Tlie °Pera* tion of Calo- Operation of Calomel should be explained. This, m®l explained therefore, I shall attempt, taking great care to define beforehand the exact limits to which that operation is 'confined. I restrict the Operation of calomel to the hepatic organs only; and the theory is that it operates by relaxing the biliary ducts and exciting a flow of bile as when ordinarily exhibited; but that in so doing it relieves the- hepatic circulation, and becomes curative. For the portal current having been restored, the general circulation is thus relieved