An inaugural dissertation on the diseases of old age : as connected with a plethoric state of the system / by John Scudder.

  • Scudder, John, 1793-1855.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the diseases of old age : as connected with a plethoric state of the system / by John Scudder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ful consequences we have witnessed from the neglect of it, have made an impression upon our minds, which the unwarranted assertions of a few individuals can never efface. On the first attack of paralysis, as has been before said, we should resort to blood letting. This practice has been sanctioned by the respec- table authority of Hunter, who remarks, that in palsy we ought to bleed at once very largely, till the patient begins to show signs of recovery, and to continue it till he might begin to become faintish.* That this evacuation is serviceable, is proved by the manner in which nature sometimes cures the disease, which is by discharges from the bowels. Dr. Thomas himself has observed that it is sometimes cured by a diarr- hoea ; Boerhaave, that nature has cured the dis- ease by carrying it off by a plentiful and long- continued diarrhoea; and Van Swieten, that, a plentiful, and long-continued diarrhoea carries off the morbific matter.t From the salutary ef- * See Treatise on the Blood, part 2. chap. I. f Commentaries on Boerhaave.