Remarks on the epidemic disease called cholera, as it occurred in Newcastle / by Thomas Molison.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the epidemic disease called cholera, as it occurred in Newcastle / by Thomas Molison. 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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    extremity ; frequently the heart itself cannot be felt to beat. No doubt, the blood must still continue to flow, notwithstanding all these appearances ; and, to ascertain the fact, I have sometimes narrowly exa- mined the state of the veins on the back of the patient’s hand. I have insulated a portion of the superficial vessel lying between two of the metacarpal bones, and then emptied it by gentle friction in the course of the circulation. So long as I retained my finger on the distal part of the vein, it remained empty, but on my removing my finger, it instantly filled with blood. I was even struck with the swift- ness of its course. The low temperature of the body may be the con- sequence of the peculiar state of the circulation. The whole frame appears cold to the very core. The extremities, especially, are cold as in death, and the skin of the fingers is corrugated. The entire surface is generally clammy^bedewed with a copious sweat, apparently exceeding in quantity the large secretions from the bowels. Even the tongue feels cold, and often, at an early stage, is covered with a slimy secretion. I have never found it dry at any period of the complaint. My impression is, though I did not examine with due attention, that the very discharges, whether from the stomach, or from the intestinal canal, are cold, or, at all events, much below the usual degree of temperature of the animal body. The surface of the body is livid,, as well as cold. The general dark hue is very striking. It is most apparent in the hands, and especially the nails ; so much so, that this was, at Newcastle, not inaptly