Dysenteria serosa, or Convulsive nervous 'cholera' of Hindostan : an essay, containing a short statement of its progress from Asia, in 1817, to its suspected appearance in England, in 1831 : wherein a new view of the essential principles, symptoms, and operation of that disease is shewn, and a practical, easy, and efficacious remedy illustrated / by Philanthropos.

  • Gray, W.H.C.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dysenteria serosa, or Convulsive nervous 'cholera' of Hindostan : an essay, containing a short statement of its progress from Asia, in 1817, to its suspected appearance in England, in 1831 : wherein a new view of the essential principles, symptoms, and operation of that disease is shewn, and a practical, easy, and efficacious remedy illustrated / by Philanthropos. 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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    not the least important of any in checking the serous purg- ing, is principally effected by the extraordinary power cold is known to possess in producing a salutary spasm or con- tractility of relaxed or ruptured vessels; in internal and external hcemorrhages, at the same time destroying their irritability or preternatural excitement; and that contract- ing spasm produced on an extensive scale, as opposed in its essence to the relaxing spasm of Cholera, cannot but be beneficial; thus, two intentions are effected by one pro- cess—cold, acting on a condensing principle on the ex- haled vapour of the earth during summer, produces elec- trical heat, and by the agency of hydrogen, combustion, termed lightning. Man is an electrical body, a grand conductor, made up of the four elements—why should he not be more subservient to their influence, than to the capricious action of the surmized principles of mere animal contagion ? The sudden diffusion of heat manifested in those cases subjected to the stimulus of cold, as detailed, savours of practical illustration in support of the premises. The re- maining intentions are to be looked for by avoiding general blood letting in all reduced habits, (even where practicable) and by controlling the exciting media for producing a putrid form of fever, generally ending in death, rendering the cure doubtful; and, if the disease partakes of an infectious cha- racter, tending in that form, and not in the first, to propa- gate its influence. It having been proved by experience, as was liberally admitted to the Author by one of the most enlighted Phy- sicians of this country, and the highest in official station, that the highly stimulating practice had apparently failed in producing a satisfactory result in the hands of all the able men who had tried it; it cannot but be creditable to pathological science, as it is due to humanity, for the most obvious reasons, to investigate the merits of each with