An inquiry into the physiological and medicinal properties of the Aconitum Napellus : to which are added observations on several other species of aconitum / by Alexander Fleming.

  • Fleming, Alexander, 1824-1875.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the physiological and medicinal properties of the Aconitum Napellus : to which are added observations on several other species of aconitum / by Alexander Fleming. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    be carried further, the syrnptoms assume a more alarm- ing character. The countenance becomes pale and sunken; froth issues from the mouth, and the prostration increases. Two patients thus affected stated, that they felt as if dying from excessive loss of blood. Conscious- ness usually remains ; or there may be slight wandering delirium, as occurs also after profuse haemorrhage. The voice is whispering, or is altogether lost. The pulse be- comes still smaller, weaker, and more irregular; and the breathing more imperfect. The surface is colder than before, and is covered with a clammy sweat, * When the action of the drug is carried to a fatal ex- tent, the individual becomes entirely blind, deaf, and speechless. He either retains his consciousness to the last, or is affected with slight wandering delirium; the pupils are dilated; general muscular tremors, or even slight convulsions, supervene ; the pulse becomes imper- ceptible, both at the wrist and heart; the temperature of the surface sinks still lower than before; and at length, after a few hurried gasps, death by syncope takes place. * The effects detailed in the above paragraph are derived from four cases in which they occurred accidentally. In one of these the symp- toms supervened prematurely, a circumstance to be attributed to the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the patient; in another they were induced by an error on the part of the attendant (see Appendix, Part II., Case IV., report of December 21); and in the remaining two were brought on by the patients themselves, who, in their anxiety to obtain complete relief from severe pain, took more of the medicine than was prescribed (see Appendix, Part III., Case VIII.) The bad symptoms in all these cases were removed by appropriate remedies, and the patients re- covered. The train of symptoms characterising the action of the drug when carried to a fatal extent, is derived from the published cases of poisoning, and is introduced to complete the vieAv of its physiological effects, and to shew forcibly its peculiar depressing agency on the heart.