On the mode of action of alcohol in the treatment of disease / by Edward Smith.

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mode of action of alcohol in the treatment of disease / by Edward Smith. 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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    [Reprinted from the Transactions of the Medical Society of London.] ON THE MODE OF ACTION OF ALCOHOL IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. By EDWARD SMITH, M.D., LL.B., F.R.S., ASSISTANT-PHYSICIAN TO THE HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION AND DISEASES OF THE CHEST, BROMPTON; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, MONTPELLIER; ETC, Read January 14,1861. The subject to which I propose to direct attention is one which for some time past has excited an unusual amount of professional interest, and has led to some angry discussion. Its importance cannot well be exaggerated, considering the very large quantities in which alcohol has of late years been administered in diseases; and, although the method of treatment has now passed out of the able hands of him who in- troduced it, it will certainly be continued by many of his pupils and aamirers, who have not so large an experience or so well-informed a sense of discrimination. But, whilst impressed with these facts, my present object is not principally to keep up the present controversy, but to discuss its merits on scientific grounds, and to remove it further from the domain of hypothesis and empiricism by the aid of the additional scientific information which has been recently obtained. I wish bo show what is the true action of alcohol, and what are the general conditions of system to which it is fitted, rather than ;o discuss minutely the specific diseases in which it may be unployed. The same conditions exist in some stages of many iiseases ; and hence it is better to confine our attention to the separate indications for its use, than to regard the whole )henomena of any disease as an unity, to be treated on an uni- orm plan. The indications being given, it will be easy to pecify the diseases and stages of disease to which alcohol is uitable.