On the use of belladonna in scarlatina / [J. Warburton Begbie].

  • James Warburton Begbie
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use of belladonna in scarlatina / [J. Warburton Begbie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    five-and-fifty years it has been under discussion, received all that attention and patient investigation which every right- thinking man will readily and heartily admit to be its due.^ That a disbelief in the alleged power of belladonna should have taken possession of the mind of the profession generally, and more particularly in this country, was scarcely to be wondered at, when we consider the quarter from which the recommen- dation of its vaunted virtues proceeded, and the manner in which the test of its efficacy was required to be determined. But though apologising for the feeling at first entertained by the bulk of medical men in regard to the announcement of the prophylactic action of belladonna, we are not to be held as thereby approving it, far less defending the course of procedure which it in some cases engendered; for, on the contrary, when regard is had to the frequency as well as to the extremely fatal nature of many epidemics of scarlet fever, whose ravages it was upheld both to mitigate and repress, we do feel that the mere circumstance of Hahnemann being its originator and strongest advocate formed no excuse for belladonna being either • We may remind our readers that voiy many other prophylactics liave been recommended and actually employed in scarlatina besides the exhibi- tion of belladonna. In regard to such we find Joseph Frank writing : “ Ad scarlatinam prsepediendam commendata fuore: errhina et collutoria ex ammonia cum sufficiente quantitate aquas; acida mineralia diluta turn interne, turn externo sub forma gargarismatis: subfumigia vel ope aoidi muriatioi sivo simplicis sive oxygenati, vel ope acidi nitrioi; minimje doses snoci inspissati horbm atrop» belladonna); ot ipsa scarlatina) inseifio, de quarum autem rerum effeotibus, cum non quivis homo nocessario scarlatina) subjici debeat, arduum est judicare.”—‘ Praxeos Medicce Universa) Prsecepta,’' vol. ii, par. i, p. 221, Leipzig, 1815. “ Si Faction de la bolladone ost encore doutouse, malgrd lo grand nombin- de ses partisans, colle des autres prcservatifs ost encore bien plus hypothe- tique. Ainsi on a piAno uno combinaison do soufro dord ot do calomel. La dose, pour les enfants do deux a quatre ans, est d’un sixidme ou d’un huitidme de grain de calomel uni a autant de soufi-e dord d’antimoine, et mdld a un peu de sucre ou de magndsio; on repdte oetto dose trois ou quatre fois par jour. Cette mdthode a dtd consoilldo par un mddecin Hollandivis (E. J. Thomassen, a Thuessink), qui affirme quo dans toutes les families ou I’on fit I’usage du prdservatif, la scarlatine ne sdvit pas. II cite 1 observa- tion d’un enfant qui sous son influence n’out ni mal de gorge ni druption, mais la desquamation consdcutive.”—‘ Traitd Clinique et Pratique des Mala- dies des Enfants,’ par MM. Barthez ot Ililliet, deuxidme ddition, tom. iii,. p. 208.
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