Observations on the scarlatina anginosa, commonly called the ulcerated sore throat / by James Sims, M.D. President of the Medical Society in London ; with some remarks by Thomas Bulfinch, M.D.

  • Sims, James, 1741-1820.
Date:
1796
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the scarlatina anginosa, commonly called the ulcerated sore throat / by James Sims, M.D. President of the Medical Society in London ; with some remarks by Thomas Bulfinch, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    u to be understood from hence, that the expofure to cool air did not feem at all to depend on the ftate of the angina; for where there was little of the fcarlet eruption, and the patients were low, I have found them evidently relieved by taking them out of bed, and having the air of the room cooled. A ftrict attention to the paffions and affections of the mind was exceed- ingly requifite in all, but particularly in thofe beyond the age of puberty. <f After giving this account of the method purfued mod fuccefsfully in this difeafe, I mall now mention the only inftances in which I knew it to fail. The firft cafe of a young lady, about fixteen years of age, who was fo obftinate, that from the very firft, fhe would fcarcely ever obey any one direction given her ; nay, me carried this fo far as to boaft to her fchool- fellows, that fhe would not. She had addrefs and cunning enough to fecrete moft of her medicines, and to perfuade her attendants, that fhe had taken them ; and on the fifth day, fell a victim to her own miftaken opinion, rather than the infufficiency of the method.' The other inftancc is omitted, on account of its length ; though it tends - greatly to mew a candid acknowledgement of an error in the doctor ; for he fays, From this cafe I was more firmly perfuaded of a maxim, which my whole former practice had ferved to inculcate, that it is exceedingly dangerous in an epidemic to deviate in any meafure from a practice which has been found fuccefsful. A phyfician,it is true, mould be attentive to every, the molt minute circum- flance ; but this attention mould be of the fpecula- tive, not active kind, until fome inftance of bad fuccefs {hews that his former mode require* a change; in which