The cholera not to be arrested by quarantine: a brief historical sketch of the great epidemic of 1817, and its invasions of Europe in 1831-2 and 1847: with practical remarks on the treatment, preventive and curative, of the disease / [Gavin Milroy].

  • Milroy, Gavin, 1805-1886.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cholera not to be arrested by quarantine: a brief historical sketch of the great epidemic of 1817, and its invasions of Europe in 1831-2 and 1847: with practical remarks on the treatment, preventive and curative, of the disease / [Gavin Milroy]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    either to relieve itself of offending matters, or to rally the stag¬ nant state of the circulation, I have not a shadow of doubt that the practice, so often pursued, of seeking to arrest it at once by the exhibition of large doses of opium and other nar- cotico-astringent remedies, has been the cause of much disap¬ pointment, and not unfrequently too of very serious mischief. And here let me remind my professional brethren that, in very many instances of spontaneous vomiting, by far the best remedy is neither opium, prussic acid, creosote, effervescing draughts, nor any other of the usually-prescribed means, but a simple emetic. And why ?—Because the morbid condition is often kept up in consequence of the contractions of the stomach (and other co¬ operating muscles) being only partial and imperfect—ineffective, in short, to produce what Nature is seeking to attain. When once the organ is made to contract vigorously and effectually under the operation of an emetic, its inverted action ceases, and the distressing symptom is relieved. But, whatever explanation we choose to adopt, the truth of the fact cannot be gainsaid : daily experience affords the proof. And what holds good in dis¬ eases of less formidable severity, is quite as applicable in the treatment of the Cholera. Indeed, the very nature or character of the vomitings in this frightful malady seems to me to point to the practice now recommended. The ever-recurring discharge of the enormous quantities of watery fluid from the stomach looks more like the gushings out from a vessel overflowing to fulness, than the forcible expulsion of a living organ’s contents by the contraction of its parietes. There is little or no retching or strain¬ ing, as in ordinary vomiting; the act is one rather of simple disgorgement than of strong and convulsive contraction. The curative indication therefore is to induce a more energetic action of the stomach, diaphragm, and other muscular parts which co¬ operate in ordinary vomiting ; and in no way can this object be so effectually accomplished as by the exhibition of a stimulant emetic. Common salt is at once the most convenient and the most useful one that can be employed. Let from a dessert to a table-spoonful or more be dissolved in a tumbler-full of water, and diank off immediately ; and let the dose be repeated again and again at short intervals, if it be speedily rejected without