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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    Treatment; Effects of Mercury, fyc. established. But, if there was no other argument against the immoderate use of opium in the treatment of the cold stage of Cholera, the circumstance of its very general failure, in past ex¬ perience, either to check the vomiting and purging or to mitigate the dreadful cramps, ought surely to induce us now to have re¬ course to less objectionable remedies. Whenever the vomiting has ceased or become sensibly abated, it will be prudent to begin the administration of some preparation of mercury. From five to ten grains of calomel, or double this quantity of the hydrargyrum cum cretd, in combination with the carbonate of soda or magnesia, should be given immediately; and the dose repeated every three, six, or ten hours, according to the circumstances of the case. Camphor may often be advantage¬ ously added to these powders ; or the different substances may be made up into pills with any of the warm essential oils. The effect of this treatment will be to excite the hepatic and pancre¬ atic functions, and to induce a more healthy condition of the whole intestinal canal. The occasional administration of a stimu¬ lating enema will,1 at th^°same time, serve to bring down the vitiated matters, which, 5! need scarcely say, are almost always found to stand in need of evacuation after the immediate symp¬ toms of the disease have been subdued. To allay the intense thirst—which is often accompanied with a sense of burning heat in the region of the stomach—that is almost always present in cases of Cholera, effervescing draughts prepared with the carbonate of ammonia, soda or seltzer water, iced water, water acidulated with the sulphuric or some other mineral acid, light well-fermented beer, or, in short, whatever may be most grateful to the patient, should be given without restriction; only cautioning him to take small quantities very often, rather than large draughts less frequently. On the whole, it is better to avoid strong and spirituous stimulants, if these simple beverages suffice; and, in nine cases out of ten, the latter will be found to be quite as refreshing and exhilarant as the former, even when the system is in a state of great depression. In the treatment of a disease like Cholera, the ultimate as well as the immediate effects of our remedies should always be kept in view; and, considering the marked tendency there is to the supervention of typhoid phenomena upon the cessation of the