Report on the chemical pathology of the malignant cholera : containing analyses of the blood, dejections, &c. of patients labouring under that disease in Newcastle and London, &c. &c. &c. / by W.B. O'Shaughnessy.

  • O'Shaughnessy, William Brooke, 1809-1889.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the chemical pathology of the malignant cholera : containing analyses of the blood, dejections, &c. of patients labouring under that disease in Newcastle and London, &c. &c. &c. / by W.B. O'Shaughnessy. 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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    The next nnulysis in order of publication is in greater detail, and extends to the blood, bile, vomited and de- jected matters, and the urine. 1 allude to that by Pro- fessor Hermann of Moscow, being the sequel of the paper containing the peculiar statements regarding the presence of the acetic acid in standard blood, on which I liave already animadverted. M. Hermann’s investiga- tion of the chemical pathology of cholera, having acquired much notoriety, I am obliged, in this report, to examine into his conclusions u’ith some minuteness. M. Hermann commences with the analysis of the, blood, which fluid he describes as of extraordinary viscid consistence and dark colour. In one analysis, he states that the blood examined, was drawn from a man who died of the disease in a few hours, after having sulfered from violent vomiting. The blood afforded the proportion of 40 serum to 60 of crassamentum, thereby indicating a considerable deficiency in the amount of water it should naturally contain. The serum was highly alkaline, its Bj). gr. 1.36. The crassamentum on the other hand is described as having been sensibly acid, and duly impreg- nated with carbonic acid, ascertained by ebullition u ith carbonate of baryta. This alkaline re-action of the serum, M. Hermann describes as a constant phenomenon in cholera, after vomiting has occurred, and he further states, that it dis- appears as the patient approaches convalescence. The blood, udien microscopically examined, U’as found to have lost its globular structure, and to contain numerous mem- branous shreds, the apparent debi'is of its former healthy arrangement. I am truly unwilling, while addressing the Central Board of Health, to depart in the least degree from the utmost com-tesy of expression towards those writers and