Case of severe and dangerous salivation from ectrotic treatment by mercurial ointment in small-pox / by George Patterson.

  • Patterson, George.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of severe and dangerous salivation from ectrotic treatment by mercurial ointment in small-pox / by George Patterson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    1/28
    SlJLK- 8^* fc, UJL CASE OF SEVERE AND DANGEROUS SALIVATION, FROM / ECTROTIC TREATMENT BY MERCURIAL OINTMENT IN SMALL-POX. :'m 21 FED. 1329 « By GEORGE PATTERSON, M.D., F.R.C.P., Edin., TIVERTON. [from the monthly journal of medical science, decemeber 1852.] On the 15th October, I was requested to see a young lady in consultation with Mr Mackenzie of this town. An eruption, which proved to be that of small-pox, had been out upon her for two days, and the symptoms of initiatory fever had been severe, and followed by a degree of exhaustion and failure of the vital powers, which, even in this early period of the case, necessitated a free administra- tion of wine and other stimulants. The spots of eruption were numerous, and showed a tendency to coalesce upon the face, so that although she had been vaccinated in infancy, yet the case alto- gether presented characters of severity which led us to apprehend a confluent form of the disease, and possible pitting of the features after recovery. It appeared to us that the case was one in which it was right to attempt to prevent the disfigurement that, from all the symptoms, seemed likely to follow—and from the statements as to the success and safety of the ectrotic treatment by application of mercurial ointment, which had lately appeared in the medical journals and elsewhere, I recommended Mr Mackenzie to try this plan. Accordingly the ointment, thickened with starch in the pro- portions recommended by Dr Hughes Bennett, in his clinical lec- tures published in the “Edinburgh Monthly Journal,” was for several successive days smeared over the face, and allowed to remain in contact with the skin. Altogether, the ointment continued to be used from the Friday evening to the following Wednesday, the whole quantity employed amounting to not more than H oz. It EDINBURGH : SUTHERLAND AND KNOX.