Hyperanthraxis, or, The cholera of Sunderland / by W. Reid Clanny.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hyperanthraxis, or, The cholera of Sunderland / by W. Reid Clanny. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    159/170 (page 147)
    P. S.—It seems inherent to this disease, perhaps from its novelty and in- tensity, that, generally speaking, medical men who have heretofore written upon this subject, have been more desirous of displaying their graphic and argumentative talents, thart applying their time and scientific attainments for Its investigation. We have an example of thijjn the article “Cholera, in the fourth part of a useful periodical, now publishing in parts, entitled “Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine,” dated April, 1832. Al page 393 tbft following words wind up a prolonged paragraph:— “ But there are diseases, and ithif; seeibs to be one of them, in which we meet with a variety and complexity of pathological conditions, all of import- ance, and all to be kept in view in their treatment. It is true that of these conditions some may arise from others according to known physiological laws, as dark-coloured blood from impeded respiration, and it is right thus to ex- plain them when possible; but the uniform endeavour to trace all to one pri- mary change, or rather, as is more frequently done, to assume one change to be primary, and all other morbid states to be but emanations from it, is not only unphilosophical, but is too apt to tinge our practice with undue partiality.” Now what is the fact? Do we not find one important, uniform, and visi- ble change of the blood, in all cases of epidemic cholera, even before vomiting or purging takes place ? Do we not know from direct analysis, which I pub- lished two months ago, and which has been amply corroborated by several most competent gentlemen, that this change is of vital importance in epidemic cholera; and are we not compelled to acknowledge that this epidemic, though an acute, is not an inflammatory disease, and that it generally runs its course long before any organic change in the solids can possibly take place. We are also forced to acknowledge, from anatomical, pathological, and chemical in- vestigations, that this general and extensive change in the blood is the proxi- mate cause of the disease, or, in other words, the disease itself, as I have proved in this treatise. “ What authors have styled the disease, or what the more correct pa- thologists of the present day call the proximate cause, viz. the morbid lesion alone merits the appellation of a cause. That only deserves the name of a physical cause, which so constitutes the disease that when present the disease exists; while it remains, the disease remains; when changed or re- moved, the disease is equally altered or destroyed.* From what I have published, both in this volume and in the Lancet, i need only remark that the intelligent reader is put in possession of all tlw^ ^ Dr. Pitrr.