Hints on the pathology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of thoracic consumption / by J.C. Hall.

  • Hall, John Charles, 1816-1876.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints on the pathology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of thoracic consumption / by J.C. Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    COD LITEE OIL. of his classical work on “ The Principles of Medicine.’’ He remarks, “ that the further experience of several thousands of cases induces me to repeat the opinion formerly expressed^ that the pure fresh oil from the liver of the cod is more beneficial in the treatment of consumption than any other agent medical, dietetic, or regiminal that has yet been employed.” I am certain, from what I have seen for years of the benefits pro- duced by the oil in my own practice, that no greater boon has been conferred in our day on thousands of our countrymen than its introduction to the notice of the profession by Professor Bennett, of Edinburgh. The oil I always prescribe is the pale oil; this is the real oil as obtained from the liver of the codfish. It is rich in biliary matters, as well as in iodine and other inorganic principles, and above all it is destitute of those products of putrefaction found in the dark oils. I have given a fair trial to the oil sold in this country as “ Dr. de Jongh’s Light Brown Cod Liver Oil,” but have been unable to discover any advantages it possesses over the pale oil, and I am convinced that the opinion expressed by Dr. de Jongh, that the brown oil is much more efficacious than the pale, rests on no sufficient foundation. With regard to the administration of cod liver oil, it is essential not to give too much at the first; if this be done nausea is produced and the end we have in view is defeated. I always advise a small tea- spoonful two or three times a day, to begin with, and I never in any case exceed a table-spoonful three times a day. It may be taken in the bitter infusion already mentioned, with a few drops of nitric acid; in watffi’, coffee, orange wine, raspberry vinegar, or in any aromatic water; in the infusion of calumba, cusparia, hop, quassia, cascarilla, or chyrayta. Some patients take it well in milk: I have a lady at present under my care who swallows it the best in cream. Others prefer it without any