Cholera : an analysis of its epidemic, endemic, and contagious character; with original and peculiar views of its mode of propagation and the means of counteracting it. Showing also by analogy that the means of preserving organized bodies from decay point to the only true curative principles in the treatment of fevers generally, and more especially cholera / by Henry Stephens.

  • Stephens Henry surgeon.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera : an analysis of its epidemic, endemic, and contagious character; with original and peculiar views of its mode of propagation and the means of counteracting it. Showing also by analogy that the means of preserving organized bodies from decay point to the only true curative principles in the treatment of fevers generally, and more especially cholera / by Henry Stephens. 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.

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    which are indicative of the stage of collapse, but the pulse was perceptible in the brachial artery, and the heart could be felt to pulsate. My mind having been made up, before the appearance of cholera, as to the treatment I should pursue, which was to produce, if possible, salivation, I at once gave the girl twenty grains of calomel with one grain of opium, and followed it by ten grains every two and three hours, and the result was salivation and complete reco- very. The amendment was palpable on the appearance of the mercurial effect, the secretion of urine returned as soon as salivation took place. Encouraged by this case I tried it in several other cases of collapse, but, alas ! I soon found that when the collapse was complete I had to deal as with a dead body. When the blood is stagnant all over the system, when every secretion is suspended, absorption must likewise be at an end; and, consequently, what remedy can affect a body dead to every external influence? I found it fail, as did every other remedy in these cases; but, in cases less violent, and where the vital functions were less completely suspended, my faith in it was more than confirmed. The following case will still further illustrate it:— A man was seized with Cholera, and taken to our parish cholera hospital. He became my patient, and I soon saw that though his was a case of decided collapse, that it was less complete than in many which I had seen, and I imme- diately put in practice the same treatment as above