On the premonitory symptoms of cholera : in a letter to the editor of the Association Medical Journal / by D. Macloughlin.

  • Macloughlin, David, 1786-1870.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the premonitory symptoms of cholera : in a letter to the editor of the Association Medical Journal / by D. Macloughlin. 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 approach of the premonitory diarrlioea, in the Ihst manner in which diarrhoeal fluid is passed oif from the bowels, goes to the water-closet at his usual time possibly, oris suddenly called there at an unusual time in the day or night. He then dis- charges—not in a large quantity—both flatus and liquid faecal matter with one gush, as if propelled out of the intestine by a piston. But although he has the desire to pass more, and the feeling that if he did he would relieve himself of something that wanted to come away, yet he cannot pass more, however much he might by straining endeavour' to do so. At last, he leaves the water-closet, having, as was said before, passed only one gush of liquid ftecal matter and flatus; but he goes away with the feeling of weight on the sphincter of the anus, and the feeling that if he were to allow any flatus to pass he would soil his clothes. This kind of diarrhoea may go on for twelve or more hours, or for four or five days. It may have drained almost the whole serum from his blood. His blood may have ceased to circulate, and his heart may have ceased to beat; his 8kin may be blue, icy cold, and clammy; his tongue may be icy cold and shrunken ; his voice weak or possibly only a whisper ; his features may be shrunken; and yet he may say that he has nothing the matter with him, that he is as strong as ever; and if a laboui'ing man, that he can do his work as usual. This man, however, is already past all human aid, before the vomit- ing and spasms have come on, before he has one single symp- tom of what heretofore was called cholera, and consequently before he or his friends are aware that he is in danger. Third manner in which diarrhceal fluid is passed off from the bowels. Again, the person has or has not remarked that he has the symptoms which characterise the premonition to the pre- monitory diarrhoaa; but on going to the water-closet, at his usual hour, or at an unusual hour, of the day or night, he passes with or without pain, by repeated squirts, flukes and liquid fsecal matter, propelled as if by a piston, vnth. force and to some considerable distance, out of the intestine. He has the desire to sit on the water-clo set; and he there strains to pass more flatus and more liquid faical matter, which he does repeatedly, and possibly goes on straining as those do who aro labouring under dysentery, till blood is possibly forced away from the hsemorrhoidal veins. In this kind of a diarrhoea, the person may go on having three or more passages during the twenty-four hours for one or more weeks, and then be cured by the eSbrts of nature; or this diarrhoea may go on for six weeks and more, and as in the se- cond manner in which diarrhoeal fluid is passed off from the bowels, it may have drained away almost the whole serum from the blood, the blood may have ceased to circulate, and the