Scarlet fever, its cure : based on the chemistry of the human body, and confirmed by medical science and pratice : being the sequel to 'Asiatic cholera' ... / by Alexander Mackenzie Cameron.
- Date:
- [1885]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Scarlet fever, its cure : based on the chemistry of the human body, and confirmed by medical science and pratice : being the sequel to 'Asiatic cholera' ... / by Alexander Mackenzie Cameron. 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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![juice of flesh. As excess of alkali is required to form the blood to enable it to perfuim its functions of destroying the tissues by oxidation, so phosphoric acid in excess is required for the production of the tissues. In scarlet fever, Avhere there is reat oxidation, a plentiful supply of potash is needed,—also to solve fibrin. V. Aniuial heat is ])romoted by everything that increases the supply of oxygen, as increased respiration, as in children from running about; or cold with abundant food, or warm clothing, both of whicli exist in and immediately folk)wing winter, the period for scarlet fever, and children and the young form the subjects of attack. Carbon and hydrogen are the chief sources of animal heat in their oxidation ; that is, oxygen acting on starch, sugar, and fat, the principal food of the young The proportion of carbon to nitrogen, which furpi'-hiis no combustion, is as great in all the excreta', as in albumen, or even greater. And the albumen, from which fibrin is made, is destroyed from the deficiency of carbon, which is rapidly oxidised in scarlet fever. We may also remember that uric acid, which is apt to be secreted in fever, is dissolved in moderately dilute potash. VI. We thus see albumen a chief constituent of the body, and carbon of it ; fibrin from it ; and fibrin and albumen destroyed in scarlet fever. A deficiency of carbon affects both jilbumen and fibrin ; or ex- cessive oxygen and oxidation, which produces the deficiency. Potash is the great base of the juice of flesh ; and potash acts on both albumen and fibrin. The bile supplies the carbon, but is oxidised by excess of oxygen to produce its acids, and hence bile and ac'ds are equally lost in scarlet fever. Hence— f Defect of carbnu or,—and,—excess of oxygen ) I and ,, potash or,—and,— ,, ,, soda j furnish us with all the blood and other symptoms of scarlet fever; and the cure. The equation is perfect. VII. Our task is over ; but it is interesting to observe the balancing parallelism and analogy between cholera and scarlet fever, one illus- trating and confirming the other. We have already shown how the cholera formukv may be applied here, and we proceed to other points. In scarlet fever the temperature rises to even 112 F., the pulse is even 130, there is great surface heat, and an external eruption ; in cholera the temperature goes down to even 72° F., the pulse is hardly perceptible, there is great coldness of surface, and an internal exuda- tion. In the one the tissues are relaxed, and the tendency is to dropsy ; in the o her the tissues are collapsed, and the sequel is fever. In the one excess of oxidation and deficiency of carbon ; in the other deficiency of oxidation and excess of carbon. In the one the bile is emptied and lost ; in the other the bile is full to congestion. In the one the juice of flesh is affected because there is deficiency of potash and excess of soda ; in the other the vital fluid i^ affected because there is deficiency of soda and excess of potash. In the one there is destruc- tion of albumen ; in tha other accession of it. In the one the hemato- fibrin solidifies throu'.'h excess of oxygen and soda and defect of carbon ; in the other rhe bhVid corpuscles perish through excess of carbonic acid and potash and defect of oxygen. In the one the upper air-vessels are seized ; in the other the lower intestines. The one appears when ozone is excessive and carbon deficient ; the other when ozone is defi- cient and carbon excessive. The one appears when there is a want of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21973830_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
