On the physiological and therapeutical effects of colchicum autumnale / by Robert Lewins.

  • Lewins, Robert, approximately 1790-approximately 1847.
Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological and therapeutical effects of colchicum autumnale / by Robert Lewins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr R. Lewins on Colchicum Autumnale. 3 complained of great pain in the abdomen ; and the bowels had been moved upwards of twenty times in the course of the day. Astrin¬ gents, :n various forms, were had recourse to in vain, until a com¬ bination of opium and acetate of lead was prescribed, which speedi¬ ly checked the exhausting diarrhoea, and obviated the other mis¬ chievous effects which had resulted from the improper administra¬ tion of ;he colchicum wine. The effects of colchicum, when administered in larger and poison¬ ous do?es, are well exemplified in the following cases related in the twenty-sixth volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Review ; which co¬ incide, in most respects, with those which I witnessed in dogs, where a sufficient dose was administered to produce death, as will be Hated in a subsequent part of this paper. Midame de B. 25 years of age, swallowed a large quantity (a wine glassful) of the tincture of the bulbs of colchicum, with the view f destroying herself. She was immediately seized with most severepain in the epigastrium. Two pints of milk were adminis¬ tered i about half-an-hour after the act had been committed, and subseaently two grains of tartar emetic were given. Copious vo- mitingrf a brownish fluid ensued. M. Caffe did not see the patient till nerly six hours after the accident. He found her cold and very pie, complaining of tenderness in the epigastric region, a sense constriction around the chest, and of great dyspnoea. There was no iffness nor any convulsive movements of the limbs ; the lips were of purple hue ; the pupils were not dilated, nor was the vi¬ sion affited ; the tongue was pale and cold to the touch; there was an most constant vomiting, but no purging; the pulse was very slo and thread-like ; and the patient, who was quite sensible, was torfred with a burning thirst ; and every now and then she uttered e most distressing groans. M. Caffe administered iced aerated iter, and ordered sinapisms to be applied to the feet, and embrocams to the limbs and abdomen. On thfollowing morning there was complete prostration of all the vitaiowers, the retching continued, and the cramps in the feet, altugh not so severe, were still present. Sinapisms were applied the thighs, and a few leeches to the epigastrium. The patient lame gradually weaker, and death took place in the af¬ ternoon-,venty-two hours after the poison had been swallowed. The bp was examined seventy hours after death. Putrefac¬ tion had eady commenced. Most of the parenchymatous viscera were con.ted with dark-coloured fluid blood. The stomach and intestinerere removed, and set apart for the purpose of analysing their conts. On the following day they were examined, but un¬ fortunate putrefaction had already advanced so far as to have al¬ tered conerably the appearance of every part. The mucous mem¬ brane of ( intestinal canal, in different places, was of a wine-red colour ; Ino dependence could be placed on the result of such an examinati Equally unsatisfactory was the chemical analysis of the conte of the bowels. Strang* record, the sister of this patient, a girl of about 20