On the medical properties of the natural order Ranunculaceae : and more particularly on the uses of sabadilla seeds, Delphinium staphisagria, and Aconitum napellus, and their alcaloids, verateria, sabadilline, delphinia, and aconitine / by A. Turnbull.

  • Turnbull, Alexander, 1794 or 1795-1881.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the medical properties of the natural order Ranunculaceae : and more particularly on the uses of sabadilla seeds, Delphinium staphisagria, and Aconitum napellus, and their alcaloids, verateria, sabadilline, delphinia, and aconitine / by A. Turnbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and enjoy a good night's rest; and the last time I saw her, she had walked about four miles without any inconvenience. CASE II. Mr. B., aged thirty-six, of sedentary habits, and by profession a banker's clerk, was seized about ten years ago, without any apparent cause, with palpitation on the left side of the thorax, which was followed by pain and a sensation of tightness and anxiety over the legion of the heart; his pulse became irregular and intermittent; his breathing, however, has not been to any great degree disturbed, and he has been able to take free exercise, and with some benefit. During the course of his illness he has had no cough, but has had occasional sighing. The digestive functions have been considerably impaired, the appetite bad, the bowels disordered, and an almost constant tendency to flatulence has been present. The. nervous system has also been for some time under much derangement, marked by tremors in the hands, irritability of temper, disturbance of the mental powers, particularly of the memory, which has suffered a good deal in its integrity ; for some time past he has experienced a disinclination for exertion, and has gone through his business more as a matter of duty than of pleasure. His sleep has been disturbed and unrefresh- ing; and he bas laboured under great depression of spirits, from the belief that his complaint, from the number of remedies he had tried without advantage, was incurable. Under these circumstances, and considering from the account he had given, that to attempt a cure by the means usually employed in such cases, would only be a waste of time, and also in consequence of the success which had attended the previous trials made with the Veratria, it was determined at once to employ it in his case; and with this view he was directed to take a little opening medicine, a practice always necessary to be pursued during the time the Veratria is in use; and an ointment of the same strength as that applied in the preceding case, was ordered to be rubbed on, night and morning, over the region of the heart. As the patient lived at some distance he did not present himself again until the end of a week, when he returned to announce that he was quite well. The palpitation and nervous symptoms had entirely vanished, and he was then in the enjoyment of the best health and spirits. I have seen him once since that time, and he has not had the slightest return of his com- plaint CASE III. Mrs. L., a lady thirty-six years of age, and of a spare habit of body, residing in Bristol, has been suffering for five years from palpitation of the heart, attended by considerable difficulty of breath-