Observations on the principal medical institutions and practice of France, Italy, and Germany : with notices of the universities, and cases from hospital practice : to which is added an appendix, on animal magnetism and homœopathy / by Edwin Lee.

  • Lee, Edwin, -1870.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the principal medical institutions and practice of France, Italy, and Germany : with notices of the universities, and cases from hospital practice : to which is added an appendix, on animal magnetism and homœopathy / by Edwin Lee. 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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    also attributed to the chiorurets, but no marked benefit appeared to me to be produced by them. More successful results were said to be obtained by the purgative treatment than by the other methods. One hundred and thirty-four cases of typhoid fever, treated by purgatives, at the Hotel Dieu, produced the following result:—sixty-nine of simple fever ;—all cured : forty-nine of adynamic fever ;—thirty- nine cured, ten died ; sixteen of ataxic fever ;—seven cured, nine died,— making nineteen deaths in the whole. These experiments will go far to remove the apprehension of exciting gastro-enterite by these remedies, which has hitherto prevented their employment in France, and will prove to continental practitioners, that they have, since the prevalence of the Broussaian doctrines, needlessly deprived themselves of the great advantage which may be derived from this class of reme- dies in the treatment of acute disease. From a view of the above results, it is also pretty evident, that had purgatives been less exclu- sively employed in the adynamic and ataxic varieties, in which they are not so often indicated, the proportion of fatal cases would have been smaller. In fact, the principal error of some continental phy- sicians appears to me to be, that the remedies are not sufficiently varied in the different stages of disease, according to special indications. Thus one practitioner will invariably resort to blood-letting, and would on no account employ purgatives or tonics, whatever be the condition of the patient, or the stage of the disease ;—another will, perhaps, treat the same disease in all cases by purgatives ;—another by large doses of tartarized antimony and revulsives, to the exclusion of sanguineous depletion and purgatives ;—a fourth by expectant measures ; and each will publish cases as illustrating the efficacy of his peculiar practice. With respect to the intestinal lesions so constantly observed in post- mortem examinations of cases of typhoid fever in France, I am disposed to think that they are frequently occasioned by the presence of indurated excremcntitial matter, as they are almost invariably met with in indivi- duals dying of this disease in Parisian hospitals where purgatives are seldom used, and where enemata which merely empty the large intes- tines are generally employed ; whereas in England, where purgatives are freely employed, and enemata in less frequent use, these lesions are less constant and less extensive, the bronchial membrane and the brain, which in these cases are not generally examined in France, being often the seat of pathological alteration. Even in France, these alterations do not exist in some individuals dying from typhus ; and when ex- isting, they are most frequently met with, and in greatest number, in that part of the intestine where an accumulation of fecal matter is most liable to take place. An account of the cases of typhus treated by M. Chomel at the Hutel Dieu, has been recently published, and will be read with advantage. The treatment consists in moderate abstraction of blood in the first periods, mucilaginous and diluent drinks, lavements, and baths, to which in many cases the chloruret of sodium is added. In the more advanced stages, where stupor and great prostration of strength exists, recourse is frequently had to blisters to the legs, nourishing broth, wine, and bark.