Fragments of the medical practice in Calcutta at the close of the last century / by Alexander Grant.

  • Grant, Alexander, 1947-
Date:
[between 1850 and 1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fragments of the medical practice in Calcutta at the close of the last century / by Alexander Grant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FRAGMENTS OF TPIE MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALCUTTA AT TPIE CLOSE OF TPIE LAST CENTURY. By Alexander Grant, BBNGAL MEDICAL SBBVICB. While Surgeon to the Presidency General Hospital, I rescued from a heap of records, long the abode of white ants and cockroaches, a few sheets of the oldest Medical Journals of that establishment; and it has occurred to me that a selec- tion and publication of a few of the cases would, by way of retrospect, be of some interest to the profession. I commence with the subject of fever, which is at the pre- sent time so much discussed both in India and in Europe; one party holding that the fevers are of the same character now as they ever were; another party arguing that a great change has taken place during the last half century in the constitution of all fevers, and that the treatment has appro- priately changed with it I am myself an advocate of this last view, but I confess that the following cases scarcely bear it out. They, however, illus- trate in a remarkable manner the great improvements in the practice of the present day, compared with that which was in vogue at the close of the last century, for no one can peruse these pages without remarking that a timely use of tonics and stimulants, would, in some of the cases, have saved the patient. Case I.—Aug. \Zth. 1797.—Thomas Betty.—Fever since the 2nd of the month, pulse about 110, skin hot, tongue white and dry, has taken medicines. Habt. sol. sal. cathart. cum. Tart, emetic. Calomel gr. x. cum. Extr. cathart. 14^//.—Vomited and purged by the solution. Has had no sleep, pulse about 124 and full, skin moist and not very warm, tongue white in the middle and foul, red at the edges, thirst constant. Ilabt, stat. pulv. jalap, comp. 3!. post horas iv. calomel gr. vi. pulv. jacobi gr. iij. Opii. gr. ss. 3tia. q. q. hora. repet. Bib. sol. cream tart, ad libit. a