An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill.

  • Magill, Alfred T. (Alfred Thruston), 1804-1837.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill. 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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    effectual one to conquer most kinds of fevers;* and in other passages he enforces the same practice. It will be seen from the above extracts, that nearly a century anterior to the time of Hamilton, Sydenham pre- scribed purgatives in this disease from the beginning, and recommended them, conjoined with venesection, as the best cure for most kinds of fever.f Hamilton, it seems, was led to the employment of purgatives, by mere accident: he says, At the time I was appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary, the cure of typhus was thought to consist chiefly in the removal of atony and spasm of the vessels of the surface of the body. For this purpose, among other remedies, weak antimonial wine and nauseating medicines were freely given. The state of the sto- mach and bowels, after the exhibition of an emetic and purgative on the first approach of the attack, was little regarded in the after periods of the fever. An occasional stool was procured by a mild glyster, while a purgative medicine was given, with extreme caution. Appre- hensions were entertained that the operation of a purgative would rivet the spasm of the extreme vessels, and increase debility, one of the supposed direct causes of death in fever. These apprehensions (con- tinues he) may still bias the practice of many, as they certainly did bias mine, for a iong time. An unusually malignant typhus lever, however, breaking out in Edinburgh, in the summer of 1779, and being unable to cure it by the mild antimonials, Hamilton was reduc- ed to resort to the calx antimonii nitrata. This antimonial remedy (says he) was not ineffectual; but 1 remarked that it was beneficial only when it moved the belly. The stools were black and foetid, and in general copious. On the discharge of these the low delirium, tre- mors, floccitatio, and subsultus tendinum, which had prevailed, abated in some cases; the tongue, which had been dry and furred, become moister and cleaner, and a feeble creeping pulse acquired a firmer beat. Reflecting afterwards on these circumstances, it occurred to me, as the purgative effect appeared to have been the useful one, that any purgative medicine might be substituted for the calx antimonii ni- *Wallis's Sydenham, vol. 2, p. 344-5. tit has, we think, been too much the custom to overlook the practice of Syden- ham, and to consider his groat excellence to consist in his unrivalled descriptions of acute diseases. We, however, look upon his writings in a very different light: he certainly deserves great credit for his accurate account of diseases, but this is by no means his highest praise. The improvement he made in the treatment of smallpox is enough to immortalize any one man, and his mode of curing fevers and the phlegmasia; has been but little improved on, even at the present day. There is one striking instance in which his claims to originality of treatment are almost entirely overlooked, and all the ciedit assigned to Hamilton. 1 allude to the method of cur- ing St. Vitus Dance. Ho used identically the same routine of practice in this dis- ease which is followed at the present day upon the authority of Hamilton. Any one may satisfy himself of the truth of this by consulting his works.