On consumption and its treatment by the hypophosphites / by John C. Thorowgood.

  • Thorowgood, John C. (John Charles), 1833-1913.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On consumption and its treatment by the hypophosphites / by John C. Thorowgood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/50 (page 17)
    noteworthy is to be said, many of these were not regular in attend- ance, about twelve were very doubtful cases as to the real establish- ment of phthisis, and in some five or six that were certainly phthi- sical, the hypophosphite of soda seems actually injurious, one man with the disease in its second stage in both lungs nearly always found the hypophosphite to cause haemoptysis, others said it seemed “ very trying to the chest,” but this is the worst I have to tell of my experience of the hypophosphites. Of the 115 cases of which I have kept notes, 100 certainly were true cases of phthisis in various stages of the disease, and, as has been already stated, twenty of the patients derived so much benefit as to be able to go about their usual occupations and desist from medicine. One of them, a case with extensive disease in the left lung, has lately shown a tendency to relapse, but the very unhealthy locality in which this patient dwells, and other unfavourable cir- cumstances, must to some extent answer for this relapse. Comparing my own figures with those of others, I find that in Dr. R-isdon Bennett’s twenty cases, already referred to, four were dismissed as greatly improved, giving a percentage of twentjr per cent, as successful cases.* Dr. F. Churchill, out of thirty-five cases, gives nine cures, being 25*7 per cent. Dr. Cotton, in his cases treated by phosphorus itself, gives four out of twenty-five, or sixteen per cent, as much ameliorated.*j* In cases of advanced phthisis with cavities in the lungs, I have seen wonderful relief obtained in dyspnoea by the hypophosphite of soda given with ether and camphor water, and by alternating this remedy with various chalybeate medicines, I have been able to effect an amount of benefit that has surprised me. One young man who when first seen could not walk one mile, after two months’ treatment, walked one day twelve miles, as he himself told me; his lungs were both extensively diseased; he lived in a very close locality, and eventually sank under his disease, but the benefit that ensued for a time under the medicine was great. In con- clusion, I would urge a further trial of the hypophosphites of lime and soda in pulmonary consumption, not as specifics for the cure of every case of this complaint, but as useful adjuvants in the treatment of the disease in some of its various stages. Note.—With respect to the genuineness and purity of a hy- pophosphite, I would just add, that Dr. F. Churchill’s preparations, as made by Swann, of Paris, and sold now by many of the London chemists, have always seemed to me reliable and efficient medicines. * Medical Times, 1861. Vol. i., p. 439. + Medical Times, 1861. Vol. ii., p. 7. B