Questions of the Board of health in relation to malignant cholera, with the answers of the Special medical council : together with a Report upon the causes of the cessation of cholera at Bellevue.

  • New York (N.Y.). Board of Health.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Questions of the Board of health in relation to malignant cholera, with the answers of the Special medical council : together with a Report upon the causes of the cessation of cholera at Bellevue. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    whitewashed ; they should be prevented from congregating in large numbers; and crowded houses should be emptied, and the inhabitants placed in clean and airy situations; the sick should at once be removed to large and any hospitals. On the part of private individuals, the mode /if life should be strictly temperate, and no excess should be indulged in. The food should be nutritious, simple and easy of digestion, and in sufficient quantities to preserve a healthful vigour; any article of diet that is known to be easily susceptible of fermentation, in the stomach or bowels, should be srrupu- ously avoided; so readily is the digestive process disturbed during the epidemic prevalence of Malignant Cholera, that with us, no fruits or any other than simply faiinaceous vegetables can be eaten with safety. The destructive tendency of the disease may be further mitigated, by the early discovery and judicious treatment of such symptoms as are known to precede it, and give warning of its approach. These vary in degree, but all evince more or less disorder in the digestive organs. The milder forms of these premonitory symptoms are merely an uneasiness or pain in the bowels, accompanied sometimes with slight cramps, or dizziness; but a looseness of the bowels or di- arrhoea is by far more common, and an almost invariable precursor of the disease itself. It has been found with us, that this diarrhoea is successfully treated by purgatives, and especially by calomel; and that it cannot be neglected without imminent danger—if neglected, the Cholera is its usual sequela. QUESTION III. When it comes, what aicthe best means to protect life against its attack ? The disease is characterised by vomiting and purging of a fluid almost colourless and inodorous, together with cramps or spasms of the extremities—the strength of the patient is rapidly exhausted—a failure of the. natural heat of the body, and of the circulation of the blood soon occurs, constituting the dangerous stage of collapse. A striking