Remarks on puerperal fever / A.L. Peirson.

  • Peirson, A. L. (Abel Lawrence), 1794-1853.
Date:
[1831?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on puerperal fever / A.L. Peirson. 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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    the choice of a laxative is often a point of great im- portance. It sometimes happens, that medicines which are very mild and gentle in their operation, succeed better in clearing the first passages than more brisk cathartics. I have found fifteen or twenty grains each of powder of rhubarb and magnesia in syrup of ginger and distilled mint water repeated every three or four hours till effect, a most useful and agreeable prescription. The early administration of tonics is particularly called for in this disease. The frequent pulse, the heat of the skin, and the general restlessness will sometimes, in the late stages of the disease, when it is disposed to a favorable termination, be increased by the exhibition of evacuants, and yield kindly un- der the administration of tonics. This is similar to what is sometimes observed in opthalmia and other external inflammations, in which there is frequently a period when the treatment may be advantage- ously changed from the debilitating to one directly opposite. The sulphate of quinine presents an ad- mirable article for a tonic prescription in these cases, and may be combined with myrrh, with sulphate of iron, and with laxatives, so as to present very neat and efficacious prescriptions. There is one subject connected with puerperal fever, which has not yet received any considerable share of philosophical examination. I mean the question of its contagious character. I will not go minutely into the long discussion this question would