On the application of sulphurous acid gas to the prevention, limitation, and cure of contagious diseases : with cases illustrative of the advantages to be derived from its employment / by James Dewar.

  • Dewar, James, Sir, 1842-1923.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the application of sulphurous acid gas to the prevention, limitation, and cure of contagious diseases : with cases illustrative of the advantages to be derived from its employment / by James Dewar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    which she assented upon condition that it was done in the room beside herself. To this I was rather opposed' as she was confined to bed with catarrh in the chest; but as she insisted, I made no farther objection. The immediate effect upon the mother was a severe and prolonged fit of coughing, as was to be expected; but from that moment dates the end of her misery, the speedy- recovery from her catarrh, and her steady progress towards perfect health, both of body and mind, which she has ever since uninterruptedly enjoyed. The practice was continued for some three months, and was repeated two or three times daily; and meanwhile the change for the better in the daughter was not less remarkable, for, from being an ill-thriving creature, she very shortly afterwards began to g-row. and she has had in the interval no return of those ailments to which she had formerly been so subject* The application of this system to epidemics, as recog- nised in our own species, has been followed by results so satisfactory as to convince not only professional but ordinary observers of the influence which it can exert over their progress or even existence. A few, a very few, cases have no doubt occurred, which tended to invalidate the claims to confidence, to which it was believed the process was entitled; but as these incongruities might fairly be attributed to peculiarity in the patient's constitu- tion, or to a want of precise knowledge as to the period of incubation, they do not weigh much against the preponderating testimony in its favour. Again, numberless cases of severe fever, many of which would, under ordinary circumstances, have assumed the * 1st January, 1867.