Croonian lectures on some points in the pathology and treatment of typhoid fever : delivered at the Royal College of Physicians of London.

  • Cayley, W. (William), 1836-1916.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Croonian lectures on some points in the pathology and treatment of typhoid fever : delivered at the Royal College of Physicians of London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    died during tlie past nine years in England alone of typhoid fever. In the face, then, of this great mortality, I tliink it may not be without some degree of interest and advantage if we again pass in review some of the received opinions as to its nature and treatment. I do not, however, propose again to discuss the dis- tinction between typhoid and other fevers, or to give any clinical account of the disease, but to confine myself to the consideration of some points about which more or less difference of opinion and prac- tice still prevails. And I shall first consider the causation and mode of dissemination; secondly, some points in the pathology; and, lastly, the treatment. In proceeding to consider the mode of origin and propagation of typhoid fever, we are at once arrested by the question. What are the nature and properties of the poison which is supposed to give rise to the disease ? Now, the typhoid poison has up to the present time eluded all attempts to isolate it or to demon- strate its nature either by microscopical examination or chemical analysis; we are only conscious of its existence by the effects which it produces on the human organism. Nevertheless, some of its pro- perties are known with tolerable certainty: First, when introduced into the systen it midtiplies; secondly, it is contained in the alvine discharges of persons suffering from the disease; thii'dly, it