Volume 1

On blood-letting : an account of the curative effects of the abstraction of blood with rules for employing both local and general blood-letting in the treatment of diseases / by James Wardrop.

  • Wardrop, James, 1782-1869.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On blood-letting : an account of the curative effects of the abstraction of blood with rules for employing both local and general blood-letting in the treatment of diseases / by James Wardrop. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    132/166 (page 118)
    Blood-* letting in Fevers. 118 CURATIVE EFFECTS OF ABSTRACTING BLOOD In febrile diseases (the class “ pyrexia” of — CuLLENn), blood-letting, as a general remedy, must be considered one of the most essential, whether — we contemplate its effects in the treatment of © “ fevers,” properly so called,—in the “ phlegmasiz,” — where there is an inflammation of some particular — organ,—or in the order of “ exanthemata, or erup- tive, fevers.” In the treatment of fever there has been much controversy on the propriety of blood-letting, and like most other discrepancies in medical opi- nions, I believe these are to be chiefly attributed — to the observations of different writers not having been made under the same circumstances, and to there being no class of diseases that assumes a greater variety of type than fevers,—not only in — different countries and in different classes of the community, but even in different years and seasons in the same place. That fever which at one period, and in one class of persons, is mild, may, in a short time, assume the greatest severity; whilst that which at another time appears in a severe and in- — flammatory form, demanding most energetic de- — pletion, may at no very distant period, commence — of 7 posite system of treatment. Hence all histories of febrile diseases, made at different periods, and at ; different places, present an unaccountable variety of character; and therefore, in the treatment of — this class of diseases, all that we ought to attempt is to establish such general principles as shall be applicable to the different forms or types in which the fever may present itself; and here again we —