Letter to Dr. Barry.

  • Negri, C.
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to Dr. Barry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/8
    Letter to D. BARRY, M.D. Member of the Central Board of Health in London, (^~c. <^c. on the Character and Treatment of Cholera. London, November 2L>, 1831, 26, Polaud-Street, Oxford-Street. Dear Sir,—After all I have reatl on the subject of malignant cholera, and after having paid particular attention to the character of the disease, it struck me very much how remarkable was its resemblance to that class of diseases so well described by Torti, in bis valuable work entitled “ Francisci Torti Muti- nensis 'rherapeiiticae Speciales ad Febres quasdam Perniciosas inopinato ac re- pcnte lethales, una vero China China, peculiari melhpdo minislrata, sanabiles which was published, for the first time, in 1/09. Speaking of the character of those fevers, Torti says, “ The perni- cious intermittent, more especially that wearing the tertian form, kills about the beginning of the paroxysm, when it is accompanied with violent bilious vomiting and purging of bilious humours, equally vicious both in quality and quantity, being sometimes clear, at others coloured, and occasionally of in- spissated greenish bile ; to which vomit- ing and jiurging are added, hiccup, a hoarse sonorous voice, hollowness of the eyes, pain of stomach, small sweat upon the forehead, weak pulse, and cold or livid extremities—in one word, all the symptoms which usually mark cholera morbus ; from which, however, this, as it were, choleric affection, is to be distinguished, since it is a mere symptom of the fever, the period of which it follows, as a shadow does a body.” These pernicious fevers he distin- guishes into different species, according to the peculiarity of their symptoms, and I was much surprised in reading the two following descriptions of what he calls febris perniciosa cholerica.” At the fourth, (»r, unless I am deceived, the fifth accession, such violent, frequent, and copious vomiting supervene, to- gether with purging of bilious, serous, and corrupted matters, at very short in- tervals, that the patient becomes almost exhausted, universally chilled, lies su- pine, as though unable either to sit erect or turn on either side, with a pulse almost abolished, sunken eyes, hiccup, and difficult breathing.—“ The wife of B. G., after having suffered from two paroxysms of a simple tertian, in which pain in the bowels, vomiting, and diar- rhoea were such prominent symptoms that their intermittent character was al- most overlooked, sustained a third at- tack still more severe, accompanied with acute pain in the stomach and in- testines, constant vomiting, purging of immense quantities of watery fluid; in consequence of which she became cold and pulseless, with a mortal pallidity of countenance, sunken eyes, pinched nose, and collapsed temples. Her disease was regarded by every one as cholic, and her stale was considered hopeless. I was, however, sent for, and, upon ex- amination, found the patient almost destitute of pulse, scarcely able to speak, complaining much of intestinal pain, and so cold that 1 was wholly un- able to decide whether the disease were fever or ordinary cholic.” Then, as to the cause of the irregular appearance of these pestilential fevers, he says, “ These fevers, however, are, comparatively speaking, less fre- quent than the mild intermittent ; so much so, that, in some years, physi- cians of respectable practice, have no op- portunity of witnessing them. At the same time, however, I dare say, that, in some close states of the atmosphere.