Cholera as it has recently appeared in the towns of Newcastle and Gateshead : including cases illustrative of its physiology and pathology : with a view to the establishment of sound principles of practice / by T.M. Greenhow.

  • Greenhow T. M. (Thomas Michael), 1791-1881.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera as it has recently appeared in the towns of Newcastle and Gateshead : including cases illustrative of its physiology and pathology : with a view to the establishment of sound principles of practice / by T.M. Greenhow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    air into the bed of the patient, but the experience of our hospitals has proved their inefficiency, I believe, without an exception, and their use has been almost entirely laid aside. Mr. Wood, a gentleman of considerable ingenuity in this place, has contrived an apparatus consisting of se- veral thin bottles of tinned iron, which are adapted to the extremities and other parts of the body in such a manner, that when filled with warm water and cased in bags of flannel, they have been found to answer in a satisfactory manner the purpose of the external application of heat; but on ordinary occasions, we must content ourselves with heated irons, bricks, bags of sand, flannels, &c.* Copious, warm, and stimulating injections into the in- testines, have been found valuable auxiliaries in effecting this indication. ' I have seen the restoration of animal heat and the reaction of the vascular system commence almost immediately after the injection of three pints of water, containing a strong solution of soap, and of as high a tem- perature as could be safely borne, in a patient whose con- dition appeared hopeless, so complete were the general coldness and asphyxia. This man’s case will be related here- after ; his recovery has been complete. The same remedy has been advantageously employed in numerous other cases by several of my professional friends; occasionally it has con- tained laudanum with a view to allay irritation—at other times, stimulants, as camphorated spirit of wine or a tea- spoonful of powdered mustard. The main advantage, however, seems to be derived from the quantity and warmth of the fluid, which must be thrown with consider- able force, by means of Read’s syringe, into the intestines. The colon becomes filled with it from the coecum to the rectum, and it acts as an internal fomentation, or warm bath, to the several organs with which, in consequence of • Mr. Brady, of Gateshead, informs me that he has used moist heat 'ith much benefit, in the shape of a large poultice of bran, placed be- tween two sheets, and applied over the entire surface.