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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    of the several indications to be held in view in the treatment of the second stage of Cholera, and of the means by which they are to be answei’ed, the actual em- ployment of many of those means must be simultaneous. The urgency of the symptoms, and the rapidity with which they end in death if not relieved, will admit of no delay in the use of remedies ; and we shall find it necessary to take a leading part in the administration of them ourselves. We must direct, superintend, and assist in, all that is going forward for the removal of the fright- ful symptoms which present themselves in our patient. It is not a case in which we can rely on the management of nurses, however well disposed to do what we advise : when we have left the patient’s room they are almost certain to relax in their exertions. We must, therefore, watch the progress of the symptoms and the effect of the remedies with the utmost vigilance, and be content to perform not only the part of the physician but of principal nurse also. If we should be rewarded for our exertions, continued for many hours perhaps, by seeing our patient emerge from the fearful train of symptoms which characterize the se- cond stage of Cholera, our personal attendance will no longer be required with the same degree of constancy, but we must carefully watch the progress of reaction, and be prepared to meet, with promptness and activity, symp- toms of local determination or organic inflammation. The analogy between this stage of Cholera and the various forms of continued or inflammatory fever may be considered as complete, and our treatment must be of a corresponding nature. It is sufficiently evident that when reaction has once been fairly established, the further use of stimulants must prove injurious,* their exhibition ought, therefore, to be * In a case which occurred in the Hospital established in the Castle, under the care of Dr. Headlam, the death of the patient was distinctly referable to the imprudent administration of stimulants by his friends when he had arrived at a state of convalescence. “I am certain that 1 congestion in the head was produced by the improper use of stimuli,