Practical illustrations of the scarlet fever, measles, and pulmonary consumption : with observations on the efficacy of sulphureous waters in chronic complaints / by John Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, John, 1784-1829.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical illustrations of the scarlet fever, measles, and pulmonary consumption : with observations on the efficacy of sulphureous waters in chronic complaints / by John Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    68/490 (page 52)
    modified by the state of the system at the time of their exhibition ; so that small doses may at one period suffice to induce some desired end, and at another it can hardly be accomplished by large and often renewed doses. It is still too much the fashion to declaim against the bold administration of calomel in the commencement and progress of ardent fevers ; as if it were neither dangerous to trifle away those precious moments in palliatives, nor judicious to attempt a radical cure. Only let practitioners put calomel fairly and extensively to the test in febrile diseases, and we shall soon cease to have imaginary and unfounded clamors against its free employment: for here it is a medicine which, like an injured and innocent individual, will have its character restored by an impartial and a strict examination. Nevertheless, calomel must not be entirely de- pended on in the Scarlatina Anginosa, since its efficacy will be greatest when it purges freely; and such is often the torpor of the bowels, that it fre- quently fails to operate, unless assisted by the re- medies before mentioned. The stools will always be found to indicate a disorder of the hepatic se- cretions ; and this is an additional reason why ca- lomel should be boldly prescribed. The effect of purgatives on the heat of the skin is very conspi- cuous in this form of the disease : indeed I have never known them to fail in reducing it, and some- times several degrees when they acted freely;—an incontestable proof that their influence is not con-