On disorders of assimilation, digestion, etc. / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On disorders of assimilation, digestion, etc. / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the condition of the blood has very much to do with the cure or the patient, and when the ordinary method of treatment fails entirely one may sometimes succeed by coming back to the old-fashioned plan of giving one grain of blue pill, one grain of powdered digitalis, and one or two grains of powdered squill three times a day. I have had a patient under my care lately, suffering from very bad mitral regurgitation as well as mitral obstruction, with a great deal of oedema, and, other drugs having failed, we have put the girl upon this old-fashioned pill, and continued it longer than one usually does,—so long, in fact, that we began to get the well-known action on the gums. And, curiously, it was just when the action of the mercury began to be manifested by soreness of the gums that the oedema began to distinctly subside. This is an observation that is in accordance with what one reads in the old books; but at the present day we do not, as a rule, push mercury so far. I believe that very often if we were to push our drugs, especially mercury, a little further, in the way our predecessors did seventy years ago, we might sometimes get better -results. Another remedy that has recently been introduced is one which I wish to bring before your attention. Many of you have probably used it largely, and it may not be new to you. I refer to urotropine, as a remedy both in cases of cystitis and also in cases where you wish to disinfect after typhoid fever. Not very long ago Dr. Horton Smith showed that the urine of typhoid patients contained large numbers of typhoid bacilli, so that a new channel of infection was pointed out by him. Before that, one had been accustomed to regard the faeces as being the chief channel of infection; but now we know that urine, either coming accidentally in contact with the utensils or lying upon sheets, may be a means of conveying infection, and if you put such patients upon urotropine you may remove one chance of infection. Therefore now, as a maljjter of routine, we have been accustomed to give urotropine towards the end of an attack of typhoid fever in order to destroy the infectiveness of the bacilli, these having been found to be present and to be infective after the fever is practically terminated. In cases of catarrh of the bladder there is no drug like it, but I think it is often given in too small doses,—for instance, five to seven grains; whereas, if you want to get the best results, I think you must give it in doses of ten grains or more. When the larger doses are given I have seen no bad results, but I think
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