A report on spasmodic cholera / prepared by a committee under the direction of the counsellors of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

  • Massachusetts Medical Society.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on spasmodic cholera / prepared by a committee under the direction of the counsellors of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    than from any intellectual failure. Indeed, as the fatal event ap- proaches, the only wish a patient seems to have is to be allowed cold water, and to be left to die in peace. It has been well said, that a patient in the last stage of cholera may be called “ a living corpse.” ‘ A curious phenomenon has been several times observed : •— After a patient has been some time to all appearance dead, and when the attendants were dressing the corpse, spasmodic twitch¬ es have taken place in the limbs, having in some instances even extended to the muscles of the body, and general spasmodic con¬ tractions have supervened. This peculiarity, it is believed, has also been observed in Russia. ‘ Cases often occur in which one or more of the above detail¬ ed symptoms do not appear. There may be no spasms ; the vom¬ iting and purging may early cease, or there may have been only one large alvine discharge, followed by a mortal collapse, the pa¬ tient seeming to be at once struck with death ; and though, on the very first appearance of the disease, he has walked to the sur¬ geon, his pulse is found to be gone, his heart has ceased to beat, blood can be got only by drops from the veins, he lays down his head, and dies without a complaint. ‘ These anomalies are not confined to individual instances, but are found to occur, as Mr Scott well expresses it, in “ local epidemic visitations.” Thus, he says, “ when the disease appears epidemically in a town or district, or in the lines of a corps or the camp of a marching regiment, it may on one occasion be distin¬ guished throughout, by the absence of vomiting, and the preva¬ lence of purging ; and on another, by the excess of vomiting, and, though more rarely, by the absence of purging. Spasm may be generally present in one instance of invasion ; in anoth¬ er, it may not be distinguishable.” ‘ I was on one occasion called upon to send assistance to a district in which the disease was thus described to exist. “ It commences by attacking the sufferer with an agonizing heat in the stomach, vomiting and purging, and lock-jaw ; death ensues in two hours, and often more rapidly : it bids defiance to every remedy.” [Extract from letter of the Honorable Mr Harris, Prin¬ cipal Collector, Soonda.] ‘ But in all cases there are the collapsed countenance, blue lips and nails, shrunken fingers, the total failure of the usual secre¬ tions, deficient animal heat, suspension of the pulse, and remora in the venous circulation.’ * III. What are the appearances which have been discover¬ ed after death in those, who have sunk under the spasmodic cholera ? 3 * Bell on Cholera, pp. 10-17-