The treatment of typhoid fever, and reports of fifty-five consecutive cases, with only one death / by James Barr ; introduction by W.T. Gairdner.

  • James Fugaté
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of typhoid fever, and reports of fifty-five consecutive cases, with only one death / by James Barr ; introduction by W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    In treating of the continued fever of the years 1661,1662, 1663, and 1664, he only used blood-letting in young persons of a strong and sanguine habit. After the bleeding he ordered an emetic in cases where there had been any retching, as he thought that by thus expelling the humour, he obviated the occurence of diarrhoea towards the termination of the fever. He ordered the antimoniaJ emetic to be followed by three quarts or a gallon of posset drink, because this kind of emetic is dangerous unless plentifully diluted ; and therefore as often as the patient vomited, or purged, he was directly to take a draught of the posset drink, by which means griping was prevented and the vomiting rendered more easy. As soon as the operation was over, the severe symptoms, viz. :— the nausea, anxiety, restlessness, deep sighing, blackness of the tongue, &c., usually abated, and went off, so as to leave the remainder of the disease tolerable. In the present day emetics are not employed frequently enough (a few tumblerfuls of hot water are usually sufficient without any medicinal substance), but those who have witnessed the beneficial effects which often follow such a mechanical procedure, are not likely to neglect its use. The bleeding and emetics were only used at the beginning of the fever, and both were omitted in the case of children under fourteen years of age. He prescribed a clyster occasionally during the progress of the fever, but towards the decline, the more costive he is kept, the more secure I judge him ; the febrile matter then proceeding more kindly and quietly to concoction. Cordials, as I have experienced when given too soon, do mischief, and unless bleeding has preceded, may drive the crude matter of the distemper upon the membranes of the brain, the pleura, &c., and therefore I never give them when either no blood, or very little has been taken away ; or when no other considerable evacuation has been made; or the patient has not passed the meridian of life. The fever itself is no other than the instrument of nature, by means whereof she separates the vitiated parts of the blood from the sound ; though she does this in a manner perfectly ira-
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