A practical treatise on the diseases of the liver and biliary passages / by William Thomson.

  • Thomson, William, 1802-1852.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of the liver and biliary passages / by William Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    cury, in diminished doses, for a period proportioned to the pre- vious obstinacy of the symptoms. (Madras Quart. Med. Journ. No. I. p. 79.) 600. Whether the effects supposed to be produced, at this stage of hepatitis, by the action of mercury, are really attri- butable to the remedy, rather than to some salutary natu- ral processes of the economy which has been relieved by the antiphlogistic measures previously pursued; and whether, if dependent on the remedy, they might not as <;ertainly be in- duced by other medicines besides mercury, are points which it must be left to further experience to determine. 601. Supposing, however, the use of mercury at this stage of the inflammatory affections of the liver to be expedient, the next practical question to be considered respects the mode of its administration. But if medical practitioners have differed as to the indications with a view to the fidfilment of which mer- cury should be administered in the inflammatory affections of the liver, scarcely less do they differ as to the mode in which Its administration ought to be conducted,-whether the system ought to be brought under its influence, according to the tech- nical phrase, by small doses repeated at short intervals and for a considerable length of time, or in large doses at more distant intervals, and discontinued when marks of the system having become affected shaU present themselves. 602. In Mr Cm-tis's practice, the preparation of mercury jst generally used was a pHl composed of a grain and a half of calomel and two of rhubarb and soap. Two of these piUs were given every night and morning (six grains of calomel p day) ; and if it was thought necessary to have the moursooa affected a drachm of mercurial ointment was also rubbed in along the side. After the mouth became sore the mercu was contmued in smaller doses for two or three w et or unS ToV^7 r '^^^^ disappeared. ' ''^ 603. To Mr Annesley it appears that, to induce the m. curial excitement of the vascular system, indicated bv 1 1 soreness of the .gums, and to exhibit r.erI^;T2^^^^^ -all quantities frequently repeated, with this li^ j!ttep