Report of the epidemic cholera as it appeared in the Town's Hospital of Glasgow, in February and March, 1832 : with cases and observations / by W. Auchincloss.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the epidemic cholera as it appeared in the Town's Hospital of Glasgow, in February and March, 1832 : with cases and observations / by W. Auchincloss. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    lorn* as there was a single individual left on the face of the earth. I now proceed to detail a few cases of Cholera, with the mode of treatment and the appearances on dissection. Case 1st—John Brown, aged 50, an idiot, rather stout, and previously healthy, admitted into the cholera hospital, at eight o’clock, on the morning of the 22d February. He was reported to have been rather unwell on the preceding evening, and to have vomited and purged repeatedly during the night. The discharges had the appearance of thin oat meal gruel. The following were the symptoms on admission:—Universal coldness, with clammy feeling of surface. Pulse impercepti- ble at the wrist. Expression of countenance contracted, with lividity of lips and tip of nose. Eyes sunk in sockets, like to a person far advanced in consumption. Answers questions put to him in monosyllables, “ yes, or no,” but tone of voice seems perfectly gone; tongue moist, and cold at point, with brownish fur behind; insatiable thirst and constant craving for cold water ; expresses no uneasiness, though very restless; abdomen rigid, but does not seem to experience pain on firm pressure; integuments of fingers shrunk, and with bluish tinge. Stimulating draught every hour; sinapism to belly; fric- tions with turpentine and hartshorn to extremities.* The frictions were used by means of four persons, who rubbed each one of the extremities, for nearly half an hour. After the sinapism was removed, a tin case shaped to the form of the belly, and filled with warm water was applied, and bottles filled with the same to the feet, and along the thighs and legs. This patient could scarcely be got to swallow any thing but cold water, which was no sooner taken in any quantity than it was immediately rejected by vomiting. By ten o’clock, the pulse was perceptible, though very small and feeble, and the surface was moderately warm. Stimulat- ing draught to be continued every hour, and heat to be kept up by means of tin pans filled with warm water. Mid-day.—The vomiting has returned every time he has swallowed any fluid. Has had one thin whitish stool. Hith- erto no urine. Draughty and to have enema with %i. of turpen- tine. * To avoid repetition, it may be stated, that the sinapism used in the hospital during the epidemic, was made of mustard, with turpentine, tincture of cayenne or hartshorn. The surface to which it had been applied was always rubbed with one of these fluids, in order to excite additional irrita- tion and smarting. The stimidating draught was composed of half an ounce of whisky, or brandy, 5 drops of tincture of cayenne, a drain of aromatic tincture, or tincture of ginger, a dram of sweet spirit of nitre, and ten drops of sulphuric aether, with an ounce of warm water.