Lectures on auto-intoxication in disease, or, Self-poisoning of the individual / by Ch. Bouchard ; tr., with a preface and new chapters added, by Thomas Oliver.

  • Bouchard, Ch. (Charles), 1837-1915.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on auto-intoxication in disease, or, Self-poisoning of the individual / by Ch. Bouchard ; tr., with a preface and new chapters added, by Thomas Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    effect, of the mental condition. Besides, in the mental disorders that arise during the course of such infectious diseases as typhoid and other eruptive fevers, as well as in puerperal fever, there is little doubt that many of these disturbances are due to the action of pathogenic organisms directly, or indirectly through the influence of their toxins; according to the stage of the illness, so is the character of the mental symptoms. By no physicians more than those resident in lunatic asylums has the subject of autotoxis been so carefully studied. The adminis- tration of a large dose of calomel, followed hours afterward by a saline purge will often clear a patient's mind as well as relieve his body during the delirium of acute mania. Toward the terminal stages of chronic interstitial nephritis and dia- betes, etc., psychoses of an hallucinatory nature are not un- known. They are due to impaired cerebral nutrition or to the circulation of some form of nerve poison in the blood consequent upon defective elimination. To imperfect emunction is attrib- uted the disagreeable odor so frequently observed in the insane. One has only to mention these facts to throw into bold relief the excellent results that frequently follow the administration of antiseptics and excitants to theemunctories. This translation is given in the hope that English readers may find in its pages much that is interesting from a pathological point of view, and much that is valuable and suggestive from a therapeutical. For mistakes attributable to myself I crave in- dulgence. As a translation, I am only too conscious that the work is far from being perfect. If, however, the book serves a useful end, I shall be fully repaid for the time and labor I have spent upon it. I cannot draw this preface to a close without thanking Pro- fessor Bouchard for the freedom he has allowed me in trans- lating and publishing this work. In this (second) edition the new matter interposed in the text by the editor, and for which he alone is responsible, is in- closed in brackets []. Thomas Oliver. 7 Ellison Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.