Papers relative to the disease called cholera spasmodica in India, now prevailing in the North of Europe / Printed by authority of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

  • Great Britain. Privy Council.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers relative to the disease called cholera spasmodica in India, now prevailing in the North of Europe / Printed by authority of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    so consciousness on the part of the sufferer that the hand of death is upon him. The lips, the face, the neck, the hands, the feet, and soon the thighs, arms, and whole surface, assume a leaden, blue, purple, black, or deep brown tint, according to the complexion of the individual, varying in shade with the intensity of the attack. The fingers and toes are reduced at least a third in thickness ; the skin and soft parts covering them are wrinkled, shrivelled, and folded ; the nails put on a bluish pearl-white ; the larger superficial veins are marked by flat lines of a deeper black; the pulse is either small as a thread, and scarcely vibrating, or else totally extinct. The skin is deadly cold, and often damp ; the tongue always moist, often white and loaded, but flabby and chilled, like a bit of dead flesh. The voice is nearly gone; the respiration quick, irregular, and imperfectly performed. Inspi¬ ration appears to be effected by an immense effort of the chest, whilst the alae nasi (in the most hopeless cases, and towards their close), instead of expand¬ ing, collapse, and stop the ingress of the air. Expira- ration is quick and convulsive. The patient asks only for water, speaks in a plaintive whisper (the c vox cho- lerica’), and only by a word at a time, from not being able to retain air enough in his lungs for a sentence. He tosses incessantly from side to side, and complains of intolerable weight and anguish around his heart. He struggles for breath, and often lays his hand on his stomach and chest to point out the seat of his agony. The integuments of the belly are sometimes raised into high irregular folds, whilst the belly itself is violently drawn in, the diaphragm upwards and inwards towards the chest; sometimes there are tetanic spasms of the