Cholera : practical observations on a successful method of treating cholera / by Charles Patterson.

Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera : practical observations on a successful method of treating cholera / by Charles Patterson. 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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    lera. For this there is no substitute for calomel; it is the only and the sufficient remedy, but it requires time, and, if the cir- cumstances of the patient are such as that the evacuations are rapid and profuse, or that medical aid is not sought for till there be wanting only one or two discharges to drain the system of the last portion of its vital fluids, or if these fluids be already exhausted, then there is not time for it to act, it can- not restore the abstracted constituents to the blood, and the pa- tient perishes. Among the various remedies hastily tried, and as hastily aban- doned, during the prevalence of cholera in 1831 and 1832, were stimulant and astringent enemata. One of these was composed of sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, and alum; one scruple of each dissolved in two ounces of cold water. It is evident that this was not employed with any successful effect; for it was scarcely suggested when it fell into disuse, and was forgotten, no mention of it having ever been made by any of the numerous writers who since have written on cholera. I was led to employ it late in the epidemic, which abated before I had time for sufficient ex- perience ; but what I saw left a deep impression on my mind, that it possessed considerable, though temporary, power in imme- diately restraining the alvine discharges, and was just the adju- tor that was wanted to render the calomel treatment effectual. These were the views, practically derived, which I held when, in 1838, this town was again visited by cholera; but this time there were no funds, save a scanty amount of subscriptions, and small proportionate advance from the government,—so there was no cholera hospital, and no alternative but to visit and treat the patients at their own houses; the medical men volunteered their services, and the half of the town which fell to my lot happened to be the exclusive seat of the pestilence. This second visitation prevailed for about five weeks, and during that time over 300 cases occurred and came under my care. In all of these patients the disease was well marked, with the dejections of the rice- water character, and with the various other peculiar symptoms of Asiatic cholera. Its mortality was not even absent where me- dical aid was unsought; for in the first six cases, which occurred simultaneously, the disease ran into collajjse before the alarm was raised and medical assistance obtained, and of these four died; yet, excluding these four, the mortality of the whole 300 cases was only fifteen deaths, just five per cent.,—a low rate for even common continued fever. Such was the success of the mode of treatment I am about to describe. From the very onset, and in the first case that presented itself, that treatment consisted in the carrying out of the vieAVS I have already stated. I combined the employment of calomel, for the purpose of expelling the poison from the system, with the ad- ministration of the compound sulphate injection above described,