The doctrine of purgation. Curiosities from ancient and modern literature. A collection of quotations on the use of purgatives from Hippocrates and other medical writers / [Benjamin Brandreth].

  • Brandreth, Benjamin, 1807-1880.
Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The doctrine of purgation. Curiosities from ancient and modern literature. A collection of quotations on the use of purgatives from Hippocrates and other medical writers / [Benjamin Brandreth]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    538. There is no writer of the present day, perhaps, who has carried “au fevers this view of the subject farther, or even so far, as Professor Frank, JSiSSfrom who regards typhus, plague, petechias, and all pestilential fevers, and -meItingwith indeed nervous fevers of any kind, whether continued or remittent, not impurities only as proceeding from specific contagions in the same manner as ex- in.” anthemas, but from contagions producing a like leaven in the system, and matured and thrown off through the various outlets of the body, by the same process of depuration (ibid., pp. 45, 46). 539. Typhus.—The term is derived from Hippocrates, and means to Sflfly smoulder, or hum and smoke without vent. When a typhus has once exhales arisen, the effluvium from the living body during its action is loaded with miasms of the same kind, completely elaborated as it passes off (ibid., p. 224). 540. Dr. Haygarth and Dr. Bancroft show from numerous cases, p^sonffit that the miasmatic poison of typhus, when received into the body, con- e tinues in a latent state at least for seven days from the time of exposure purgation to the contagion, before the fever commences. . . . remo£eft°he A peculiar state of the body gives a peculiar tendency both to gene ft°|ss°eiabora* rate and receive typhus, whilst some seem to be favored almost with a ted. natural immunity (ibid., pp. 227, 228). 541. Dysentery:—primary a disorder of the colon, so considered by Sydenham and Dr.' Cheyne;—first gripings, then dejections, and the ion; —cure: fever follows. Sydenham’s chief remedy was active purgation twice gationf™' every other day, with warm diaphoretics on the days when the aperient was not employed (ibid., pp. 552-556, cond.). 542. Eruptive fevers.—Whenever any diseased action is taking place Eruptive fe- internally, there is a constant effort exhibited in the part, oi in the sys- tern generally, to lead it to the surtace, where it can do but little mis- rid the sys- chief. . . It is by means of the fever that the disease works its own £ matter’ cure, for it is hereby that a general determination is made to the sur- face, and the morbid poison is thrown off from the system ; but the tUy* ral- fever may be too violent, and from accidental causes of the wrong kind pa (vol. III., p. 5). 543. The grand principle in the treatment of smallpox, as of all Smaii-pox. the other exanthemas, is to moderate and keep under the fever • and how The fever ever the plans that may have been most celebrated for their success !£pul-ga- may have varied in particular points, they have uniformly made this tire3- principle their polar star, and have consisted in different modifications strong of cold water, acid liquors, and purgative medicines—heat, cordials, and the principle other stimulants having been abundantly proved to be the most effectual of cure, means of exasperating the disease and endangering life (ibid., p. 109). stimulants Dr. Mead seems to have been almost indifferent as to the kina of *££ if6 pwpatives employed, and certainly gave no preference to mercurial pre- disease- parations. Ilis idea was, that all were equally beneficial that would tend to lower the system ; and in this manner he accounts for the mild- ness of the disease after any great evacuation, natural or artificial (ibid., p. 110).