Researches on the state of the heart, and the use of wine in typhus fever / by William Stokes.

  • Stokes, William, 1804-1878.
Date:
[1840?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on the state of the heart, and the use of wine in typhus fever / by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    §U4<m^> RESEARCHES THE STATE OF THE HEART, USE OF WINE IN TYPHUS FEVER. BY WILLIAM STOKES, M. D., M. R. I. A.,1 Honorary Fellow ot the King and Queen's College of Physicians, &c.&x. &c. Before I enter on the investigations which form the basis of this paper, I may premise, that I consider typhous fever as an essential disease, not symptomatic of any known local lesion. To British readers this may appear unnecessary, as it is only the expression of opinions entertained by our most learned and experienced physi- cians. But as on the continent a different doctrine is held by some eminent pathologists, and as I have found it necessary to state to many continental physicians who have honoured the Meath Hos- pital with their presence, that we were opposed to the doctrine of localisation, I trust that the expression of these opinions will not be considered unnecessary or egotistical by my readers at home. There can be no doubt that the typhus of Great Britain and. Ireland is a disease of the whole system, not symptomatic of any particular local lesion ; showing on the one hand a tendency to a favourable termination, after a period which varies indefinitely; and on the other, being capable of destroying life with various lesions, or without any appreciable change in the solids. It is a disease on which anatomy sheds but a negative light, not telling us what it is, but rather what it is not. With respect to the organic lesions, I consider them as much secondary to the general disease, as the pustule in small-pox is to the disease of variola. Their not unfrequent absence in the worst cases of the disease proves that they are not the cause of typhus, while in cases where they do occur, we observe a signal want of proportion between their amount and the severity of the symptoms. They are in the fullest sense inconstant in their seat and extent. 1 Dublin Journal of Medical Science, March, 1839.