Report made to the Academy of Medicine on the use of Gélis and Conté's dragees of lactate of iron / by a committee composed of Drs. Fouquier, Bally, Bouillaud, reporter.

  • Académie de médecine (France)
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report made to the Academy of Medicine on the use of Gélis and Conté's dragees of lactate of iron / by a committee composed of Drs. Fouquier, Bally, Bouillaud, reporter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    skin about the average ; pulse from 76 to 80, and regular. The extent of the dull sound about the heart was within the normal limits. Slight pulhng at the fust sound at the base of toe heart and prolonged in the aorta. A puffing with a double current in the carotids, perfectly characterized, becoming continuous and musical in the vertical position; breathing altogether normal. The abdomen, rather yielding, presented the usual conformation; in the right fossa, a rather heavy pressure was attended with acute pain. No tumour, however, was found to exist in that region. Dec. 16th. — Scarcely any change in the patient's state, but he complains of pains in the abdomen and more especially on the right side; slight tendency to retching. The existence of the pufQng with double current in the right carotid is again observed. Face pale and very thin, skin dark round the eyes, and the pupils dilated. Treatment. —3 Dragees of Lactate of Iron, morning and evening; infusion of wild succory; 3 porlions; wine and roast meat. 17th and isth. — The patient ejected part of his rood. 19th. — Same treatment continued. 20th. — The retching has altogether ceased. The pain in the abdomen has disappeared. Appetite increased. The anti-chlorotic treatment was continued. The patient soon gained flesh, and a month afterwards left the hospital completely cured. •? Reflections. — The first idea that presented itself to our mind after reading the above case was that the patient must hpe been suffering from some gastro-inlcstinal affection. Indeed , it is not unreasonable, in tliis instance, to attribute to a more or less serious lesion of the digestive tube the persistence of the pain in the ilic-coecal region, also the diarrhoea and repeated retchings ; and yet these accidents, w hich were most likely to assume a more serious character under the influence of a tonic treatment, especially of Lactate of Iron, on the contrary entirely disappeared in the course of three or four days. It certainly requ rrd the exquisite medical tact, and consummate experience of Professor Bouilland, to distinguish the exact nature of the disease in the midst of symptoms so conflict- ing and apparently so grave. Nothing can be more capricious than the symptoms which often present themselves suddenly in persons suffering from Chlorosis and Chloro-Anajmia. Sometimes there are pains in Ihe walls of the abdomen so acute as often to mislead the physician into the immediate adoption of a treatment (or peritonitis. At others, the patient complains of giddiness accompanied by cephalalgia so violent that we have known praclitioners weak enough to yield to the urgent entreaties of patients, who, fearing an attack of apoplexy, were anxious to he bled. It is therefore indispensable, in all such cases, to make the diagnosis with the most scru- pulous care, and by no means to act till quite convinced of its correctness. SECOND CASE. HOSPITAL OF LA CHARITE. (Professor Bouillaud's Ward.) Francis Legrand, aged 21, a tinman, admitted on the 3d August 1852, as No. 21, in the ward Sl.-Jean-de-Dieu. Ordinary constitution, lymphatico-nervous temperament. Ten years before, he had the ague for 13 months, and two years ago he was treated for pain in the loins with lassitude in all his limbs, but not accompanied by much fever, and was able to return to Lis occupation on the third day. Last March, after taking cold, he was seized with pains in his limbs, but no fever, and was bled twice for them. In the following month he was again bled, for an acute pain in both hypochondria. Two blisters were applied, but the pain in the left side was not relieved. For the last six weeks, he has been subject to sudden fits of extreme weakness. He feels his strength going, and has barely time to sit down. In this state he sees nothing of what passes around him, but can hear the persons who speak to him. This fit lasts eight or ten minutes without either convulsions, cries, or foaming at the mouth. He lias had five of these fits in the course of six weeks; the last only a fortnight ago.