On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology of night-sweating in phthisis : and the mode of action of strychnia and other remedies in it / by T. Lauder Brunton. 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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    excite it to increased action, and thus the accumulation of car- bonic acid in the blood woidd be prevented, and the sweat, which I have supposed to be the consequence of such accumulation, would be arrested. On proceeding to try it in the wards of St. Bartholomew’s Ho.spital, this expectation was realised, as the following cases will show:— Case I. Mary W. was admitted to Elizabeth Ward, July 10, 1879. Her confinement, four months previously, liad been followed by septicaemia, after which signs of phthisis were developed. In the middle of August, when both lungs were much diseased, she suffered severely from night-sweats. Ten drops of tincture of nux vomica in a little water were given at bedtime on the loth of August, and repeated every night for a fortnight. There were no night-sweats during this time. On the 24th of August and the next few days the dose was omitted. Each night the patient complained of sweating. After this the drug was again given at the same time and in tlie same quantity, and as long as it was taken there were no night-sweats until a few days before death, when it seemed to lose its effect. In this case cough was not very troublesome, and the drug seemed to make no difference to it. Case II. Lucy R., a patient in Elizabeth Ward during August and September 1879, had tubercular disease of the lungs and intes- tines, and suffered much distress from night-sweats. On the 2d of September five drops of the tincture of nux vomica were given in a little water at bedtime. The patient did not sweat at all that night, but she said that her cough, which was always troublesome, was worse than usual. The same dose was repeated for a few nights, with the same result—no sweats, but, as the patient thought, increase in cough. On the 8th of September fifteen drops of laudanum were given along with fifteen drops of tincture of nux vomica. After the dose there was again no sweating, but the patient complained of her cough. As long as this dose was given there were no sweats, and the cough remained much as it had been before any nux vomica had been given.
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