Volume 1

Clinical researches on disease in India / By Charles Morehead.

  • Morehead, Charles.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical researches on disease in India / By Charles Morehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    of health and to its restoration when deranged, as the regulation without too much active interference of the excretions, and of a diet suited to the condition of the di- gestive organs and the assimilating powers. The state of the mind should also be considered, and its cheerful occupation in as far as practicable be provided for. The question now arises, may we not observe the course of treatment recommended by Mr. Twining*, and aim at reducing the enlarged spleen by the applica- tion of leeches from time to time, and the daily use of moderate purgatives, combined with tonics ? ^ I have frequently used these means, and my conclusions are unfavourable to both. They are means which tend to induce asthenia, and still further to impoverish the blood. If the physiological and pathological remarks made at the commencement of the subject be correct, they are contra-indicated in theory, and observation in practice has led me to the same conclusion. It may be admitted that the tendency of a purgative action, by deriving to the intestinal capillaries, is to lessen the amount of blood flowing in the splenic artery, and by freeing the circulation in the portal vein to favour that in the splenic vein, and thus decrease the bulk of the spleen ; therefore, in occasional cases, m m- dividuals in whom the powers of the system are not much reduced, the use of purgatives may be attended with benefit. But in the cachectic state of constitution which usually attends enlargement of the spleen, it is otherwise. Purgatives are then inapplicable, not only because the discharges tend to increase the cachexia, but for another and more evident reason, which I now proceed to state. It has been with me throughout these » Clinical Illustrations of the most important Diseases of Bengal, Vol. ]., 2nd edition.