On the curative effect of carbonic acid gas or other forms of carbon in cholera, for different forms of fever, and other diseases / by C.J. Lewis.

  • Lewis, C. J. (Charles James), 1875-1937.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the curative effect of carbonic acid gas or other forms of carbon in cholera, for different forms of fever, and other diseases / by C.J. Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/56 (page 14)
    Maclood (A Ibutts of MedirAne) gives no support to Parkin since le states that there is no specific drug which will cure Asiatic cholera • and he does not even refer to carhonic acid gas, though he recommends’iced soda water for the relief of thirst. Macnamara (Quain’s Dictionary of Medicine) does not recommend or even consider the use of carhonic acid gas in cholera, nor does Bristowe, although he states that saline effervescents are useful in the stage of reaction by relie%ung sickness and promoting diuresis. The latter author would probably have held the view that Parkin’s cases of recovery from cholera by the use of carbonic acid gas were really cases of that form of mmple diarrhoea not iincomnionly present in times when cholera is epidemic. On this point he says that “ if the case be one of simple diarrhoea, it will not run on to cholera under any form of treatment ”; and “ if the case be one of ^commencing cholera, there is no ground for believing it can be cut short. Doubtless many of Parkin’s contemporaries must have taken such a view of his results, otherwise one can hardly explain the general want of belief in the efficacy of his method of treatment and the absence of any attempt on a large scale to test its value during a cholera epidemic in this country. Fagge says that Bristowe stands alone in the above-quoted opinion as to cases of diarrhcea prevalent when cholera is epidemic, and that most writers think that such cases, unless checked, may end in cholera. Fagge does not mention Parkin, but quotes Lebert (already referred to), and cites the experience of the disease at the London Hospital in 1866 when a ‘ saline lemonade ’ was employed with apparent advantage. He does not, however, say anything of the virtues of carbonic acid gas per se as a curative agent in cholera. Manson, writing in Gibson’s Textbook of Medicine, mentions the use of iced effervescing drinks for the relief of thirst, but says nothing of the carbonic acid gas treatment, or of any special benefit from the effervescing remedies. Widal, who is responsible for the article on cholera in Charcot’s TraiU dc Medicine, does not specially mention carbonic acid gas, and denies that naphthaline is of any use in the treatment. Neither Johnston in Pepper’s System of Practical Medicine, Davidson in the Encyclopedia Medica, nor Striimpell in his Textbook of Medicine, refers to the use of carbonic acid gas. Pepper, in his Textbook of Medicine, recommends carbonic acid water; but this is, of course, a very different thing to recommending Parkin’s treatment. Further citation of textbooks would be wearisome: it is sufficient to say tliat in none other that I have consulted have I found reference made to carbonic acid gas as an antidote to cholera. This unanimity of neglect to refer to Parkin and Ins published views on the antidotal treatment of cholera by means of carbonic acid gas evidences a general agreement of belief that Parkin had overestimated the value of the remedy, and attributed to it powers which in I’eality it did not possess. Of recent clinical evidence on the suliject there appears to be remarkably little, and I regi’et that I caiinot personally add anything to the clinical aspect of the question, not having had an op])ortunity of treating cholera with carbonic acifl gas. It appeared to me, however, that a research into the effects of carbonic acid gas and other forms of carbon upon the specific organisms of cholera and some other diseases might furnish data contri- buting to the elucidation of the question. One might even go further and suggest that this is, in the light of the bacteriological advances of recent years, one of the most valuable methods of estimating the power of the