Report on the progress of practical medicine, in ... midwifery and the diseases of women and children : during the years 1844-5 / by C. West.

  • West, Charles, 1816-1898.
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the progress of practical medicine, in ... midwifery and the diseases of women and children : during the years 1844-5 / by C. West. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    slightly excavated, of a circular form, and situated at the insertion of the frsenum. He appears to wish to establish an analogy between hooping-cough and hydrophobia, on the somewhat slender ground of the paroxysmal character of the two diseases, and the presence of vesicles under the tongue in hydro¬ phobia, which may be analogous to the ulcerations in that situation in hoop¬ ing-cough M. Levrat Perroton* recommends the liquor ammoniae in hooping- cough ; but gives no stronger evidence of its utility than is afforded by four imperfectly reported cases, in all of which depletion had previously been prac¬ tised. Dr. Panckt details the results of trials of various remedies in hooping- cough. In some cases he found hydrochloric acid very useful after the sub¬ sidence of the inflammatory stage, especially when the cough was attended with frequent vomiting of diseased mucus from the stomach. He employs the dilute acid in doses of about ten minims every hour. In the same stage of hooping-cough Dr. Golding Bird} has employed alum, in doses of two or three grains every four or six hours for a child of 3 years old, and believes that it exerts a specific action on the disease. Dr. Dieudonne§ writes in praise of cochineal in hooping-cough, [an old English remedy, to which Dr. Cajetau Wachtl called attention on the Continent some three years ago ; but which, during a very patient trial of its merits at the Infirmary for Children, the writer of this Report found to be almost inert.] Retro-pharyngeal abscess. A well-marked instance of this affection has been related by Dr. 0’Ferrall.|| It occurred in an infant aged 4 months, who was saved from impending suffocation by puncture of the swelling, a proceeding which it was necessary to repeat several times. He recommends the use of a bistoury, with a short cutting edge, as a preferable instrument to a trocar, for opening these tumours, since their tough parietes do not very readily yield, and the trocar may strike upon the vertebral column before penetrating their walls. Phthisis. Dr. Hennis Green^T has drawn up a tabular view of the seat of tubercle in 180 cases of tubercle of the lungs in children. The table is preceded by some remarks on pulmonary phthisis in the young subject, which are con¬ firmatory of the statements of MM. Rilliet and Barthez, but do not contain anything new. DISEASES OF THE ABDOMINAL VISCERA. Atrophia ablactatorum. Dr. S. S. Alison** describes a peculiar state of the stomach, which he met with in a child who died at the 3d month, having been weaned when a month old, and subsequently fed with unsuitable food. The child had an insatiable hunger, vomited much, and suffered from abundant feculent diarrhea. The stomach was only two inches long, and weighed only 3iss. Its walls were thickened, but otherwise healthy, and the duodenum was similarly contracted. He attributes this condition to muscular action, excited by the irritating food which the stomach in a measure rejected, while the rest of the food remained too short a time to undergo changes into chyme or chyle. Dr. Weissetf recommends in those cases of diarrhea with rapid emaciation, which come on after weaning, that if it be not possible to pro¬ cure for the children a good nurse, they should be supplied with raw beef finely shred, of which they should take two tablespoonsful divided into fourparts in the course of 24 hours ; the quantity being afterwards gradually increased to as much as they will take. He states that gradual cessation of the diarrhea, and recovery of flesh, are the results of the treatment. He proposes to ex¬ periment on the use of pure osmazome, since he has found in these cases the animal fibre, nearly unchanged in the evacuations. * Revue M^dicale, Juin 1844. t Oppenheim’s Zeitschrift. Feb. 1845. J Guy’s Hospital Reports, April 1845* § Journal fur Kinderkr. Juli 1844. 8 Dublin Hospital Gazette, March 1, 1845. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. xxvii, p. 351. '** Medical Gazette, Nov. 1, 1844. ft J. f. Kinderkr. Feb. 1845.