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
Catalogue details

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.

    41/50 (page 39)
    Diarrhea. M. Trousseau* has made some remarks in one of his clinical lectures on cholera infantum, and these observations are reproduced more fully in the work of 1VI. Bouchut.f The anatomical characters of the affection are very minutely described by him. In its treatment he attaches considerable value to the nitrate of silver, and an equally favorable account of its utility in diarrhea both acute and chronic, is given by Dr. Henock^ who watched its employment in Professor Romberg’s clinic at Berlin, Incontinence of urine. Dr. Delcour§ in the course of some remarks on the nocturnal incontinence of urine in children, recommends benzoic acid and nitrate of potash as two very valuable remedies for the affection. Dr. Delcour employs the nitrate of potash, which was first introduced into practice in these cases by Dr. Young of Chester, in doses of 3 ss daily, for children of 7 years of age. He was induced to try the benzoic acid by its known action on mu¬ cous membranes, and relates two cases in which recovery took place during its employment, after both nitre and strychnine had failed, FEVERS. Measles. Dr. Seidl|| describes an epidemic of measles which prevailed in the year 1840, in the district of Zolkiew in Austria. It was extensive and fatal, having attacked 1519 persons out of a population of 32,736, and having proved fatal to 196, or J2‘8 per cent, of those who were attacked. Children, especially from the age to 4 to 12, were most frequently affected by it; no one above 40 years old suffered ; but many young women were seized by it, either just before or immediately after delivery. The disease made its appearance in the autumn of 1839, but disappeared during the early part of the winter, break¬ ing out again in January 1840, reaching its acme in April and May, and ceasing in September. The milder forms of the disease presented no peculi¬ arity ; the severer cases began very tempestuously, and were attended with af¬ fection of the pharynx and larynx, or of the brain and its membranes. It was often complicated with diarrhea, which in most cases was followed by no ill consequences, though occasionally it became chronic, and then led to bad re¬ sults. It was, however, a more fatal complication than that with hooping- cough, which in some instances ran its course nearly simultaneously, and ceased at exactly the same time with the termination of the period of desqua¬ mation. Cancrum oris occurred as a sequela of the disease five times, diar¬ rhea frequently, and general dropsy often came on during the stage of des¬ quamation just as it does in scarlatina. When this state of anasarca followed diarrhea, the prognosis was usually unfavorable; but diarrhea appearing sub¬ sequently, was in general salutary, and often removed the dropsy. Dr. Cathcart Lees^T describes some of the more dangerous complications of mea¬ sles as observed by him during an epidemic which prevailed among the children in the South Dublin Union Workhouse. The children had been much crowded together, and were not in a good state of health when the disease broke out. Of 48 children under 2 years of age, 18 died ; of 35 between 2 and 5, 6 died ; and of 112 between the ages of 5 and 12, 5 died. Pneumonia was a very fre quent complication, especially among the younger children, having been pre¬ sent in 40 out of 48 infants under 2 years of age. The epidemic was likewise attended with a fatal affection of the throat, [[which appears to have been very similar to that described by the writer of this Report in the Medical Gazette, for August 25, 1843,] that occasionally appeared as early as the second day of the eruption, though usually at the period of its decline. Some of the cases which presented peculiarities in their course, are related in full; among which are two instances of sloughing of the labia and rectum, similar to those re- * Gaz. des H6p. Fev. 1, 1844. f Op. cit. p. 210. J Journal f. Kinderkr. Juli 1844. § Gaz. des Hopitaux, Dec. 21, 1844. || Oesterr, Med. Jahrb. Dec. 1843, p. 263. ^ Dublin Journal, Sept. 1844.