On the use of belladonna in scarlatina / [J. Warburton Begbie].

  • James Warburton Begbie
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use of belladonna in scarlatina / [J. Warburton Begbie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    neglected or passed by. Some there were who entered at once upon the examination and investigation; and during the lengthened period that has since elapsed, abundant opportu- nities have been seized and turned to the best account. But while we readily allow the same privilege to Hahnemann and his followers as we claim for the disciples of our own School, in so far as the propriety of investigating the pecnliar virtue claimed for belladonna by the former was incumbent upon both, we at the same time do conscientiously believe that had it owed its suggestion and enforcement to such a physician as Laennec, or even to Bayle,^ the question of the prophylactic action of belladonna would have long ere this been settled in the one way or in the other. Once propounded, the claim advanced would have been rigidly examined, and not accepted as correct by some upon what we shall presently show to have been most insufficient grounds, nor rejected in several instances, as we believe, upon grounds certainly not more reliable. For ourselves, we are clearly of opinion that the time and occasion have now arrived when the question of the pro- phylaxis of belladonna can readily and satisfactorily be answered—and, as we think, in the negative. But, desirous as we are of doing our opponents—we have now declared our own view—every justice, and the subject itself being full of interest, we shall devote this article to a reconsideration of the whole matter. Although the discovery of the supposed prophylactic action of belladonna in scarlatina has been attributed to Castelliz, of Vienna,® there appears little doubt that the idea originally occurred to the mind of Hahnemann, and no doubt that by him the subject was first introduced to the notice of the profession. The former happened when he was resident at Konigslutter, in 1799. Two years thereafter he published a pamphlet, entitled ^ Heilung und Verhiitung des Scharlachfiebers,’® from the trans- lation of which, in Dr. Dudgeon’s edition of the ‘Lesser Works of ' Bayle manifestly gave it his suppoil;, but to a certain extent, and in a certain sense, the theory whose associated facts Bayle has done much service in recording, was tarnished in its propounder. See “ Lectures on Materia Medica and Therapeutics,” by G, G. Sigmond, M.D., Lecture xiii; ‘Lancet,’ vol. ii, 1836-37. ^ Originally published at Gotha in iSoi.
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