Facts establishing the efficacy of the opiate friction in spasmodic and febrile diseases. Also, outlines of an attempt to investigate the nature, causes, and method of cure, of hydrophobia and tetanus ... To which are added, cases and remarks / [Michael Ward].

  • Ward, Michael, active 1809.
Date:
[1809]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts establishing the efficacy of the opiate friction in spasmodic and febrile diseases. Also, outlines of an attempt to investigate the nature, causes, and method of cure, of hydrophobia and tetanus ... To which are added, cases and remarks / [Michael Ward]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VIII. Of the other symptoms it will be sufficient to observe at present, that the prin- degree correct, and I have taken great pains to render it so> we need look no farther for a solution of the long agitated question respecting the uniform failure of the treatment it has undergone, and the consequent mortality of the disease. The reason is, (as I have long since observed, see above) “ the plan which has been adopted, is altogether improper.” It is not to any particular medicine that I object, but to me- dicines generally, given by the mouth. The fact is, we have had recourse to means, or, what amounts- to the same thing, to methods of administering those means, which it is impossible in the nature of things should ever succeed, on account of the sensibility, irritability, and mobility, of the pharynx and ieso~ phagus, and the spasmodic and retrograde motions, with which they are, in 99 cases out of 100, affected. Hence the neces- sity which I have long ago and repeatedly insisted upon, “ Of an entire change in our manner of proceeding, before any progress can be made in the methodus medendi(see above)—and the propriety “ Of avoiding every thing which can tend to agitate and alarm, excite uneasy sensations, or bring on a return of the spasms. In conformity to this inten- tion, instead of importuning the unfortunate sufferer to swal- low medicines, or liquids, of which he has so great a dread, clysters should be given every four or five hours to support the strength, consisting of good broth, milk &c. with from 30 to 40 drops of laudanum in each.* And however long the present irritating plans of treatment may be continued, to these, and others of a corresponding nature, we must, sooner or later, resort. This however will, in all probability, be a [* By this plan, a lady, whose stomach was so! irritable as to reject every thing she took, was supported, for several months, with little or no other sustenance; by which means her life was preserved. The case oc- curred seven years ago. She is still living. Were this mode of proceeding to be adopted in hydrophobia, larger portions of the anodyne would of course be required in the adult.]