On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox.

  • Wilson Fox
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    reacliing on two occasions on the fourth day 105*4°. Even on the eighth and ninth days, and after the cold applications were discontinued, the temperatui-e rose to 103*7° and 103*6°, and it only finally regained the normal standard thirty-one days after this treatment was commenced. The value of all therapeutic measures is ultimately purely a matter of experiment, and dealing as I was with an entirely new set of conditions, at least as regarded this disease, many of my measures must he looked at solely in this light; but I shall endeavour to state what conclusions I have felt may be drawn from them for the guidance of others. * There are however, I believe, in the present condition of medical science, two most important primary questions always to be answered before any active treatment is resorted to in acute disease; and these are, what is the natural tendency of the affection generally, and also under special circumstances, when left without treatment, either to recovery or death ?— and fm-ther, what is the influence of any method of treatment either in promoting the former or in averting the latter ? We have had more than enough in times past of so-called active treatment blindly pursued in the hope of eradicating acute diseases, which proceed better to recovery without such mea- sures. Acute rheumatism, itself affords one of the best illustra- tions how little medicinal agents, indiscriminately employed, are capable of shortening its duration or favourably influencing its course ; and a still more striking example of this proposi- tion is found in the past history of the treatment of acute sthenic pneumonia, the evidence in regard to which cannot, however, be considered here.* With regard to acute rheum- atism, evidence sufficient is to be found in Dr. Gull’s and Dr. Sutton’s analysis of the results of its treatment, published in the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,® to show that no single method of treatment hitherto adopted has the slightest specific effect on the natm*al course of this disorder; and the same may, probably, be affirmed with equal truth of the whole class of the acute febrile diseases, with the exception of ague. I beHeve, ’ I have treated of this subject at some length in vol. iii. of Bcynolds' System of Medicine. ’ Vol. ii.
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