Clinical studies with large non-emetic doses of ipecacuanha : [with a contribution to the therapeusis of cholera] / by Alfred A. Woodhull.

  • Alfred Alexander Woodhull
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical studies with large non-emetic doses of ipecacuanha : [with a contribution to the therapeusis of cholera] / by Alfred A. Woodhull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    may be employed. In such cases the opium, in'the proportion of one grain to twenty, may be incorporated in the pill. Twen- ty-five grains of ipecacuanha can he put up into two boluses, or twenty grains of that drug and one of opium will make up in four pills. Laudanum might be used in the pill form of ipecac- Hfinha, one advantage of which is that the local effect of the opiate is not dissipated before the other drug begins to be ab- sorbed. Recumbent rest must be strictly maintained and no food nor drink be taken for at least four hours, and usually longer. The dose may be repeated in from two to six hours, or, should the first be rejected, the second may be given as soon as the stomach is settled. In India sixty and more grains at one dose have been retained. I incline to think that, where tile stomach is empty, the medicine acts iiou-emetically in direct proportion ts> the severity of the attack. As a rule, patients should not be told, the name of the medicine, in order to guard against its mental in- fluence; and they should be waniGLl to exercise self-control against incipient vomiting. I apprehend that some plan closely approach- ing that just indicated mast be strictly followed, or the ordinary emetic overflow may occur, to the disgust of the patient and to the disappointment of the physician. In Dr. Woodson's experience, vomiting followed in all the [nine] cases but one in from fifteen minutes to twelve hours. In these fluids of all kinds were denied the patient for two or three hours before and after taking the medicine. I conceive that four hours is a better minimum of abstinence. Bat notwithstanding that disagreeable symptom they all promptly recovered. When we remember how mild the vomiting of ipecacuanha usually is, there are few patients -who would not Willingly endure it, if necessary, to escape the suffering and danger of an attack of dysentery. Bat I trust that it has been demonstrated that emesis is not a necessary result of this mode of treatment. Notwithstanding the smaliuess of this series, I think that tha results attained, confirmatory as they are of the earlier traditions and of the recent Asiatic expej-ience, warrant, on purely empiri- cal grounds, a greatly extended trial of this treatment in dysen- tei*y, and point to the restoration to the drug of its old title, radix anti-dysentnica. In this connection attention is invited to the following modern reijorts of the use of this drug in affections of the bowels. The list does not profess eompleteues.'*, but it may assist others who
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