The nature of cholera investigated / by John George French.

  • French, John George, 1804-1887.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature of cholera investigated / by John George French. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the aortal cavities being distended with florid blood and the heart itself being insensible to the stimulus of galvanism, while the voluntary muscles are as irri- table as after other kinds of death. Instances of sudden death from Cholera, as in the cases quoted of the tailor at Bellary, &c. have not been known in this country; nor in these cases have the appearances of the blood in the aortal cavities immediately after death been recorded, or the possi- bility of death from Cholera, without change in the appearance of the blood, might have been ascertained. It must be observed, that no chemical change takes place in the blood till the choleric discharges have occurred ; and that the action of the vascular system seems to influence the condition of the blood ; and from these premises we have strong reason to infer that the lesion of the circulation consists essentially in the diminished action of the heart; for the altera- tion in the state of the blood depends, in all probabi- lity, on a salutary process for resisting the effects of this condition of the heart. Thus then we have endeavoured to shew that Cho- lera is produced by a poison, the specific effect of which is to paralyse the heart. If paralysis of the heart therefore be the disease, and if the removal of the cause be out of our power, what is the most consistent physiological treatment ?
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