Report of the committee on the statistics of calculous disease in Ohio : made to the Ohio State Medical Society, at the Annual Meeting, held in Columbus, June, 1850 / by E.H. Davis, M.D.

  • Davis, E. H. (Edwin Hamilton), 1811-1888.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the committee on the statistics of calculous disease in Ohio : made to the Ohio State Medical Society, at the Annual Meeting, held in Columbus, June, 1850 / by E.H. Davis, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    proof of the great importance of detecting these concretions at an early- period, so as to adopt measures for promoting their discharge per ure- thram, we copy Dr. Holston's third case : Mr. Bradford—set 40.—On sounding, detected a small calcu- lous—urethra very large and dilatable. Directed 20 drops of wine of tobacco three times a day, which was increased on the third day to 40 drops, with copious draughts of flax seed tea. He was forbidden to urinate for 24 hours. For 20 hours he endured the ordeal of nausea and urinary tormina, aided during the last seven or eight by a broad ligature around the penis. On removing the tape, the urine gushed forth as thick as his finger, and with it the calculus, the size and shape of an almond. Ten years have since elapsed without a return of the difficulty. We would suggest, as another valuable means of enabling us to form a correct diagnosis in diseases of this kind, to make ourselves familiar with the peculiar forms of crystals belonging to the various salts which may be contained in the urine—then by evaporating a few drops on glass, and placing it under a microscope, it will reveal the character of substance held in solution. In this way we have been able to detect two or three salts in the same drop. Before closing this subject, we would recommend the profession throughout the entire Valley of the Mississippi, as well as in Ohio, to keep register of this and other important diseases, and then collect the stat sties at least once in ten years. In this way we might learn the influence that a change of manners, customs and habits of a people may have on the diseases which afflict them. For there are portions of this great Valley that undergo, in a single age, all the transitions from a log hid residence, and corn and bacon diet, and ardent spirits as a beverage, to fine houses, hixurious living, with the free use of wine and fermented liquors ! E. HAMILTON DAVIS, Chairman. N0TE.—We would ask the attention and co-operation of all who receive this paper in collecting- the statistics of this disease and forwarding them to the Chairman in the City of New York.