Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

200/440 (page 182)

majoi-ity of cases; in fact, the administration of mild laxatives was necessaiy, in most instances, in order to obtain an evacuation, once in forty-eight hours; and in some of the most severe cases the bowels were very constipated. Diar- rhoea occurred only in lo of these 60 cases; in three of which the patients died, and it was only four times that it lasted for longer than forty-eight or sixty hours. In 13 cases the bowels were constipated. The following is an abstract of the statements of Dr. Henderson in regard to the state of the bowels in 154 cases of typhus. Males. Females. Total. Bowels easy in 26 73 99 loose in . 5 5 costive in 19 31 go 45 109 154 In reference to the following results obtained by myself, I have only to remark, that in many of those cases in which diarrhoea is described as spontaneous, the requisite informa- tion was unfortunately not got as to the previous adminis- tration of purgatives. Males. Females. Total, f Spontaneous in . . 13 . 10 . 23 Diarrhoea i Prom medicine in . . 26 . 27 . 53 L Doubtful in . . . I . — ' . I 40 37 77 Costiveness notwithstanding the exhi- bition of purgatives ... 20 . 42 • 62 60 79 139 Thus, according to Dr. West's observations, the bowels were constipated in nearly one fourth; in Dr. Henderson's in about one third; in ray own in between one half and one third of the cases. Again, spontaneous diarrhoea occurred in one sixth of Dr. West's; in only one thirtieth of Dr. Henderson's, or, adding three, in which it came on very late in the disease, and might be referred to secondary affections, in one nineteenth; and in nearly one sixth- of my own cases. How different is the state of matters in regard to typhoid fever? Chomel (pp. 6, 10) mentions diarrhoea as a symptom