On some of the most important diseases of women : with other papers / prefatory essay by R. Ferguson.

  • Robert Gooch
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the most important diseases of women : with other papers / prefatory essay by R. Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    106/302 (page 44)
    PERITONEAL FEVERS. could wish. Case No. 6 was blooded without relief, and was imme- diately relieved by opiates and fomentations. Cases 7 and 8 Avere blooded immediately on the attack of pain, the former to thirty ounces at ounce, the latter twice to faintness, besides leeches, calomel and senna mixture, and they immediately and speedily sunk under the remedies. Of the four cases wliich occurred to one practitioner. No. 10 was blooded immediately after the attack in the evening, and the bleeding was repeated the following morning. The Case No. 13 began during the violent operation of a purgative; the pa- tient was blooded to faintness about fourteen hours after the attack, the blood was not buffed, and she never rose out of the exhaustion which followed. In the case related by Mr. Dah-ymple the patient was blooded freelyfive hours from tlie attack, and the effect was similar. In Dr. Tarre's remarks, introductory to his Journal, he states that 'at the east end of London, not far from the river, this disease ' (puerperal fever) proved still more fatal during the month of March ' (1825). One surgeon informed the editor that he had lost seven, ' another four, in all of which the disease was treated at the instant ' of its formation by active bloodletting. A physician-accoucheur, ' who attended in consultation many of these cases, stated to him, ' that out of thirteen cases eleven died; that all wliicli had been ' bled died; and that the only two which recovered had not been ' bled, having been treated by turpentine.' From a severe illness tliis winter, which has unfitted me for tlie active duties of my profession, I have seen little of the peritoneal fevers of this season, but of what I did see the following case seems to me worth relating. XV. ]\Irs. had had, after a former lying-in, a loosening of the bones of the pelvis, from which she had suffered long, but had completely recovered, and was in good health and strong on her leg^ up to the moment of her present laboui-. She was dehvered on Saturday morn- ing at seven o'clock, and continued quite well till Sunday afternoon at two. She had then a shivering, which lasted about twenty minutes, succeeded by dry heat, a quick pulse and pain all over the abdomen; for this she took a purgative, which operated fifteen times. On Mon- day afternoon at two o'clock she had another shivering, and continued feverish and restless. Opiates and aperients were given, and dmiiig Monday and Tuesday the pain of the abdomen had so neai-ly subsided