First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing.

  • Archibald Billing
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First principles of medicine / By Archibald Billing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/142 page 99
    enteritis, though it is true as was shewn above that in almost every instance, from the secondary loss of tone of the prime vie, and consequent unnatural state of their contents, more or less gastric irritation, and indeed inflammation or congestion must be a concomitant of fever, as in fact dissection proves. Arguments drawn ‘from successful practice are often fallacious, and I say the cure of fever by abstracting blocd from the belly by leeches is no proof of gastroenteritis being the proximate cause of fever, any more than that the seat of disease is in the arm if cured by taking blood from _ that part. I once met with an assertion that the seat of hooping cough (pertussis) was the head, because leeching the _ temples relieved it,leeching any other part would have had nearly the same effect; by some persons blood is taken from the feet to relieve affections of the sa in preference to taking it from the head. I have endeavoured to explain why in typhus we > should avoid stimulants as much as possible in as much as the brain and nerves being in a diseased state of conjestion neither they nor other organs have their power increased by them, whereas by indirect practice, as it is called, we relieve the organs and give them an opportunity of recovering themselves. After all this it may be asked, how it happens, that - stimulants sometimes save the life of patients in typhus ; in the states hitherto considered the heart was not defi- cient in perception of the presence of the blood, it ~ exerted what strength it had, but from the violence or long continuance of the fever it will sometimes flag ~ before the nervous system upon which the vital powers
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3