Plague : how to recognise, prevent and treat plague / by James Cantlie.

  • Cantlie, James, Sir, 1851-1926.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Plague : how to recognise, prevent and treat plague / by James Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    lias proved it to be reliable, and not so unsafe as to exclude its use. It is almost certain that when painful adenitis complicates tlie cerebral intoxication, morphine effects its purpose. The safest method of administration is in combination with atropine. Bromide of 'potassium.—An occasional dose of bromide of potassium during delirium is useful and without danger, but its prolonged use is not permissible. Diarrhoea.—An intestinal liux need not be sto])ped, unless it continues over 24 hours, and the patient seems exhausted thereby. It is but seldom obstinate, and yields to salol in 10-grain doses, or to an enema of starch and opium, or to a suppository of morphine and cocaine, ^ and \ gr. respectively, more especially when continued straining persists. Vomiting frequently ushers in an attack of plague, and may persist throughout the illness. When the latter condition obtains, it is an unfavourable sign, as loss of strength ensues owing to rejection of food and medicines. A mustard plaster to the epigastrium, ice to suck, and an effervescing draught of a few drops of hydrocyanic acid and liquor morphinge, are generally sufficient to check this untoward symptom. Pyrexia no doubt accounts for some of the delirium, the restlessness, the headache, and subsequent collapse: hyper- pyrexia is exceptional. The usual chemical antipyretics, anti- pyrin and phenacetin, are such severe depressants that the}’- should not, as a rule, be used ; should hyperpyrexia necessitate their use, one hypodermic of antipyrin is no doubt justifiable, but only as a last resource. Frequent sponging -with tepid water, ice to the head and nape of the neck, iced diinks, and a short application of the wet pack, with the administration of brandy by the mouth or by the rectum, are useful when promptly and rationally used. Stimulants {a) externally.—Flying blisters of mustard to the limbs, abdomen, and over the heart are useful. Smelling salts and strong ammonia applied to the nostrils often succeed in restoring the pulse, rousing the patient in collapse, and not infrequently cause him to rally from what seems a moribund state (Lowson). Nor is this kind of stimulation of mere passing effect, for in several instances, when death seemed inevitable