Papers relative to the disease called cholera spasmodica in India, now prevailing in the north of Europe. With extracts of letters, reports, and communications received from the Continent.

  • Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers relative to the disease called cholera spasmodica in India, now prevailing in the north of Europe. With extracts of letters, reports, and communications received from the Continent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    appeared. In other cases, the sick continued a long time in this state without pulse, and preserved their intellectual faculties till a short time before death. In some cases the disease showed itself in the form of an ordi- nary diarrhoea, which hung about the patient perhaps for a few days, or seemed to be excited by some error in diet, or other less evident cause. If this was not attended to, it generally ended with the symptoms proper to the epidemic. Several of those employed in the temporary hospital for the treatment of the disease, who had not the epidemic in a decided manner, were affected with nausea, vomiting, and bilious diarrhoea. In a third set of cases the disease put on a more formidable appearance from the first, and the patient looked as if he had been brought to the ground by a violent blow or a stroke of lightning, so great was the oppression of the vital powers. In such cases it was evident that the action of the vital organs, and particularly of the heart, had been paralysed at a very early period of the attack. Here all human aid was vain; the patient frequently died before there was time to try any remedy. When the purging and vomiting first appeared, the contents of the stomach and bowels were first thrown out, and afterwards the mucous secretions of these organs, sometimes slightly tinged with green-coloured bile ; these evacuations, however, were soon fol- lowed by vomiting and purging of a watery fluid, sometimes like whey, and at others like a thin decoction of rice or barley, occa- sionally containing a white fiocculent-looking matter ; the evacua- tions frequently were without odour, but sometimes their odour was strong, and very particular. In order to the better understanding of what follows, I shall borrow the language of Drs. Armstrong and Ayre, and consider the disease as consisting of three periods :—the first, oppression; the second, reaction; and the third, collapse. The above description of the symptoms and modes of attack of the disease comprehends the first period, where neither nature nor art have been able to overcome the sedative effects induced on the vital powers by the action of the efficient cause ; where, however, the operation of that cause has been less in a degree, or where the vital powers, aided by art, have been able to maintain a struggle against its fatal tendency, the violence of the symptoms gradually gives way, the purging and vomiting become less frequent, the pulse begins to be more distinctly perceived, the external heat gradually returns, the spasms of the extremities become less troublesome or cease entirely, the patient gets a little sleep, and is then perhaps able to take some light nourishment: this favour- able change in the state of the patient comprehends the second period, that of reaction. A febrile state, more or less distinctly