Discourse on fever ; delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society, at their annual meeting, in June, 1818, at their request.

  • James Jackson
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Discourse on fever ; delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society, at their annual meeting, in June, 1818, at their request. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    can we be sure to make the evacuation sufficient]/ copious and sufficiently quick. Blood should be drawn until the inflamed organ is relieved. This must be the criterion; we are not to consider the state of the pulse, nor the state of the blood, but the sensations of the patient and the function- of the diseased part. At the same time the remarks already made should be referred to ; viz. that it is not while the symptoms of the access are predomi- nant that this practice should be adopted. Like- wise it may be added that the patient may be sup- ported by cordials, if the case require it, while this system is pursued. When this treatment is adopted and the local disease is removed, the fever will generally as- sume a mild character and will shortly terminate in a crisis. That the patient will at once recover strength, after such a mode of treatment, cannot be expected. The treatment is adopted to save him from the most imminent danger to his life, and in such a case it is comparatively of little mo- ment, whether his convalescence be protracted for a few weeks, or even for a few months. Bui ex- perience does not show that the debility, which follows this mode of treatment, is so great as might be apprehended. If the system be speedily re- lieved from disease at its commencement, and it is only then that this practice should be adopted, the recovery is oftentimes as rapid as after the mildest fevers. If the treatment be bold and the relief be perfect, the risk of protracted debility is seldom realized.
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