A vindication of Read's patent syringe : against interested opposition and unphilosophical objections, with professional testimonials of its superior utility, and directions by which its employment is rendered easy and certain.
- Read, John, 1760-1847
- Date:
- 1826
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A vindication of Read's patent syringe : against interested opposition and unphilosophical objections, with professional testimonials of its superior utility, and directions by which its employment is rendered easy and certain. 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.
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![sisteis. The nurse who had the care of him neglected to give mn proper exercise, and moreover frequently fed him with spoon-food, when he ought to have had the breast. He was occasionally disordered in his bowels, as most children are dur- ing in ancy , and, for some time prior to his illness, he could ne.^.er eai tat active exercise in the arms which a good nurse wi a ways give to a healthy child, without the respiration and circu ation becoming so seriously impeded as to give alarm for is sa ety to all present. The attack of croup was preceded by a ew days of febrile excitements with cough, and sudden startings without any apparent cause. The treatment consisted of the application of leeches, with the exhibition of aperient and saline medicines. He improved under this plan, but the spasms did not leave him. A few weeks after this illness, he as seized with a convulsion, and the same means were again resorted to, with equal benefit; but, the spasms frequently re- cun ing, ] was constantly in fear of a repetition of convulsion. I had the child weaned, and sent him a few miles out of town; where, under the care of a more trust-worthy nurse, he gradu- ally lost the complaint, and is now a fine healthy little fellow. Not fully understanding the nature of this affection, I took every opportunity that presented of asking my medical friends lor their opinion ; and I am sorry to say that I was, if possible, more perplexed than before, for I scarcely found any two of them to agree, though several stand deservedly high in their profession, and I much respect them for the possession of su- perior medical talents. I trust that, without giving offence to any, I may say, that by one it was considered to arise from the cutting of a tooth, the obvious remedy for which was lancing the gums : this was done, but no tooth was cut till two months after the complaint had disappeared. The wet- nurse was also recommended to be changed. By another it was a cerebral affection, and serious in its consequences. A third gave it as his opinion that gastric and intestinal irrita- tion was the cause, without any particular reference to the head. By a fourth it was supposed to depend upon local pres- sure on the recurrent nerve, or its branches: an external appli- cation was recommended, and some alterative medicine prescribed, and the child to be weaned. About this time the disease had accidentally excited a good deal of attention, and some excellent communications appeared in the different Medical Journals; but concerning its pathology and treatment there seems still to exist a great discrepancy of opinion. Upwards of a dozen cases have been under my care, independent of the experience I have had under my own roof; and in all I have seen such powerful reasons for believing the affection to be produced by cerebral irritation, that I do not](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28039154_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
