A practical medico-historical account of the western coast of Africa : embracing a topographical description of its shores, rivers, and settlements, with their seasons and comparative healthiness : together with the causes, symptoms, and treatment, of the fevers of western Africa : and a similar account respecting the other diseases which prevail there / by James Boyle, M.C.S.L., colonial surgeon to Sierra Leone, surgeon R.N., etc.

  • Boyle, James, active 1831.
Date:
MDCCCXXXI [1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical medico-historical account of the western coast of Africa : embracing a topographical description of its shores, rivers, and settlements, with their seasons and comparative healthiness : together with the causes, symptoms, and treatment, of the fevers of western Africa : and a similar account respecting the other diseases which prevail there / by James Boyle, M.C.S.L., colonial surgeon to Sierra Leone, surgeon R.N., etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    The dressing and mixture continued, with the addition of a night-draught, composed of Liquor opii sedativus, Tr, hyos- cyami, and camphor mixture. From this time up to the 5th of April all went on well. He now complained of difficult deglutition, with pain and rigidity in the muscles of the lower jaw. Lock-jaw being apprehended, opium, in conjunction with other antispas- ]nodics, were liberally administered: the muscles of the face soon became free, but considerable derangement of the bowels followed, which, with the treatment necessarily adopted, greatly reduced him. On the 12th, again his health was much improved. The scrotum and penis were both cicatrised; new skin had formed over the chest and arm; the stump of the finger was healed; that of the thumb nearly so; and the wound in the thigh greatly lessened in size, and quite healthy in appearance. The patient was now sent to a neighbouring village for change of air, and there he soon recovered, with a little limp only in walking. Case V. Injury from the Bite of a Shark.—Amputation. From the same Journal. Laing, a fine lad between 14 and 15 years old, from Plymouth, and belonging to the bark Europe, was bathing in the river Sierra Leone, on the 2nd of February, 1830, where the ship was loading with timber, and was seized by the left- foot by a shark. The lateral ligaments of the ankle joint were both torn through, as was the anterior portion of the capeular, the tendo-Achillis, and the tendons of the extensors of the foot being in like manner divided. Various deep lon- gitudinal wounds extended from the calf of the leg down- wards. The boy reached Freetown about four hours and a half after the accident, and amputation Avas immediately per- formed below the knee. Every thing went on well after.