The cyclopaedia of practical medicine: comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc (Volume 2).
- Date:
- 1849-59
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The cyclopaedia of practical medicine: comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc (Volume 2). 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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![ee ERETHISMUS [Of late, a mechanical agency has been pro- posed for arresting the flow of Wooci, which, it is affirmed, is a popular remedy for epistaxis in the United States. (Amer. Journ. of the Medical Sciences, Jan. and April, 1843.) It has been strongly urged on the attention of the profession by M. Ncgrier, and has been made by him the subject of different communications to the Aca- demic des Sciences, of Paris. The patient is made to stand up with the head elevated. The nostril whence the blood flows is compressed with the finger, and the corresponding arm is directed to be raised perpendicularly, and to be kept in that position for about two minutes. The hemorrhage is soon arrested, owing, M. Negrier thinks, to a less vigorous circulation through the carotids, re- sulting from the increased force required to carry on the circulation through the upper extremities when raised. Cases have been published by others than M. Negrier in which this plan has been suc- cessful. M. Negrier has found it equally service- able in encephalic hyperaemia, and in cephalalgia with somnolency,—whenever, in other words, it has been desirable to diminish the flow of blood to the head. (Revue Medicate, Juin 1843 ; or Amer. Journ. of the Med. Sciences, April 1844, P-**^-)^ W.Kerr. [EQUINIA. (See Giandkhs.)] ERETHISMUS MERCURIALIS, mercurial erethism. The word erethismus (from epcBi^u), to excite or irritate,) is obviously a generic term which may be applied to any kind of morbid sen- sibility or irritability ; but it has hitherto been al- most exclusively confined to that species of ere- thism which sometimes arises from the use of mercury, and to which the appropriate name of erethismus mercurialis was given by the late sci- entific John Pearson, to whom we are indebted for the first notice of the disease. Prior to the period at which that distinguished surgeon was elected to the charge of the Lock Hospital, a year seldom elapsed without the occurrence of two or three sudden deaths, without any assignable cause, among the patients who were undergoing a mer- curial course. These were, in truth, cases of mercurial erethism, the nature of which was not then understood. Mr. Pearson has well described the disease as characterized by great depression of strength ; a sense of anxiety about the praecor- dia ; irregular action of the heart; frequent sigh- ing ; trembling, partial or universal; a small, quick, and sometimes intermitting pulse ; occasional vo- miting ; a pale, contracted countenance; a sense of coldness : but the tongue, (Mr. Pearson adds,) is seldom furred, nor are the vital or natural func- tions much disordered. This aflTection appears to arise from mercury acting as a poison. So great is the danger attending this affection in its severer form, that any sudden or violent exertion may prove immediately fatal. Happily, however, its first appearance may be readily detected, and, by prompt measures, effectually removed. A tre- mulous motion of the tongue, a slight trembling in the limbs, or a sense of fluttering within the chest, are among the earliest indications of its ap- jToach. The pulse becomes feeble, hurried, and irregular, sometimes intermitting for several se- conds, and then beating with great rapidity. On MERCURIALIS — ERYSIPELAS. applying the hand to the left side of the chest, the heart will be found to act with extreme irregularity. 'J'his peculiar irritation may arise from the ad- ministration of mercury in any form; and may occur during any period of a mercurial course, though most commonly at its commencement. The exact circumstances which favour its occur- rence in the particular individuals attacked have not hitherto been ascertained. The writer of this article, while resident medical officer of the Lock Hospital, has seen it produced by the inunction of a single drachm of mercurial ointment, arid re- produced, in the same individual, after the discon- tinuance of the medicine for a whole month, by three frictions, each consisting of only one drachm of the ointment. It is remarkable, however, that in the greater number of instances, a full and ade- quate course of mercury has been afterwards borne, without any recurrence of erethismus, by the very persons who had suffered from it during the com- mencement of the course. The treatment of the mercurial erethismus is as simple as it is effectual. The open air is the grand antidote. As soon as the slightest intima- tion of the disease is perceived, the patient should be carried into the open air, with as little exertion to himself as possible, and there he should remain as long as may be practicable. To use Mr. Pear- son's words, he should live there. Mercury, in every form, must be immediately discontinued, and a mercurial atmosphere carefully shunned. If in- unction have been used, the skin should be tho- roughly cleansed from any adhering ointment. The subcarbonate of ammonia, either with or without camphor, is an important auxiliary, and may be given in rather full doses, at moderate in- tervals, until the circulation becomes more steady, and the general power of the system revives. It is an important and encouraging fact, that from the time at which this treatment was adopted by Mr. Pearson, not a single death occurred from ere- thismus at the Lock Hospital. After an attack of mercurial erethism, great cir- cumspection will be needful both as to the time of recommencing, and the mode of conducting, the mercurial course. In the slighter cases, the dis- ease entirely subsides in five or six days, and even in the severer forms the mercurial treatment may often be safely resumed within a fortnight. Still the most watchful care must attend every remain- ing step of the course. The reader may consult with advantage Pear- son's Principles of Surgery, and the observations, by the same author, of the different articles on the Materia Medica which have been employed in the cure of Lues Venerea. rn tt t-> T. H. BURDER. ER'V SIPEL AS. This term is derived, accord- ing to some authors, from tptu), to draw, and TtAof, adjoining,- implying that a disease has a tendency to spread to the adjoining portions of the skin. Various other derivations have been suggested, but that now adopted appears to be the more correct. It was termed by the Greeks ipvciitiXa^, by the Romans Ignis Sacer, and is known in popular language by the name of the Rose, from the colour of the skin, and by that of St. Anthony's fire, from the burning heat with which it is accom- panied.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21116817_0098.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
