Annual report of the Medical College of Bengal : fourteenth year, session 1848-49 / under the immediate control and superintendence of the Council of Education.
- Medical College of Bengal
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report of the Medical College of Bengal : fourteenth year, session 1848-49 / under the immediate control and superintendence of the Council of Education. 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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![ing diseases, wliicli tend to produce passive congestion by inducing languor of circulation. The causes which most frequently give rise to abdominal dropsy, are acute and chronic peritonitis, obstruction to the portal circulation by organic diseases of the liver; enlargement of the spleen, and sometimes the sudden cessation of a habitual tliarhoea or dysentery ; checked perspi- ration will also very often give rise to it. The eifused fluid is of the nature of common serum, sometimes con- taining in it a few flakes of lymph; especially when the dropsy is the result of inflammation. If the di-opsy is the result of ui-iuary diseases, it is said sometimes to jiossess an urinous smell and perhaps some of the constituents of the urine. The aft'cction for wliich abdominal dropsy is most likely to be mistaken is ovarian dropsy ; but a correct diagnosis will be arrived at by attending to the history of the ease, for the ovarian dropsy begin on one side, and does not distend the abdomen so uniformly as ascites. Sometimes preg- nancy is mistaken for dropsy, as was done in the case of Queen Mary of England. The great indication of treatment in dropsy is to carry out the accu- mulated fluid and prevent (if possible) its re-accumulation. When dropsy is of the active form and the result of inflammation or active congestion, and is attended with perhaps with frebrile sym])toms, a full pulse, hot skin, flushed face &c. the indications of treatment are similar to those of inflammation, adopted of course in a modified form, and they may be fulfilled by bleeding, purging, alterative doses of mercury, &c. &c. In the passive forms of dropsy too, it must always be our paramount object to remove the cause if possible, but since this is not always in our power, we merely endeavour to attack the most prominent symptom of the disease and attempt to evacuate the accumulated fluid, either by means of the kidneys, the bowels, or the skin; the circumstances of each particular leading us to prefer any one of these channels in preference to the others. Thus for instance when the kidneys are in a healthy state, they offer perhaps the most eligible channel to carry out the fluid accu- mulation ; but should the disease be connected with disease of the kidneys themselves, certainly it would be a very irrational practice, to lay further stress upon organs already diseased. In such a case then we try to carry out the fluitl through the bowels; or should any irritation exist in them, we endeavour to carry it out by the skin in the form of perspiration. The remedies which we administer for the purpose of carrying out the fluid are diuretics, hydragogue cathartics, and diaphoretics respectively. As some of the most important of the 1st of these classes of remedies may be mentioned. Squill. Turpentine. Colchicum. Nitrate of potasli. Digitalis. Acetate of potasli. Nitric ether. Broomtops, &c. &c. They may be exhibited singly or in combination, the latter is generally the preferable mode, for then their effects are promoted and assisted by the combination. The following substances may be very advantageously combined. Nitrate of potash. Acetate of ditto, d d Nitric ether, 5ij. Miu'iated tinct. of iron, iri xv. d](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24766823_0063.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
