Sewage exhalations the cause of dysentery : an account of an outbreak of dysentery in the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum, which was caused by the affluvia from a field irrigated by sewage / by T. S. Clouston, M.D.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sewage exhalations the cause of dysentery : an account of an outbreak of dysentery in the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum, which was caused by the affluvia from a field irrigated by sewage / by T. S. Clouston, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    implicitly relied on in the treatment of tropical dysentery, T tried in erery possible way. So far as I could judge, the results were, that in a few cases it caused yomitincf that could not bo stopped, and prostration that was never rallied from ; in a few cases it caused no sickness even when given in large doses, and then it diminished the quantity of blood in the evacuations, while, in the majority of cases, it caused temporary nausea, without doing any more harm or any good. I gave it in the very first stages of the disease, often both by.the mouth and the rectum. I gave it in all doses, from a drachin down to ten grains. I gave it 'alone and in combination witli opium, and after opium. I gave it once a day, and I repeated it every two hours in different cases, and the above is the unsatisfactory conclusion I must come to. Purgatives I found to aggravate the disease most unmistakably. Enemata of astringent substances I found useful in the latter stages of the disease in the cases that were going to recover, and a little opium with these increased their good eiFects. Enemata given by the long flexible tube, recommended by Mr. Hare, aggravated the symptons, or rather the flexible tube in being passed up the inflamed and irritable rectum caused intense and unbearable pain. I tried iron in the form of the tincture muriate and of the solution of the perses- quioxide with as little good effect in the first stage of the disease as the other remedies. Creosote given by the mouth diminished the sickness in many cases, and also diminished the foetor of the evacuations. Tincture of iodine was also ineffectual. Large doses of quinine were tried, but ineffectually. Chlorate of potash was also tried unsuccessfully. Diuretics were also tried in the cases where the urine was scanty and deposited urates, but they seemed of no service. Blisters over the abdomen were useless. The only plan of treatment that I was quite sure did the patients good was to remove them to the third story, to give them as much nourishment in a liquid form as they could possibly be got to take, and to give them wine and water ad lihitum. Large vessels of milk, boiled with a little flour, and allowed to cool, were always kept by the patients day and night, and the nurses were ordered to give them some of this as often as they could be got to take it. Small pieces of ice were always grateful to them, and when there was nausea or vomiting helped to allay it. Strong'.beef-tea was given ad libitum to those who could be got to take it. Calves'-foot jelly made with wine was given to those who would take it. Soft boiled eggs in some cases were taken and did not increase the purging or cause pain after they were taken. But of all the forms of nourishment the boiled milk was taken most readily by the greater number of patients, and kept up the strength best. This was Sydenham's most trusted form of inourishment in the dysentery of his day, and certainly I found it by far the best. Patients \vould take it when they would take