New serum-therapy / [D. Montgomerie Paton].

  • Paton, D. Montgomerie.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: New serum-therapy / [D. Montgomerie Paton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    287/328 page 275
    some missing elements in the blood, and had little or no effect on the function which normally should have produced them. In both the action of the plasma, while falling far short of what is required to effect a cure, does more for the patient than any treatment known to the writer. In other cases of primary anaemias the use of plasma, in conjunction with the recognised treatment for the conditions present, facilitates the action of the usual remedies by restoring some elements of the blood which it is not their province to influence. Even when given alone the alteration in the quality of the menstrual discharge gives a clear indication of the profound effect of the plasma in such cases in restoring the blood to its normal condition. In amenorrhoea of long standing the continued use of plasma has restored the function when its absence has been due to a deficiency in the nutrition of the patient. In fact, every function which is below par, and whose condition is due to such a deficiency, is directly within the range of the remedy. (262) Mr. V., aged thirty-one, had an acute nephritis some years before being seen by me. He was then found to be suffering from a chronic albuminuria, the quantity being from \ to \ per cent. He was dieted and treated on usual lines, had various holidays into the country for weeks at a time, but nothing seemed to help him. He was pale, listless, had no appetite, could do light work with a great effort, and generally was a most unpromising subject. It occurred to me that as plasma was an assimilable albuminous material, its use would throw no more work on the damaged kidney, while it might help to replace some of the daily loss which had begun to tell so markedly on the patient. He was given the usual £ ounce per diem, and, by estimate, that just equalled in albumin the quantity which he was losing every twenty-four hours. His weight had fallen from 146 pounds to 128 pounds, and, giving weight for weight of assimilable albumin, should just have kept him from losing more. It did a great deal more than that, for 18—2
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3