Sanitary measures and their results : being a sequel to "The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832," to which is now added a short account of its occurance in 1849 / by Thomas Shapter, M.D.

Thomas Shapter

Date:: 1866

Credit: Sanitary measures and their results : being a sequel to "The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832," to which is now added a short account of its occurance in 1849 / by Thomas Shapter, 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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$>.>cretious, the depressed circulation, and, through its con- nexions with the spinal system, the cramps during life and the spasmodic twitchings after death. Further confirmation of this view may be found in the occasional occur- ronce of collapse in injuries of those organs to which this -\ stem of nerves is freely distributed, but more especially in the observed consequences of direct injury to the nerves them- ..t'lves ; a blow over the caeliac plexus being capable of pro- ilucing many of the effects above described, i.e. of suspending the respiratory and other movements which minister to the oiganic functions, and hence not only a gradual stagnation of the latter, but a sudden and complete cessation of their whole train of action. Those lesser symptoms and pains which indicate disorder of the brain and spinal system, and which u e occasionally met with in Cholera, may easily be accounted for in the moi'bid impressions conveyed to these organs, through the medium of reflex action, by those nerves which they themselves supply to the sympathetic system. From the above we are, therefore, disposed to consider that the Asiatic or Pestilential Cholera consists essentially of a congestive collapse consequent on disordered action in the great sympathetic system of nerves. The exact character of this disordered action is difficult to define. We may, however, assume, on the one hand, that it is rather of a general than of a specific nature, from its course not necessarily being cer- tain or defined, but capable of being cut short from the first ingress of nervous feelings and slight colliquative bowel dis- order to the commencement of, or during, the collapse ; while, on the other, that it is of a depressing and stunning nature, both from its general characters, and from the class of reme- dies which, when properly applied on its first indications, may be said, almost invariably, to prevent the progress of the disorder. The remote origin of the disease has ever been a vexed Remote question. The facts that occurred in ] 849 bearing on the subject may not be numerous, but some of them are not unworthy of notice.$