Contributions to practical medicine / by James Begbie.

  • James Begbie
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to practical medicine / by James Begbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/334 page 9
    the turgid veins around. Considerable constitutional distur- bance was lighted up, the skin became hot, the pulse quick and irritable, the tongue loaded, the bowels confined, and the urine scanty and high-coloured, depositing freely the brick- dust sediment; much restlessness of mind, and irritability of temper accompained these symptoms. Professional friends were in attendance ; but the nature of the illness was not recognized, and the latent poison was not then discovered. In conformity with the practice of the day, the strict anti- phlogistic treatment was adopted,—repeated leeching, brisk purging, and severe starvation were prescribed, but little or no relief followed. The constitutional derangement continued day after day, and weeks and months elapsed before the local pain and swelling yielded to nature what had been re- fused to counter-irritants and other resources of art. Five years elapsed, with occasional attacks of dyspeptic derange- ment, when at the same season of the year, and under similar circumstances, Dr. B. had a renewal of the former attack, but in the opposite knee-joint. Depletion in this instance was avoided, and under rest, the employment of warm applications, and the internal use of colchicum, the pain, swelling, and other symptoms rapidly declined, leaving the joint for a time weak and crippled. A few more years intervened, and early in the winter months, when suffering from severe domestic affliction, he was again subjected to a return of pain, stiffness, and rapid effusion into the knee-joint first affected. The con- stitutional disturbance was as formerly, and under fomenta- tions, and the diuretic effect of colchicum, both it and the local symptoms rapidly disappeared. The subsidence of the pain and swelling were simultaneous with the physiological effects of the remedy. Years have now gone by, and no severe fit of gout has occurred, but the deranged digestion, and the shooting pains in the heel, in the instep, and in the joints of the fingers, particularly after any departure from the
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