On cholera, its nature and treatment : being the debate in the Harveian Medical Society of London / edited by C. Drysdale.

  • Harveian Society of London.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On cholera, its nature and treatment : being the debate in the Harveian Medical Society of London / edited by C. Drysdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    25/34 (page 25)
    to the hygienic means of fortifying the constitu- tion by good food, &c., he agreed with Dr. Fox that as long as poverty was so common as it still was in all civilized countries of Europe, little could be done in warding off epidemics. Wlien the causes of poverty should be calmly considered and understood, instead of ignorantly and system- atically ignored by those who ought, from their education, to know better, some hopes might be entertained that epidemics would in the end be less fatal. Attention to the size of families and emigration was of more importance than even ventilation, &c. ; since the very poor could never secure either good food, ventilation, or any other comfort. Every effort, however, should be made to secure good drainage, ventilation, and food for the poor in the coming epidemic. With regard to treatment, the multiplicity of drugs used showed the difficulty of attaining great success with any, at particular stages of the epidemic. In cholera, as in other diseases, the rational treatment was always the best. If the motions were brown, as in summer diarrhoea, a purge was sometimes of service. When serous diarrhoea had fairly set in, M. Velpeau’s advice—viz., to use five or six drops of laudanum every two hours, on sugar—was good; and whatever remedy was used when the doctor was absent should be as simple as possible. Strychnine, belladonna, &c., were, he believed, contra-indicated and very dangerous, even in collapse, and warm applications to the extremities were the great remedies in collapse, with frictions over the body. Best in bed and