The common sense of cholera / by a practical practitioner.

  • James Hutchison Stirling
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The common sense of cholera / by a practical practitioner. 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.

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    cation between the two diarrhoeas, and assert the former, beginning with the indigestion, to end at the serous diarrhoea, and the latter, beginning with the serous diarrhoea, to end at the failure of pulse. The stage presently under consideration, then, that of Action, contains the serous diarrhoea and the haemorrhage: but the diarrhoea, however coloured (by the as yet unwashed-away usual contents of the bowels), differs not in its essence from the haemor- rhage, however uncoloured: briefly, then, the ac- tion is the haemorrhage. But, as it is in the theory always that the principle of cure is to be found, and as the disease under consideration is a haemorrhage, it is, manifestly, on the principles of haemorrhage in general, modified by the peculiarities of this haemorrhage in particular, that we must base the treatment. Now, the remedial agents directed for haemorrhage in general, consist of compression, liga- ture, cold, venesection, counter-irritation, sedatives, astringents, alteratives, and rest; and we shall just see howlfar the special application of these measures is possible and feasible here. Compression, as well as ligature, seems to be rendered inapplicable by reason of the peculiar seat of the haemorrhage. And yet, one is tempted to make the paper-suggestion, that ligatures to the ex- tremities, at the aim-pits and groins, might form diverticula or reservoirs of serum, and might cut off its farther supply to the patulous vessels; while, as is practised (by means of a piece of flat board) in India, compression of the digestive organs, through
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