First principles of medicine / by Archibald Billing.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First principles of medicine / by Archibald Billing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    PMNCIPLES OF MEDICINE. catamenia irregular, very scanty and painfal when occurring, and leucorrhoea. She had been seen by several well-known phy- sicians, by whom she was considered to have heart- disease ; but I attributed her symptoms to dys- menorrhcea, and began by giving her cubebs, which acted on the kidneys, and also as an emmenagogue, with great amelioration of the chest-symptoms. In the course of three months, all the symptoms were improved; she could take walking exercise; there was no oedema of the legs remaining; but there was still impulsion, with occasional palpitations; and, though the catamenia were much improved, there was still considerable leucorrhoea. I therefore ex- changed the cubebs for oxide of silver, which removed all her symptoms in the course of about six- teen months from my first seeing her,—and she has remained in good health for twenty years. I have had several cases exactly similar, with similar results. I have often been told by practitioners, in con- sultation, that patients would not go on taking cubebs; but I could only answer, that they would if they were inspired with confidence. I have cured patients by giving them a more disagreeable medi- cine, where there was habitual costiveness to be cor- rected : that is, 5] of cubebs in 5j of our old-fashioned London-Hospital mist, cretee cath., i.e. magnesias sulph. 5j in each 5j of mist, cretae co. Where you have a certainty of your indication, you must persevere ; and I have cured patients by this medicine who have taken it for a long time,—in one instance for eight months, in another for sixteen,—with little variation, except the omission of the salt when not required.