Observations on the alarming progress of the gaol or typhus fever : with a summary of means of received practice for the treatment of the disease, and preventing its further contagion / by Sir G.O. Paul, bart.

  • Sir George Onesiphorus Paul, 2nd Baronet
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the alarming progress of the gaol or typhus fever : with a summary of means of received practice for the treatment of the disease, and preventing its further contagion / by Sir G.O. Paul, bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/38 (page 18)
    r. is ] ALTHOUGH obfervations colle&ed from fo re>* fpedable an authority may, without comment, be fully fatisfadftory to the liberal clafs of men; yet as their application will, in mo ft inftances, fall to the lot of perfons, whofe habits of life render them fo infenfible to the difadvantages of filth and bad air, that they will hardly be convinced of the benefits of cleanlinefs and a free circulation ; it may be necefiary to enforce the advice by a more familiar explanation of the principle on which it is founded, fever; originally adopted, on the highly respected recommenda¬ tion and practice of the late Dr. James Currie, of Liverpool ; namely. That of exposing the patient to the shock of the affusion of water, by means of a shower bath—or (vulgarly and perhaps more commonly) by the throwing cold water over the person. That this system has been adopted and continues to be practised with success, we learn from the reports of cases annually given to the public by the patrons and managers of the several fever Institu¬ tions, and by the !< Society for bettering the condition of the Poor. “ Of the recent improvements in practice, the most beneficial is “ the affusion of cold or tepid water} which has been uniformly at- “ tended with extraordinary effects. When the fever patient, in “ a state ot deui iuin, has been placed, by force, in the showier bath, and the waver poured over him, his transition from extreme fu- V ry to perfect composure, and from burning heat to temperate 4< warmth, has been apparently miraculous. In some cases, where (( the patients were sent to the house in an early stage of the dis- ease, a single application of the shower-bath has entirely extin- “ guished the fever,” &c. &c.—See History of the Loudon House of llecovery, 18J 7, p. 14. Regarding the time for applying the affusion, Dr. Currie has stated that, t( supposing, as seems generally observable in the ner- *r vous or putrid fever, that one exacerbation and one remission *f takes place in tw< nty-four hours; the exacerbation usually occurs “ in the aTttnioo The satestand most advantageous time ** for using the affusion of cold water, is, when the exacerbation