Essay on the nature and treatment of cholera and fever : with medical remarks on the treatment of cattle plague : also an appendix on public health / by James Tucker.

  • Tucker, James, M.D.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the nature and treatment of cholera and fever : with medical remarks on the treatment of cattle plague : also an appendix on public health / by James Tucker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/43 (page 22)
    If cramps, coldness, and sinking pulse were present, the patients were in the second stage. The nonpui-gative salts were then adminis- tered every half hour, or more or less frequently, according to the severity of the symptoms, as follows:—Muriate of soda, one scniple; carbonate of soda, half-a-di'achm; chlorate of potass, seven grains. When the irritation of the stomach was very severe a large sinapism was applied, and when the patient complained of heat or burning at the stomach an additional quantity of carbonate of soda was added to the saline. In the collapsed, or third stage, when life seemed rapidly ebbing, a strong solution of the same salts, at 100° of heat, was thrown into the bowels. In extreme cases this method was more successful than the injection of the electric salts into the veins. The saline mixture was given every half hour, or oftener, and in severe cases the muriate of soda was increased to a drachm. These powders were given dissolved in four ounces pure water for each dose. When the stomach was extremely irritable the carbonate of soda, with the tartrate of soda and potass, in a state of effervescence, was the most effective remedy. The alkaline car- bonates are invaluable to allay irritation and to neutralize the noxious acids of the stomach. Mr. Moss, of Windsor, would undertake to cure almost every case, in the first stage, with the carbonates alone, but in the last stage would, adhere strictly to Dr. Stevens's plan. ]VIi\ Moss further states that he believes the salts possess a specific influence in neutralizing or destroying the poison of the cholera, and says:—I am far from solitary in deeming the discovery of this remedy as one of the most important and beneficial of the age; and its author (Dr. Stevens) is not only a real benefactor to mankind in general, but one of the greatest conti'ibutors to medical science. The enema, found of such immense value in causing reaction, was composed of a tablespoonful of muriate of soda, with some sugar or starch, and administered every two or three hours, at as high a temperature as the patient could well bear. Sinapisms were applied, as early as possible, over the region of the stomach and between the shoulders, and to other parts, and frequent frictions