A treatise on Asiatic cholera / edited and prepared by Edmund Charles Wendt, in association with Drs. John C. Peters, Ely McClellan, John B. Hamilton, and Geo. M. Sternberg.
- Edmund Charles Wendt
- Date:
- 1885
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on Asiatic cholera / edited and prepared by Edmund Charles Wendt, in association with Drs. John C. Peters, Ely McClellan, John B. Hamilton, and Geo. M. Sternberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.
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![tliat have been and continue to be recommended by Avriters of all nation- alities. Before tlie occurrence of collapse, and during the stage of profuse dis- charges it is generally advisable to administer small doses of morphide hypoderniically. This may at least to some extent cpiiet the patient and diminish his sufferings. But the drug should never be pushed, as for ex- ample is commonly done in peritonitis. For the relief of persistent thirst small quantities of iced fluids, such as plain water, carbonic acid water and es])ecially water weakly acidulated with mineral acids or freshly expressed lemon juice, and similar drinks, may be frequently given. Little bits of ice taken every few minutes are also allowable. Some writers have insisted on completely withholding these harmless and grateful beverages, believing that they increased vomiting and favored the iiitestinal flux. But there is not the slightest foundation for enter- taining such an opinion. Indeed, it would be downright cruelty to refuse the momentary relief that cool drinks often give the patient. It is only too true that thirst is not quenched thereby, and that the stomach may imme- diately reject the eagerly swallowed liquid. Yet in some cases the relief is so apparent that we have no hesitation in affirming it to be the physician's duty to see that drinks are not with- held. In well-marked collapse it is best to stop all medication. More- over, in this condition heat applied to the body, frictions, embrocations, and similar well-known measures have no power to call back to the surface the fast-ebbing tide of warmth. But before that time such measures may be employed to advantage. Semmola has strongly urged the warm bath, repeated every two or three hours as a possible preventive of collapse. Yet this must often be fatiguing and injurious. He admits also that to- bathe a patient during collapse would have no more effect than to deal similarly with a corpse. But on the other hand he insists that the warm bath has a calmative effect, and a rallying influence, especially noticeable in the stage of premonitory diarrhcea. Dr. J. C. Peters has used pieces of unslaked lime, wrapped in wet clothes and put in bowls under the bedclothes successfully in incipient collapse. The heat produced is very great and grateful, and there may possibly be some disinfecting power in this process. A pack in blankets wrung out in hot cayenne or mustard water is useful; and it is very easy Avhen the blankets cool or dry off, to pour very hot water upon them without removing them or disturbing the })atient. Slaking lime used in the way just mentioned is easy of application and does not tire or weaken or disturb the patient. An energetic doctor once gave his collapse patients a hot bath, made them drink all the hot water their stomachs would hold. a]id then pumped not only their bowels but their bladder full of hot water, and complacently said if any one could do more to warm a patient up he would like to hear of it. We can only add, slaking lime in bed. (Peters). We wall return to Semmola's views on the treatment of cholera later on, merely mentioning here that the temperature of the water used for the baths, as recommended by him, should not fall below 100° F., nor much exceed 104° F. If the miiscular cramps prove rebellious to gentle frictions with warm flannels or slightly stimulating or anodyne liniments, if they remain uninfluenced by a hypodermic injection of mor[)hine, the physician may allow the inhalation of chloroform carried to the point of partial an ffisthesia. This may be repeated from time to time without fear of disaS'](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20996421_0405.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
