Sequel to Outlines of medical proof / [Thomas Mayo].

  • Thomas Mayo
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sequel to Outlines of medical proof / [Thomas Mayo]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/48 page 6
    reasoning from the effect of remedies; yet here a single case may be powerfully suggestive of practical measures. A gentleman, aged 70, of a powerful frame and strong constitution, wdio had laboured for many years under attacks of gout in the ankles and hands, with permanent thickening, nodosity, and imperfect use of the afflicted articulation, has been placed by me for more than sixteen months on a plan of daily small doses of the Yinum Colchiei, with very gentle aperients. During that time his general health has become very good, and he has remained entirely free from attacks of gout. I can offer no explanation of the modus operandi of colchicum in this case ; and the accompa¬ nying system of gentle purgation may have largely contributed to its successful procedure. Besides, his diet has been more regular than usual during its course; yet, single as it is, when viewed in relation to the known influence of colchicum on gout, it affords a motive for similar treatment in a similar case. The pulse of this gentleman, I may observe, was naturally slow : I carefully modified the dose of colchicum, so as not to depress it below its normal standard, to which depression it was prone under any increase of the doses.* * The pride of science may be lowered, and its industry stimu¬ lated, by considering the present condition of the treatment of gout. Inductive inquiries have demonstrated the reasonableness of certain remedies in reference to vitious or defective processes in the primary or secondary assimilation under that disease. Mean¬ while, an empirical procedure, which has scarcely given birth to the merest gratuitous hypothesis, has put us in possession of colchicum!
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