Reports on mountain and marine sanitaria : medical and statistical observations on civil stations and military cantonments., jails - dispensaries - regiments - barracks, &c. within the Presidency of Madras, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Islands, and British Burmah from January 1858 to January 1862 / by Duncan Macpherson.

  • MacPherson, Duncan, M.D., 1812-1867.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on mountain and marine sanitaria : medical and statistical observations on civil stations and military cantonments., jails - dispensaries - regiments - barracks, &c. within the Presidency of Madras, the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Islands, and British Burmah from January 1858 to January 1862 / by Duncan Macpherson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    288/458 (page 240)
    SERIES VII. Section I. cerebral or gastric coinplications. In former days (I speak of twenty years back) “ the most successful plan of treatment was early vascular depletion, general and local, or both; and next to depletion, full doses of calome] “ and opium ; calomel grs. xx, opium grs. ii, given at night, followed by a purgative in the morning. Besides the night dose of calomel and opium. “ the same medicines in smaller doses were given at intervals during the “ day, relieving symptoms of irritation by timely local depletion.” The anodyne and diaphoretic effects of the calomel and opium “ were tranquil- “ lizing through the night and prepared the bowels to be favorably acted on “by the aperient, which, if the stomach would bear it, was the common purging mixture of senna and salts.”* The result of this treatment, which was extended to other diseases as vrell as to fevers, was a heavy death-rate, far exceeding that now observed. The Director General will doubtless have observed that the system of treatment pursued by the present able Surgeon in charge of the Artillery, is diametrically opposite to that practised at the period quoted. Dnder him as well as under his immediate predecessors, vitiated secretions are corrected, febrile action is repressed by moderate local bleedings, and other means, without resorting to general depletion; recurring accessions are prevented by the free administration of quinine, at an early stage of the malady, and a light generous diet is allowed. Dr. Kennedy observes^ “ that although the aggregate number of fever cases is smaller than “ that of former days, there has nevertheless been an increase of admis- “ sions of the remittent form, which indicates that the cause, whatever it “ may be, is equally as intense now as in former years. Cerebral couges- tion is the local determination most frequently observed; but the liver^ “ spleen, and stomach are also often implicated, and in more than one “ case a typhoid character supervened.” After detailing his treatment. Dr. Kennedy further observes, “ that the depleting system of treatment “ pursued in former years, occasioned an increased liability to malarious “ influence amongst those who recovered from fever. The health of the “ D Troop Horse Artillery, who have been eight years at the station and “ have suffered severely from fever during the early part of that period, “ has during the past two years very much improved; the admissions from “ fever have diminished, and recoveries are more rapid. ’ The number of deaths from apoplexy in former years was enormous^ For ten years prior to 1838 they amounted to nearly /3| per cen^ the sick treated now, the great majority of the cases which in forme « Surgeons Adams and Stcronson’s report 1837.