Researches on phthisis, anatomical, pathological and therapeutical.

  • Louis, P. C. A. (Pierre Charles Alexandre), 1787-1872.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on phthisis, anatomical, pathological and therapeutical. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    of these cases was inconsiderable in amount. In the second class, success of a similar kind was obtained in two of the eight cases composing it; in one of these the morbid changes were limited to a large ulceration in the caecum. Lastly, in one of the two patients composing the third class, who had very copious diarrhoea before the administration of the diascordium, that symptom decreased extremely in amount from the period it was first taken, forty days before death. Hence, of twenty-five patients, six only appear to have derived any benefit from the use of this medicine; and indeed in three cases, in which the mucous membrane of the colon was more or less ulcerated, soft- ened and thickened, increase of diarrhoea followed very closely on the exhibition of the remedy. Decoction of catechu, in doses of two cupfuls daily, was also tried; sixteen of my patients took the medicine; five of them when in the very last stage of debility, four or five days only before death, and at a period consequently when the action of medicine is so difficult of appreciation, that we cannot fairly take them into consideration. Of the eleven others, who began to take the medicine two or three weeks before the fatal event, five appeared to benefit somewhat under its use. In one of these persons, however, the diminution and subsequently the cessation of the diarrhoea were immediately followed by general uneasiness and distress, thirst, burning heat in the throat. &c,— insomuch that this patient instead of rejoicing at the dis- appearance of his diarrhoea, complained of it. On post-mortem examination of his body, I discovered obvious traces of recent inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and trachea,—lesions which in truth very often supervene sponta- neously, and which, in the present instance, may have arisen quite independently of any action of the medicine ; and further, a great number of intestinal ulcerations with softening of the mucous membrane of the colon. These latter anatomical conditions existed in the other cases. Rhatany was employed under the same circumstances in one patient, but without the least success. Lastly, opium alone, in daily doses of from three quarters of a grain to a grain and a half [5 to 10 centigrammes] was pre- scribed in five cases; but the diarrhoea diminished in one case only, consecutively to its employment. Thus diascordium, catechu, and opium had, to all appearance,