An essay on the nature and treatment of the Indian pestilence, commonly called cholera / by Henry Penneck.

  • Penneck Henry.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the nature and treatment of the Indian pestilence, commonly called cholera / by Henry Penneck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the blankets may be supported by a cord fastened lengthways over the patient, as mentioned by Mr. Aleock. While using the hot-air bath, the patient may be surrounded with jars of hot water wrapped in flannel. Mercurial Fumigation.—I might now speak of the use of stimulants and narcotics, for allaying the spas- modic affections, vomiting, &c.; but, as more immedi- ately connected with the hot-air bath, I will mention, in the first place, the following method of mercurializ- ing the system :—in a disease which runs its course so rapidly, time is of the greatest importance ; I should therefore attempt to effect this object, mercurialization, in the least possible time by means of fumigation, with the powder recommended by Mr. Abernethy, and as particularly described in Mr. Cooper’s Surgical Dic- tionary, edit. 1825. The formula for the powder is as follows :—“ Two drachms of liquor ammoniae are added to six ounces of distilled water, and four ounces of calomel are thrown into this liquor, and shaken up with it: the powder is afterwards separated by a filter, and dried.” As Mr. Abernethy’s mode of using it is not applicable to the state of the patient in this disease, and as it will be necessary to fu- migate him in bed, I would recommend the follow- ing instrument for this purpose (if no better is in use) :—It should have a receptacle like the inner part of an urn, to contain an iron with a concave top, the iron to be heated red hot; over this a cap is passed down fitting it closely, on the top of which are two openings, one to drop the powder through, which has a valve like the valve of a powder-flask; the other with a tube somewhat inclined, to conduct the fumes over the patient’s naked body, on which they will be condensed. The whole instrument is placed in a