First report of Dr. John Francis Churchill's free stœchiological dispensary, for consumption, and diseases of the lungs, windpipe, nose and throat : with an appendix on croup, diphtheria, and hay-fever / [John Francis Churchill].

  • Churchill, J. Francis (John Francis)
Date:
[1886]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of Dr. John Francis Churchill's free stœchiological dispensary, for consumption, and diseases of the lungs, windpipe, nose and throat : with an appendix on croup, diphtheria, and hay-fever / [John Francis Churchill]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the mode and conditions of action of any substance already known. It seems to be exclusively reserved for the transient, superficial, almost always insufficient and unscientific, consequently unsatisfactory trial of some new remedy, the fleeting fashion of the day, almost of the hour, which comes and goes like a cloud across the sky, and the name of which is hardly learnt before it is discarded and forgotten for some newer one, as evanescent and as inefficient as itself. I hold, however, that the principle which I have just explained, is a true, or rather the only true, and rational basis of therapeutics, that is of medical science. Through it we shall be able not only to say that a given remedy cures a given disease, but to show the way in which it does so, because we shall know beforehand what signs we have to look for, as indicating the intermediate steps by which the final curative effect is to be reached. When the consequences and applications of this doctrine have been fully worked out—therapeutics, that is the science of curing disease, will become as consistent, as coherent, as exact, and as certain a branch of knowledge as Physics or Chemistry. This is a very brief outline of a vast subject, which I have treated of more fully elsewhere in my different writings, and which I have only mentioned here for the purpose of explaining the title adopted for my dispensary, and the fundamental characteristics of my practice. The basis of the treatment followed are my Hypophosphites, prepared by Swann, of Paris, for Consumption, and Spirone for Inflammatory and Conges¬ tive conditions of the breath organs. Occasionally other remedial means have been temporarily employed toTulfil secondary and transient indications. My purpose for the present is not to give complete reports of cases but merely a general view. During the short time my Dispensary has been opened, from Dec., 1885, to June, 1886, the following results have been obtained :— Total Attendances, 1840 ; Number of Patients under Treatment, 130. Cases Treated. Cured. Relieved. Still under Treatment. Died. Consumption 33 12 • 8 12 1 Asthma and Bronchitis 49 23 13 13 None Diseases of Windpipe, 1 Nose, and Throat 31 20 4 7 None Whooping Cough 17 13 4 _— None Most of the patients whose cases are indicated as having only improved, did not go on to complete recovery, owing to their having left off the treatment too soon. In many instances because having improved enough to be able to return to their work, they had not time to attend the Dispensary; in some, because they could not afford the cost of conveyance to it. CONSUMPTION. Nearly thirty years ago when I announced that I had discovered that the cause of Consumption consisted in the want or the waste of the oxidizable phosphorized. elements in the body, and that the remedy for it was the use of some oxidizable and assimilable compound of phosphorus, and specially of the hypophosphites, my assertions were received by the Medical Profession, particularly in this country, with every form of incredulity, reproach, and even obloquy.