On some points in the pathology, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of pneumonia / by C.H.F. Routh.

  • Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some points in the pathology, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of pneumonia / by C.H.F. Routh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    effects produced by it in allaying fever, even in compa- ratively small doses. The tincture of the extract which I have been in the habit of using contains one grain of the alcoholic extract of the root to twenty drops of alcohol; and the dose for an adult varies from half a drop to three minims. I have given it up to five drops to an adult three times a day; but, in this case, poisonous symptoms super- vened—a sort of tetanic rigidity of the entire voluntary muscles, and a tingling sensation all over the body. In another case, where the dose ordered was three and a half minims three times a day, the patient, wishing to get well the sooner, as he supposed, took a double dose. Complete paralysis supervened, with loss of pulse, fainting, sickness, and vomiting. The pupil became so dilated that the iris was not to be made out. A simple purgative cured the first case; the second did not recover till tv/o or three hours by stimulants, especially ammonia. The potency of this preparation is therefore manifest. One drop of opium has been known to poison an infant; and, even for children under three or five, a quarter of a grain of Dover’s powder, or one-twentieth of a grain, has often a marked effect. Four and a half grains of opium and two drachms of the tincture have been known to kill a man. There is no doubt that seven drops of the tincture of aconite before alluded to would have killed my man, if nature had not assisted him, and prudential measures had not been adopted. For practi- cal purposes, I believe I may say that one drop of this tincture is at least equivalent to one grain of opium. I therefore use it with great care, especially with children, on whom I think it exercises an influence equally as strong and peculiar as opium. Thus, if one or two drops be added to eight ounces of water, although only half an ounce be the quan- tity given for a dose, i. e., from one-thirty-second to one- sixteenth of a drop, and repeated every two hours, an effect is usually manifested on the feverish excitement in a very few hours. With an adult I never would now begin with more than two drops, repeating one drop every two hours till the pulse falls. But even this is a large dose; and, in most cases, one drop to begin with, and a quarter to half a drop repeated every two hours till the pulse falls, will be found sufiScient. In its action, it must be carefully v/atched; the patient must be often seen; and great care must be taken that the party to whom its administration in our ab- sence is confided, is trustworthy; and directly the patient looks pale, and feels faint, its use should be discontinued. G