Central Criminal Court : the Queen against Thomas Smethurst, Monday, August 15th, 1859, and following days : minutes of evidence / printed from the short-hand notes of Messrs. Barnett and Buckler.

Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Central Criminal Court : the Queen against Thomas Smethurst, Monday, August 15th, 1859, and following days : minutes of evidence / printed from the short-hand notes of Messrs. Barnett and Buckler. 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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    ! accompanied with severe fever, but in this country idiopathic dysentery assumes a less severe form ; it is generally what is called sub-acute, or 11 chronic—the state of the ccecum in this case in my view indicates a case of i I sub-acute dysentery, not of severe dysentery; of prolonged dysentery, but )' not severe—it does not necessarily follow that such a case would commence ( with febiile symptoms—there is not much fever accompanying dysentery in ! this country, which is prolonged beyond a few days—1 make the distinction i between the dysentery of this country and that of warm climates—occasion- i ally there are cases of dysentery similar to that of warm climates, but they are not common ; they depend upon a malaria—there was one at Clapham ! some years ago. which destroyed several boys—every year many persons die I of dysentery, but it is the dysentery of this country. Mr. Serjeant Parry. Q. Are the cases of endemic dysentery, which sometimes seize upon a whole neighbourhood, and carry off a portion , of the inhabitants, clear and distinct from what you have described as sub-acute dysentery, known to this climate ? A. You very seldom have this endemic dysentery in this country—all dysenteries are so far alike ^ as to agree in genus and character—in forming my judgment in this case I have taken into account the dysentery which I know from my own experience to prevail in this country—the evacuations or motions in the early stage of pregnancy arising from dysentery, have become bloody— ' that is the character of dysentery—it is not dysentery unle.ss the stools are bloody. Court. Q. How soon does that sanguineous appearance pi’csent itself? A. It may commence immediately, or it may not ; that is, if it be the sub- acute dysentery, which is the result of neglected diarrhoea—it is a question of hours ; or it may come on immediately after the exposure to the chance of dysentery—the disease commences after the exposure to malaria ; I mean in acute dysentery—it comes on in a day or two in a case of acute dysentery— sub-acute dysentery is frequently the result of neglected diarrhoea, or chronic dysentery ; chronic dysentery being one of the species of dysentery; you have acute, sub-acute, and chronic. James Edmunds. I am a surgeon, and general practitioner; a member of the College of Surgeons, in London, surgeon to the H division of police, and also to the Royal Maternity Charity—I am acquainted, as a matter of medical science, with the fact that in the early stage of pregnancy, vomiting i and diarrhoea exist sometimes to a very severe extent; so much so, as some- times almost to exhaust the patient, principally by the vomiting—diarrhoea is a much less frequent accompaniment ; both resulting in sympathetic irritation of the stomach and bowels, being su[)plied with nervous enei’gy of the same sort as the uterine—I have have had experience myself of one fatal case where pregnancy existed—this person was about forty years of age, perha])S a little more; she had been married ten or twelve years, she suffered from vomiting and purging, and sev^ere burning pain in the abdomen, if the abdomen was touched it would give her great pain all up the right side, especially in the right flank; she was ill from four to six weeks; at any rate four weeks—she came to me occasionally four weeks before her death, and when she was unable to come out I visited her—in consequence of the extraordinary symptoms I obseiwed in that case I made a post mortem examination of the body, and I believe that dysentery caused her death—I I think the dysentery was complicated by vomiting, irritability of the stomach, attributable to pregnancy, and purging attributable to dysentery—purging is often a symptom at the early stage of pregnancy, and often a symptom of impending labour.