The philosophy of epidemic cholera : being at attempt to unravel its mystery; to disarm its terrors; to account for its phenomena by the ordinary laws of morbid action; to develope the true pathological condition of the body in its various stages; to demonstrate the inutility of hospitals and quarantines; to enforce the system of domiciliary visiting; and to unfold a mode of treatment at once safe, scientific, and successful - a remedy within reach of every housekeeper, and applied without cost, risk, or delay / by John Balbirnie, M.A., M.D.

  • Balbirnie, John, 1810-1895.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of epidemic cholera : being at attempt to unravel its mystery; to disarm its terrors; to account for its phenomena by the ordinary laws of morbid action; to develope the true pathological condition of the body in its various stages; to demonstrate the inutility of hospitals and quarantines; to enforce the system of domiciliary visiting; and to unfold a mode of treatment at once safe, scientific, and successful - a remedy within reach of every housekeeper, and applied without cost, risk, or delay / by John Balbirnie, M.A., M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    14/54 (page 10)
    but the water drunk is immediately rejected. The fluids recede from the surface and accumulate in the interior. With the rapid draining away of the serum through the mucous membrane, the pulse and the tem- perature sink pari passu, till at length the coldness of death comes over the body. Cramps set in. The voice becomes hoarse and squeaking; the breathing laborious. Pain and constriction are felt in the region of the heart. Restlessness, tossing, and anxiety increase. The disease now assumes its most aggravated phase, and the organic conflict is at its height. Whether victory will declare for or against the constitutional powers, is determined by their previous integrity or impairment, as well as by the measures of treatment. The cramps, spasms, and convulsive tremor of the muscles of different parts of the body, especially of the limbs, harass the patient ex- ceedingly ; in the intervals of their cessation, and that of the vomiting, he doses off. The brain partakes of the profound depression of the organism. The patient is dizzy, and deaf, and regardless of what takes place around him; even the former anxiety for life yields to complete indifference; but his faculties when roused are found intact; the intellect, indeed, is sometimes sin- gularly clear to the last moment of life. The urine is entirely suppressed; there is great commotion of the bowels, with or without griping; and vomiting and purging of clear flocculent saline matters. These .exhale a characteristic odour, sometimes urinous, occasionally foeculent, the dejections are often spurted forth in a con- tinuous stream, as from a pump, at times they present the appearance of beef-washings, from the admixture of blood-globules. The thirst is now intense—the pa- tient’s chief cry being “water.” The difficulty of breathing, and the feebleness of the pulse go on increas- ing. The surface is as cold as marble, and has the clammy feeling of a frog’s belly. Profuse viscid perspi- rations set in; the hands are shrivelled like a washer- woman’s, the countenance is skinny and cadaverous;— the eyes sunk, turned up, and half open. The skin is of a purple, livid, or dusky brown hue. The voice becomes feebler, hoarser, and more sepulchral. Notwithstanding