Observations on sulphurous fumigations, as a powerful remedy in diseases of the skin and in rheumatic, gouty, and other inveterate diseases / by William Wallace.

  • Wallace, William, 1791-1837 or 1838.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on sulphurous fumigations, as a powerful remedy in diseases of the skin and in rheumatic, gouty, and other inveterate diseases / by William Wallace. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    convinced would soon plead its own importune®, I published a prospectus oi plan for the establishment of an hospital ; which might at once afford relief to the poor ; supply the means of extending our knowledge of cutaneous diseases, by accurate clinical investigation and extensive observation ; and establish a school for the instruction of medical students. On the first of October of the same year, I had the gratification of seeing my plan carried into execution, and have already the satisfaction of its having afforded relief to thousands of my fel¬ low creatures.* Anxious to concentrate in our infant institution, and to put to the test of experience, every means which promised relief in these most ob¬ stinate affections, I took every opportunity of ascertaining the state of practice in cutaneous diseases, from every quarter in which I could hope to gam infor¬ mation. It was in consequence of such inquiries, that I fortunately became ac¬ quainted with that remedy and the instrument for its application, to which it is the object of these observations to call the serious attention of the public, and of the profession in general, but particularly of such as are entrusted with the care of hos¬ pitals. As the most certain mode of accomplishing this object, I shall proceed to communicate a succinct history of the origin of the practice ; of its progress on the Continent ; of the investigations to which it has been submitted ; and of the results of these investigations ; and content myself, for the present, with adding in conclusion, some general observations and reflections, derived from my own experience in its application, as well in hospital as in private practice, t Although we find artificial sulphurous fumigations mentioned, since the ear¬ liest ages of medicine,| as a remedy for diseases of the skin, and even in some authors apparatuses described for their application,^ they had fallen almost en¬ tirely into disuse, until 1812 ; when the researches oi Dr. Gales, a physician in Paris, happily led, not only to their application for the relief ot cutaneous and rheumatic diseases, and of some other chronic affections, which had hitherto resisted all known means of relief, but also to the invention of an instrument, ad¬ mirably contrived for their administration. Dr. Gales, from an official connex¬ ion, ever since 1792, with all the hospitals in Paris, had enjoyed considerable opportunities of observing the various and complicated diseases of the skin ; and, for the last thirteen years, these opportunities became much increased by his particular appointment to the Hopital St. Louis: an institution almost solely devoted to the relief of these affections. In the year 1812, this physician commenced a series of inquiries on that highly contagious disease, scabies : a disease, respecting which his extensive experience informed him, that, although * Since this period similar institutions have been established in London and t For facts connected with the history of the practice of fumigation see Me- moire et Rapports sur les Fumigations Sulfureuses, apphquees au Ti.u m nt des Affections Cutanees, et de plusieurs autres Maladies, par J. G. GaLs, zm- primes par or Are du Gouvernement. Paris, 1816.”-“ Essai sur la Gale, bro¬ chure in—4to. avec Figures, a Paris, par J. C. Gales.’’-- Description aes Appareils a Fumigations, etablis, sur les Dessms tie &L rce , a /°Pl a Saint Louis, en 1814, et successivement dans plusieurs Hopitaux de Paris, pour le Traitement des Maladies de la Peau,a Paris, 1818. —'- Observations lati- ques sur les Fumigations Sulfureuses par Jean de C arro. Vienne, 1819. Essai sur L’Atmidiatrique ou Medicine par les A apeurs, pai 1. Rapou, de Lyon, D.M. P.”— and also - Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales, Articles — Gale et Fumigation.” , ,, , . ,, t See Celsus, lib. 3. xxvii. 2.-lib. 4. xx. 1. Hippocrates, de Morbis Muhe- bribus ; the - Dictionaire Encyclopedique” of 1753, article ‘ unngaaon, ^ J. P. Franck - De Curandis Hominum Morbis, Lib. iv. de lmpetiginibus.. - Gazette de Salsburg” of 1792.—See also a work, published by Glauber in 1659, entitled - Furni Novi Philosophic!.” . , ,, . .. v, & See Glauber’s Work, and - Nouvelle Methode de trailer les Maladies V e-