First lines of the practice of physic / [William Cullen].

  • Cullen, William, 1710-1790
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First lines of the practice of physic / [William Cullen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Opisthotonos, and Emprosthotonos ; and I have in my No- sology put the ‘Trismus, or Locked Jaw, as a genus distinct from the Tetanus. All this, however, I now judge to be improper ; and am of opinion, that all the several terms mentioned, denote, and are applicable only to different de- grees of one and the same disease; the history and cure of which I shall endeavour to deliver in this chapter. 1258. ‘Tetanic complaints may, from certain causes, occur in every climate that we are acquainted with: but they oc- cur most frequently in the warmest climates, and most com- monly in the warmest seasons of such climates. These com- plaints affect all ages, sexes, temperaments, and complex- ions. The causes from whence they commonly proceed are cold and moisture applied to the body while it is very warm, and especially the sudden vicissitudes of heat and cold. Or, the disease is produced by punctures, lacerations, or other lesions of nerves in any part of the body. There are, pro- bably, some other causes of this disease; but they are nei- ther distinctly known nor well ascertained. Though the causes mentioned do, upon occasion, affect all sorts of per- sons, they seem however to attack persons of a middle age more frequently than the older or younger, the male sex more frequently than the female, and the robust and vigor- ous more frequently than weaker. 1259. If the disease proceed from cold, it commonly comes on in a few days after the application of such cold; but if it arise from a puncture or other lesion of a nerve, the dis- ease does not commonly come on for many days after the lesion has happened, very often when there is neither pain nor uneasiness remaining in the wounded or hurt part, and very frequently when the wound has been entirely heal- ed up. 1260. The disease sometimes comes on suddenly to a vio- lent degree, but more generally it approaches byslow degrees to its violent state. In this case it comes on with a sense VOL, If. E