On Bengal dysentery and its statistics, with a notice of the use of large enemata in that disease, and of quinine in remittent fever / [John Macpherson].

  • Macpherson, John, 1817-1890
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On Bengal dysentery and its statistics, with a notice of the use of large enemata in that disease, and of quinine in remittent fever / [John Macpherson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Sir James MacGrigor, for instance, in the beginning of the century, records the employment of almost every possible variety of them. In 1837 Dr. Jackson, of H. M. 6th Regt., (a great advocate for the employment of clysters in ordinary constipation, and who recommended six pints to be usually thrown up), mentions having passed up the long tube 15 inches be¬ yond the anus in a fatal case of dysentery.* Large enemata of tepid water, and the injection three times daily of a pint of water with nitro-muriatie acid, are frequently recommended by Madras writers some ten years ago; and in 1840, the officiating editor of the Madras Journal mentions, that he has often, in dysenteric cases, pursued Cf Beirne’s plan, and given wonderful relief with large emollient enemata.f Enemata of various sorts have been constantly used in Bengal. Acetate of lead seems to have been always a fa¬ vourite. t Twining used it often; and up to 1840, Mr. Raleigh employed it largely in the General Hospital, and believed that with a pint and a half of fluid he covered the surface of the large intestines : these injections he repeated every 2 or 3 hours in haemorrhagic cases. In the end of the year 1847, Mr. Hare again invited atten¬ tion to (LBeirne^s method, and to the systematic use of large enemata. He thinks that they have not been hitherto used in sufficient bulk or with sufficient frequency, and he en¬ deavours to assign to them a position of primary importance in the treatment of dysentery. He seems with Jackson to have arrived at a maximum of six pints. He believes “ that he may save the lives of hundreds who die under the pre¬ sent system,^ which he considers to be commonly salivation, and hopes to produce quite a revolution in practice. Yari- * * “ No one has thought of making use of this method.”—Mr. Hare on Dysentery, p. 14. 4* This mode of treatment ought to have been noticed and applied in India. —Hare, p. 7.