The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury.

  • Thomas, Robert, 1753-1835.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    linen in the liquid, and moistening with it the parts aflFected. He observ- ed that the external application was productive of severe pain at first, but this inconvenience daily diminished. The dose of sulphuric acid above-mentioned is calculated for a child of three years of age, but adults may take thirty drops thrice a day in half a pint of water, gradually in- creasing tlie quantity to one or two teaspoonfuls. If attended with any purgative effect, a small addition of tinctura opii may be made. Op the plaited HAIR, PLICA POLONICA yei TRICHOMA. X LICA Polonica is a disease in which a morbid matter is deposited upon the hair, and binds it together in such a manner, that to unravel it is im- possible. In Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Transylvania, Prussia, Russia, and Tartaiy, it is endemial; but the scalp is not its only seat, for it some- times extends to the hairs of the pubes. The exciting causes of the disease are uncertain, as neitlier the air,, water, nor food seem to have any effect in producing it: nor are cleanli- ness and regular combing of the hair, it is said, any defence against it. Certain it is, however, that it prevails only among the lower class of peo- ple, whence many have conceived that it is to be considered merely as a consequence of uncleanliness. From some observations made by Mr, Frederick Hoffman, surgeon to the Prussian army, it appears that a pre- disposition to it may be transmitted from parents to their offspring; and he observes * that as no other cause can be assigned for the disease, it is probable that it arises, according to the general opinion, from contagion ; a contagion which, like that of psora, can be communicated by contact only. We are told by jSIons. Alibert, physician to the Hospital of St. Louis at Paris,! that as the Poles rarely comb and scarcely ever wash or clean their hair, and as they wear warm fur caps, the disease in question is much favoured thereby. By the heat, he says, an afflux of himiours is detei'- mined toMards the head, which thus becomes a common sewer to all the organs of the body, whilst by its nastiness the pores are so obstructed, that the exuberant fluids are forced through the canals of the hairs. He observes, that plica is sometimes communicated by contagion, and some- times by suckling, but he has noticed at the same time that strangers are but little liable to be affected by it. According to Monsieur de la Fontaine, :j: an eminent physician at Warsaw, the proximate cause of the disease seems to be a peculiar * See his Obfervations en Plica Polonica,Vol. i V. Part II. of the Memoirs of the Litera- ry and Philofophical Society of Manchefter. + See his Defcription des Maladies de la Peau. ^ See article the firfl, vol. the ift, of the Annals of Medicine for the Year 1796, by An- drew Duncan, M.D.