Free trade in Medicine and Surgery.-The people called "statesmen" as a grove is called lucus, a non lucendo, have taken into their wise noddles the strange crotchet that every man, woman, and child in England, inherits and enjoys the unquestionable right to cripple, poison, mutilate, and slay all and every her Majesty's subjects, provided they consider that they can thereby put money in their purses, and all dyspeptic lawyers and constipated jurymen have evidently arrived at the same conclusion. Mr. Warburton, the great theoretical medical reformer, by his advocacy of cheap-doctoring and free trade in drugs, did much to perpetuate this delusion, and Sir James Graham by his abortive bill contributed to the same end. Every day's experience, however, proves that there must be an end to this nonsense. The recorded deaths from the mal-administration of drugs form a frightful catalogue of wanton outrages within the present year, and the evil every day increases. The following is another example of the toleration extended to the base and ignorant who have the temerity to trifle with life in this way. Judges, lawyers, and jurors have become so familiarized with such displays that they have now become subjects of jest, or occasions for cracking jokes on the doctors.-Dublin Med. Press. "A report having been circulated that a man named William Myhill, a small farmer and carpenter, residing at Horsey, in the county of Norfolk, had died from the effects of some medicine which had been administered to him by his wife, Mr. Pilgrim, the county coroner, directed the body to be exhumed, and on the 24th of last month held an inquest at Catfield, where the body had been interred. Several witnesses were examined, but the chief evidence offered was that of the servantmaid, who, in a long statement, disposed to her mistress having obtained some medicine of a person living at Reepham, which she administered to the deceased just previous to his death, and then requested her (the servant,) not to say anything about it to any person, but to deny it if she was asked any questions on the subject. On Friday, October 2nd, the inquiry was resumed, when amongst other witnesses who were examined as to the wife having administered something to the deceased, was Staples of Reepham, who calls himself a chemist and druggist. He deposed as follows: a Mr. "I vend drugs and prepare them, but I do not profess to be a surgeon. Some short time since Mrs. Myhill, the wife of the deceased, came to me and stated that her husband was very bad. I prescribed for the deceased from the representation made to me by his wife. I cannot say what she stated. I made up some medicine according to the nature of the disease. I was not told what was the matter with him, but I found it out by my study, my science, and my search. I do not recollect that I ordered brandy and water, neither do I exactly recollect what I did prescribe. At the time I put it on a slate, but it was afterwards rubbed off. The medicine was to relieve the pain-it was not opening medicine. Mrs. Myhill was to have called upon me again, and let me know how her husband was, and to tell me the effect the medicine had upon him. I am perfectly satisfied that the medicine I prescribed could not do him any harm, but I did intend that it should do him good. I considered that the deceased was in a very bad state, and that I ascertained from my research in science, and study from my books of knowledge. If a person came to me and represented their case, I should not be governed by what he said, but I should be governed by the rule of science and my books of knowledge. I could by searching those books ascertain more of their disease than any person could inform me. It is a very common practice with me to prescribe for persons I have never seen, nor yet had a description of their complaints. I neither want to know the name of the party, or where they come from, or any description whatever of their complaints, as I can always find every thing out by the rule of science, my study, and from my books of knowledge. If any person had come to me after the death of Myhill, I could have stated the cause of his death, but the time is now so far gone that I cannot. He again repeated his powers of discovering the complaints of persons by the aid of his books, which was the cause of much merriment to the coroner and the jury, who looked with some suspicion upon the many cases [cures?] he pretended to have effected by his books, his science, and his study. After this evidence, which put a very different aspect upon the inquiry, the surgeons, who had analysed the stomach, said that they had not been able to detect the presence of any metallic or vegetable poison; and, from the appearance of the lungs, were of opinion that the deceased died from natural causes. The jury returned a verdict accordingly."-Norwich Mercury. A New and Original Curiosity of Medical Literature.-Wonders will never cease. Who could have thought some time ago that a "celebrated obstetric physician" in the metropolis could treat a lady in the country by electrical telegraph, yet to that complexion has it come.-Ibid. "Consultation per Telegraph.-The services of the electric telegraph between Norwich and Shoreditch were put into requisition on Thursday in a novel manner, being made the means of communication between a physician in London and his patient in the former place. On Wednesday Dr. L., a celebrated obstetric physician, was sent for from London to attend a lady, lying there in a dangerous state; on his return to town, he left instructions to the medical attendant to convey information of the state of the patient the next morning by means of the telegraph. This was promptly done on Thursday morning, and the prescription was as promptly returned. This it would appear, was repeated more than once, the services of the telegraph being continued for four hours. Unhappily the telegraph completed its communication by announcing the death of the lady." Essex Herald. The Asiatic Cholera in Persia.-According to the Gazette Médicale, six Princes and several Princesses of the Court of Persia have been cut off by the Asiatic cholera. The mother of the Prince Royal, and the only daughter of the Schah, had been attacked, but had recovered under the treatment of Dr. Cloquet. Among the victims is the celebrated Mirza-Aboul-Assan Khan, minister of foreign affairs, -who was ambassador to this country in the year 1820. Another minister of the Schah, the Visier of the Prince Royal, and other high functionaries of the Court, have also been cut off by cholera. The disease appears to have been particularly fatal among the upper classes. It was spreading in all directions, and had taken the course of Astrachan and Moscow. It was expected, however, that its progress would be arrested by the cold of winter.-London Med. Gaz. On the Influence of Vaccination in Diminishing the Mortality from Small-Pox.-Much has recently been said respecting the frequency and fatality of small-pox, at the same time that doubts were often expressed as to the afficacy of vaccination in preventing that virulent disease. Should any person still entertain such opinions, his fears must be very considerably diminished by the facts stated at page 62 in the Seventh Report of the Registrar-General, just published. According to that official document, the number of deaths from smallpox, throughout England and Wales, during five consecutive years, were as follows:-In 1833, 16,268 persons died of that disease; in 1839, 9,131; in 1840, 10,434; in 1841, 6,368; and in 1842, only 2,715 deaths are reported.-Ibid. Employment of Gun-Cotton in Cupping..-The Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal of Dec. 9th contains the following announcement:"It may be useful to know the value of gun-cotton in exhausting the air from cupping glasses; having so employed it myself on several occasions, I can recommend it as possessing a decided superiority over spirit; besides, its lightness and portability is an advantage at times. A very small portion is placed within the glass, and before a piece of lighted paper can be well introduced, from its highly inflammable nature it becomes ignited, imparting to the surface enclosed merely an agreeable warmth." THE MEDICAL EXAMINER AND RECORD OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. NEW SERIES.-No. XXVII.-MARCH, 1847. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. Statistics of Cases of Miasmatic Fever treated in 1846. By GEORGE L. UPSHUR, M. D., of Norfolk, Virginia. During the past year, 105 cases of miasmatic fever came under my care. Of these, 83 were Intermittent, and 22 Remittent. Of the intermittent, 1 was quartan, 15 tertian, 62 quotidian, and 5 masked. Of the masked, one took the form of neuralgia, and four simulated hysteria. The treatinent chiefly employed was the sulphate of quinine, administered in large doses, without regard to the stage of the disease. In one case-a quotidian-occurring in a youth aged 16, of sanguineous, excitable temperament, I adminisiered 15 grains just as the cold stage was passing off. All the symptoms. were ameliorated; the hot stage lasted but one hour, and the patient had no return of the disease. In 25 cases, I gave 30 grains in five hours, during the height of the febrile stage. The pulse was lessened in force and frequency in every instance under this treatment, and the paroxysm cut short by the speedy appearance of perspiration. In only one of these cases was the remedy preceded by other treatment. The exception was the case of an exceedingly robust man, in whom there existed, even in his ordinary health, a strong tendency of blood to the head. I bled him to twenty ounces before administering the quinine. He returned to his work (that of a baker,) forty-eight hours afterwards, and had no return of the fever during the season. He told me that for several years past he had not escaped an attack of bilious fever in the autumn, and that he was usually kept in his bed by it for three weks. Said that he had taken the quinine before, but not while the "fever was on." In one case, the patient was partially comatose during the first paroxysm. This condition was relieved, in a measure, by a cathartic of calomel and aloes. Three hours before the second chill was expected, I administered 25 grains of quinine, and followed this by 15 grains more two hours afterwards. The patient missed the paroxysm and went to work the next day. The recur In 14 cases there was a recurrence of the discase. rence in ten of these, however, could be positively traced to a second exposure to the causes of the affection. The masked forms of the disease yielded readily to the quinine treatment. One of the cases which simulated hysteria was remarkably severe in its character, the patient being seized every afternoon with violent convulsions, accompanied by flushed face and considerable excitement of the circulation. She was treated at first by active purgation, and vesicants to the nucha, with only slight abatement in the intensity of the paroxysm. The regularity with which the attacks came, coupled with the fact that the patient resided in a part of the city where intermittent fever was prevailing, suggested the employment of quinine. She commenced early in the morning with five grains every hour, and took thirty grains. The paroxysm was much milder in the evening, and did not recur at all on the next day. She remained well for seven days, when she was again attacked as in the first instance, and again relieved by the same treatment. She subsequently had a third attack which was cured in the same manner. Her catamenia had been interrupted for six months previous to her sickness, and did not return until six weeks after the last attack. I was not called to a single case of remittent fever at the beginning of the disease. In one case the patient had been ill eleven days without any treatment whatever; she was much emaciated, and had suffered from diarrhoea for six days. I gave her a table-spoonful of the following mixture every hour: R. M. 3ss. gr. ss. f. ziij. In the course of five or six hours she perspired freely, fell into a quiet sleep, and in two days after was entirely free from disease. This was the sole treatment of the case, except the tinct, chlorid. ferri, which was given for ten days after convalescence was established. |
