Dr. Hooper's Physician's vademecum, or, A manual of the principles and practice of physic / [Robert Hooper].

  • Hooper, Robert, 1773-1835.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Hooper's Physician's vademecum, or, A manual of the principles and practice of physic / [Robert Hooper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    40] contracted and sharpened, wild and confused expression of coun- tenance. The face, extremities, and sometimes the whole surface of the bodv, assumed a leaden, bluish, or purplish hue, varying in the degree'of intensity; the extremities were shrunk and contracted, nails blue, pulse thready or imperceptible at the wrist, arm, axilla, temple, or neck ; skin cold and damp, a great restlessness ; inexpres- sible pain in the epigastrium, loud moaning or groaning, incessant restlessness or jactitation, difficult, oppressed respiration ; inspiration effected with great difficulty, expiration short and convulsive, voice plaintive or nearly suppressed, speech in a plaintive whisper ; tongue white, cold, and flabby, temperature often as low as 79° or 77° ; convulsions recurring at short intervals, occasionally almost tetanic, or replaced by a constant tremor. The secretions of bile, saliva, tears, and urine, are entirely suppressed, and there is an earthy or cadaverous odour exhaled by the body. Death generally takes place in from six to twenty-four hours, the patient retaining his faculties to the last. Terminations.—In recovery; in prolonged gastric irritation ; or in secondary fever, of the typhoid character. Mortality*—About one half of the cases. Less in the young than in those advanced in life. Prognosis.—Favourable Symptoms.—In cases about to termi- nate favourably, re-action gradually takes place, and all the symptoms improve •, the cramp ceases, the dejections contain bile, urine is secreted, the voice and pulse return, there is an increase of animal heat in the extremities and surface of the body, and improvement of countenance, circulation, respiration, and mus- cular strength. Youth and previous health are favourable cir- cumstances. Unfavourable.—Delirium ; sordes on the teeth, lips, and gums ; increased prostration of the vital powers ; coldness and blueness of the surface; collapsed countenance ; small, irregular, and thready pulse ; oppression and difficulty of respiration ; involuntary evacu- ations ; subsultus tendinum ; convulsions. Advanced age and pre- vious debility, or ill health, are unfavourable circumstances, and the disease was more fatal in females than in males. Anatomical characters.—Congestion of the lungs and brain : blood black, oily, and dissolved, both in the arteries and veins; brain and its membranes congested, serum in brain and spinal inaTrow ; the abdomen, on being opened, often emits a foetid odour ; fluids, like those vomited and passed from the bowels, detected in the alimentary canal; flatus; intestinal mucous membrane covered with a tenacious substance, and of a dark or scarlet hue, either partially or generally; stomach and bowels paler than natural; gall ducts may or may not be contracted. The gall-bladder is much distended with viscid bile. The pancreas, spleen, and kid- neys are in their ordinary state, or gorged with blood. The urinary bladder is always contracted and empty. The vena porta d u