_Magendie’s Treatment of Cholera._
M. Magendie’s success in the treatment of cholera has been vaunted
in many of the journals, and we have been repeatedly applied to for
information respecting the remedies prescribed by him. His treatment
consisted in the administration during the cold stage of the
following:--
1st. For common drink--℞. Infus. chamomil. ℔iv.; acet. ammon. ℥ij.;
sacch. alb. ℔j M.
2d. Half a glass every hour of the following punch--℞. Infus. flor.
Tiliæ Europeæ, ℔iv.; limon. iv.; alcohol, ℔j.; sacch. alb. ℔j. M.
3d. From time to time he gives half a glass of the following--℞. Vinum
calefac. ℔ij.; tinct. cannel. ℥ij; sacch. alb. ℥ij. M.
By these stimulants, reaction was sometimes induced, and it was at
once concluded that the patient was cured. But violent reaction is not
less dangerous than collapse, and M. Magendie’s patients relieved from
the latter condition by internal stimulants, soon exhibited evidences
of congestion of the brain or digestive organs, which resisted, for
the most part, general and local bleeding, cold to the head, and the
most active revulsives to the feet. The patient became delirious, coma
supervened, and death closed the scene.
It is shown by authentic documents in our possession, that the result
of M. Magendie’s treatment was not less unfortunate than that of his
colleagues; he lost more than one-half of his patients.
A careful examination of the results of the various modes of treatment
adopted in India, Russia, Poland, Germany, Great Britain and France,
has satisfied us that the internal administration of powerful
stimulants in large doses, in the collapsed stage of cholera, has been
eminently injurious, and such appears to have been ultimately the
conviction of nearly all the practitioners who resorted to them. Panic
struck, with the utter state of prostration of patients in the collapse
of cholera, physicians appear every where to have at first been led to
administer the most powerful stimulants in large and repeated doses, to
rouse the action of the heart. Recovered from their first surprise, and
admonished by their ill success, and by the violent and uncontrollable
reaction sometimes induced, these remedies were subsequently abandoned,
or only applied externally, and with incomparably better results.
_Health of Philadelphia._
Bowel complaints continue to be the prevailing diseases, and within a
few days several cases of cholera have assumed malignant characters.
July 27th the Board of Health reported 2 cases of malignant cholera.
28th 6
29th 6
30th 15
31st 19
The whole number of cases, as near as can be ascertained, is 52, of
which, 30 have occurred in the districts, 6 in the Alms-house, 1 in the
Arch street prison, and the remaining 15, in the outskirts and dirtiest
parts of the city.
Report of the Board of Health for the twenty-four hours, ending August
1st, noon:--