_Referred to in_ vol. vi. p. 209.
As the account given by Mr. Millingen of this consultation differs
totally from that of Dr. Bruno, it is fit that the reader should have
it in Mr. Millingen's own words:--
"In the morning (18th) a consultation was proposed, to which Dr.
Lucca Vega and Dr. Freiber, my assistants, were invited. Dr. Bruno
and Lucca proposed having recourse to antispasmodics and other
remedies employed in the last stage of typhus. Freiber and I
maintained that they could only hasten the fatal termination, that
nothing could be more empirical than flying from one extreme to the
other; that if, as we all thought, the complaint was owing to the
metastasis of rheumatic inflammation, the existing symptoms only
depended on the rapid and extensive progress it had made in an organ
previously so weakened and irritable. Antiphlogistic means could
never prove hurtful in this case; they would become useless only if
disorganisation were already operated; but then, since all hopes were
gone, what means would not prove superfluous? We recommended the
application of numerous leeches to the temples, behind the ears, and
along the course of the jugular vein; a large blister between the
shoulders, and sinapisms to the feet, as affording, though feeble,
yet the last hopes of success. Dr. B., being the patient's physician,
had the casting vote, and prepared the antispasmodic potion which Dr.
Lucca and he had agreed upon; it was a strong infusion of valerian
and ether, &c. After its administration, the convulsive movement, the
delirium increased; but, notwithstanding my representations, a second
dose was given half an hour after. After articulating confusedly a
few broken phrases, the patient sunk shortly after into a comatose
sleep, which the next day terminated in death. He expired on the 19th
of April, at six o'clock in the afternoon."