Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

the belly, and to swallow indigestible substances, as hay, rope, wood, coals, &c. the stomach and bowels chiefly are inflamed, and the above enumerated substances are found united, and forming a crude mass in the stomach. This is regarded by our author as one of the most certain evidences of the previous existence of the disease. The mesentery, the liver, and the diaphragm, also occasionally exhibit marks of inflammation; but this Mr. Blaine regards as altogether sympathetic. In the majority of cases, some inflammatory appearances are visible at the posterior part of the mouth, and in the pharynx; and a peculiar inflamed spot, which is highly characteristic of the disease, is always discovered at the back of the fauces.

Mr. Blaine very justly remarks, that neither in the dog nor in the human animal ought we to place much reliance on any method of preventing the disease after the bite has been inflicted, except the part be excised. This can always be effected. in man; but in animals it is sometimes difficult to discover the parts that have been bitten; and consequently he was desirous to discover some preventive of the attack; and he is fully persuaded he has accomplished this in the following recipe, which he obtained from "a cottager of the name of Webb, near Watford." We subjoin it, not because we would place much. reliance on its efficacy, but that it may be submitted to a fair trial on dogs; for we should be sorry to find the safety of any of our fellow creatures confided to its powers.

"The following, which is an improvement on the original formula, is that which, after much experiment, I find the best method of preparing the remedy:

Take of the fresh leaves of the tree box...2 ounces

Of the fresh leaves of rue..................2 ounces

[merged small][ocr errors]

Chop these finely, and, after boiling them in a pint of water to half a pint, strain and press out the liquor. Beat them in a mortar, or otherwise bruise them thoroughly, and boil them again, in a pint of new milk, to half a pint, which press out as before. After this, mix both the boiled liquors, which will form three doses for a human subject. Double this quantity is proper for a horse or cow; two thirds of it is sufficient for a large dog, calf, sheep or hog; half of the quantity is required for a middling VOL. VIII. 3 B No. 31.

sized dog; and one-third for a small one. These three doses are said to be sufficient, and are directed to be given, one of them every morning fasting. Both the human and brute subject are treated in the same manner, according to the proportions directed.

"In the human subject I have never found it produce any effects whatever but a momentary nausea from disgust. To prevent this disgust operating disadvantageously, the old recipe directs it to be given two or three hours before rising; which is not a bad plan, because it will be less likely to be brought up again by such precaution, which so large and unpleasant a dose might otherwise be. Neither în any animal, except the dog, have I ever witnessed any violent effects from the exhibition of this remedy. In dogs, however, I have frequently seen it produce extreme nausea, panting and distress; in two or three it has even proved fatal: but, as I conceive that it is more likely to be efficacious, when it shows its effects on the constitution; and as, at the same time, it is proper to guard against these effects being too violent: so it is prudent always to begin with a smaller dose than the one prescribed, and to increase it each morning till it shows its activity, by sickness of the stomach, panting, and evident uneasiness. In such cases, perhaps five doses are not too much.

"In a long and successful practice, I have given this remedy to nearly three hundred living beings. About fifty human persons have taken it, eight or nine horses, several sheep, and a few cows and hogs. The rest were dogs; but in almost all I was enabled to trace the history of the danger, to a conviction, that the animal concerned had been bitten by a dog unquestionably mad. Out of this number, I am happy to state, and which I conscientiously and solemnly do, that only nine or ten instances of failure have occurred; but candour obliges me to own, that four or five of these were palpable and fair cases; for the medicine was given apparently with every caution."—p. 128.

Our author nevertheless leans as he ought to do to the superior safety of excision; but he thinks "it is of no consequence that the excision or cauterization should be immediately effected; as it is equally efficacious if done at any time previous to the secondary inflammation of the part bitten. We would accord

with this opinion, did we conceive it likely that individuals would as readily submit to excision after some time has elapsed from the infliction of the bite, as directly after it has been inflicted; but as this is not to be expected, we are of opinion that the excision cannot be too soon effected; although it ought not to be left undone, should even some days have passed, under the impression that it is then too late.*

The only notice we conceive necessary to be taken by us regarding mange, which is the subject of the next section, is to mention the idea of our author, that "the canine mange is capable of producing the human itch." We are not prepared to deny the assertion, but we doubt its accuracy; for as very few dogs escape an attack of mange, were it capable of communicating scabies to the human subject, we should find the disease more prevalent than it is, particularly among the lower classes of people, among whom, few families are without a dog.

Rheumatism is a disease almost as common to the dog as to man; but in the quadruped it is attended by some peculiarities. Thus in the dog, it is never present without affecting the bowels; and paralysis of the hind legs is also a common accompaniment of the complaint, when it affects the lumbar muscles. The treatment recommended by our author, consists of the internal exhibition of purgatives combined with opium, the use of the warm bath, and the local application of an embrocation composed of oil of turpentine, spirit of hartshorn, laudanum, and sweet oil, in equal proportions.

Dogs are very subject to tænia, the lumbricus teres, and ascarides: they are also troubled with another kind of worm which is not found in the human body, and which Mr. Blaine describes very vaguely, by saying that it has a short body resembling that of a maggot, and a red or black head. There is nothing new in the treatment recommended; but we are surprised that he appears to be ignorant of the effects of oil of turpentine in tænia.

We conceive it unnecessary for us to go though the remaining articles of the volume, which are of a nature that renders them interesting to those only who are immediately concerned in the treatment of canine diseases.

* For our particular opinions on this subject, see Repository, vol. iii. p. 47-54.

In concluding, we have only to remark, that in a general point of view, this volume is certainly interesting, as extending the limits of pathology, and affording an illustration of the influence of morbid causes on the animal frame, modified by habit and circumstances. Yet reflecting that our author received a regular medical education, we have been struck with the limited knowledge of physiology it displays; and the few efforts he appears to have made to illuminate many important questions in the doctrines of animal life, compared with the many opportunities he possessed. In a second edition of the work, he may supply this deficiency; and we would also recommend him to improve his style of writing, and to correct the many grammatical inaccuracies that deform the pages of the present.

Observations relative to the Use of Belladonna in painful Disorders of the Head and Face; illustrated by many Cases. By JOHN BAILEY, Medical Practitioner, of Harwich.

[From the Annals of Medicine and Surgery, for December, 1817.] No one is unacquainted with Dr. Marcet's interesting paper on the remarkable anodyne properties of the extract of stramonium, inserted in the sixth volume of the MedicoChirurgical Transactions, and reviewed in our 5th Number. As we have given a very extensive trial of this medicine, we shall take this opportunity of giving our testimony to its vir

tues.

We have always employed the extract prepared at Apothecaries' Hall, or Hudson's in the Haymarket. Dr. Marcet recommends beginning with an eighth of a grain, and gradually increasing the dose, if requisite, to one grain or more. In no instance, however, has an eighth of a grain proved at all active with us; and we therefore now commence with one third, and if the pain is violent, with one half a grain, increasing the dose by one third, or one half every day, till the object is attained. Half, or a whole grain, repeated as Dr. Marcet directs, gener

ally proves sufficient; but we have exhibited it in doses of two, and in one instance, in doses of between five and six grains several times a day. This instance was a case of uterine disease, and the patient found the medicine invaluable; for she had it always in her power to remove or diminish the pain, and without any of those effects which had rendered it impossible for her to persist in the use of opium: in fact, no circumstance accompanied its anodyne effects, except a dryness and heat of the fauces. We have never once found those disagreeable effects which are common to the employment of narcotics, and on account of which some practitioners have spoken against stramonium; such as vertigo, temporary amaurosis, &c. In a case of spasm of the præcordia, we lately gave a young woman, who had not been, like the patient with uterine disease, gradually accustomed to its exhibition, a grain every hour, for eight hours; and to another, suddenly seized with spasm of the diaphragm, three grains in a quarter of an hour, without any unpleasant effect: but as the medicine proved totally inert, from the great violence of the disease in each case, these are scarcely fair instances. It may be observed, by the way, that as a very large dose of some powerful narcotic was deemed requisite in each of these cases, we fixed our reliance upon opium, as being at present better acquainted with it, and gave at once an immense dose with success. In diseases, whose grand feature is pain, we have never failed with stramonium, either to cure, or remarkably palliate. In all cases of neuralgia or tic douleureux, even of the most excruciating kind; and in rheumatic head-achs, face-achs, and ear-achs, in chronic rheumatism without swelling, and in wandering pains, our success has been astonishing. In painful inflammatory diseases, we find it much superior to opium, as an adjunct to calomel and antimony. In those distressing cases where medicine and surgery are unvailing, and opium is esteemed the only solace, we have no hesitation in asserting stramonium to be highly superior: with us it has induced no feverishness, no stupor, and, what is of still more consequence to the patient's comfort, no continued and obstinate constipation. Dr. Scudamore has found stramonium in many cases not very effectual, and asserts the superior advantages of combining

« ForrigeFortsæt »