A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Medicine -- Practice
Space will not allow of a lengthened analysis of the statistics that
have been published on this subject, and I will give only some of the
more important statistical results. While, as we have seen, the average
duration of pyrexia and articular pain under salicylate treatment is
about 5.4 days, under moderate alkaline treatment, according to the
recent statistics of Finlay and Lucas,[183] the average duration of
pyrexia was 10.3 days and of articular pain 12.2 days, and of Owen[184]
6.5 days for the first and 8 days for the second, or a general average
for the pain and pyrexia together of 9.25 days, or about 3.85 days
longer than under the salicylate treatment. Nor can it be said even of
the full alkaline plan that the first or second dose frequently
relieves the articular pains like a charm. On the other hand, it has
been already shown that the average time spent in hospital was five
days less under the full alkaline than under the salicylate treatment.
[Footnote 183: _Lancet_, ii. 1879, 420.]
[Footnote 184: _Ibid._, ii., 1881, 1081.]
As regards the relative power of the salicylates and of full alkaline
{61} treatment in protecting the heart, the following analysis and
calculation deserve attention. The percentage of cases in which cardiac
disease set in after the salicylate treatment began was, according to
Powell, 18.75; according to Haviland Hall, 37.1; according to Finlay
and Lucas, 11.60; Southey, 8; Brown, 4.76; Jacobi, 3.35, or a general
average of 14 per cent.; whereas cardiac disease developed after the
alkaline treatment had commenced in 13.6 per centum according to
Blake;[185] in 10.7 per cent. according to Dickinson;[186] in 7 per
cent. according to Owen; in 6.6 per cent. according to Finlay and
Lucas; and in 2 per cent. according to Fuller; making a general average
of only 7.8 per cent.
[Footnote 185: _Med. and Surg. Reports of Boston City Hospital_, 1st
Series, 1870.]
[Footnote 186: This percentage is obtained by adding together all the
cases treated by alkalies given by Dickinson in his IX., X., XI., and
XII. tables. Their total was 65 cases in which the heart was affected
seven times. In table IX. from drachm ii-iv of alkaline salts were
given daily, and in table X. about drachm iij daily.--_Lancet_, i.,
1869.]
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