Cottage scenes during the cholera : $b being extracts from a diary written in July and August, 1832Coppard, William Isaac
Religion
Cottage scenes during the cholera : $b being extracts from a diary written in July and August, 1832
Coppard, William Isaac
Cholera -- Great Britain; Coppard, William Isaac, -1865 -- Diaries
It is essential that due attention be paid to the very first indication
of indisposition during the prevalence of the epidemic. Vegetables and
fruit should be avoided. Strong affections of the mind, arising from
anxiety, alarm, or excess of grief, are extremely injurious; therefore
the mind should be kept calm, and if any symptoms, however trivial,
should occur, medical advice should be obtained as speedily as possible.
If, through neglect, or any other particular cause, the second stage has
come on, with violent sickness, cramp, cold extremities, weakness, and
sinking of the pulse, &c. the disease is extremely dangerous. I have not
heard of any specific having yet been discovered, which can be
recommended with assurance of success. But even from this stage, and
under the most disheartening circumstances, several patients have
recovered.
It is hoped, that a plain statement of some of the remedies which were
resorted to in this parish, may have a place here, without a risk of
being objectionable; especially as it is unaccompanied by any attempt to
encroach upon the prerogative of those whose professional education and
experience entitle them to be the sole arbiters and directors of such
subjects.
Many instances occurred, when medical aid could not be immediately
obtained; and some, when there was every probability of considerable loss
of time. Under such circumstances, to prevent, if possible, the early
stage of the disease assuming a more serious character, much benefit was
derived from the following recipes, supplied by Mr. Langworthy; due
regard being observed to circumstances as they arose at the time, as well
as to the proportions usually allowed for difference of age, sex, and
constitution:—
Powdered rhubarb 8 grains.
Powdered ginger 6 grains.
Carbonate of soda 20 grains.
Calomel, occasionally added 3 or 4 grains.
It appeared to us, that in most cases which came under our observation,
where the use of heating or spirituous liquors had been resorted to, for
the purpose of allaying pain in the bowels, it did more harm than good.
In cases which were attended with aggravated symptoms, five, ten,
fifteen, or twenty grains of calomel, with nearly an equal quantity of
powdered ginger, were given by Mr. L., according to circumstances, and in
an hour or two afterwards, from half an ounce to an ounce of castor oil,
with one, two, or three drachms of tincture of rhubarb.
When much irritation has been going on, soda water, in a state of
effervescence, or a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, and the same
quantity of salvolatile, have tended to allay sickness, &c.
In more advanced stages of the disease, the following mixture, drank
cold, has given relief:—
Carbonate of soda 1 drachm.
Common salt 1 drachm.
Oxymuriate (chlorate) of potash 3 or 4 grains.
To be mixed in a quart of water, and drank when the patient complained of
thirst.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account