Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from IndiaMcGrigor, James, Sir
History
Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India
McGrigor, James, Sir
Great Britain. Army -- Sanitary affairs; Medicine, Military
The next was a sailor, who, a few days before our embarkation, in the
Minerva, at Bombay, had been slightly wounded in the foot by a copper
nail. On my first seeing him, his symptoms were slight, but were gaining
ground fast. On the 10th of December, the day after our embarkation,
he had the most violent symptoms of the disease: the jaws were firmly
locked; the muscles of the neck, before and behind, were strongly
convulsed; and he had twitchings of the muscles of his face. He pointed
to the region of the stomach, where, he afterwards told me, that he had
intolerable pain and sickness. This man was immediately put under the
same treatment as was employed in the case of Sergeant Kirkland, with
this difference, that, instead of broth, a bath was made from fat, or
what is, on ship-board, called the slush. The same success attended; but
the symptoms yielded more slowly, and it was several months before the
sailor recovered.
From hearing me relate these successful cases, by the warm bath and
mercury, some cases in the Bombay general hospital were treated in the
same manner. My friend, Dr Keir, informed me that he tried it in three
cases of tetanus, in the garrison hospital. It succeeded in one, but
failed in the other two.
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YELLOW FEVER, AND THE RESEMBLANCE WHICH THIS
DISEASE BEARS TO THE PLAGUE.
When I had nearly brought these sketches to a conclusion, I met with
two books which I regret that I did not see earlier, viz. Dr Chisholm’s
work on the Pestilential Fever of the West Indies, and Dr Wittman’s
Travels. In perusing these works, I have had great satisfaction to find a
coincidence with me in some opinions which I had formed, and which I have
introduced into this treatise.
It is matter of regret to me, that I did not meet Dr Wittman in Egypt.
Most of my observations, I find, coincide with his; and I am glad to have
mine confirmed by authority so respectable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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