Who Knows You Know?

Art. VII.—
—By Ezra Moon, M. D., College Corner, Ind.

Mr. B. called for medical aid for self Nov. 2d. Stated that two days before he had commenced having an attack of flux. Being away from home, he had called on Dr. Watson, who made the following prescription:

Dose, a half teaspoonful every two hours.

His condition when he called on me was as follows: Extreme nausea, with small, frequent, bloody discharges from the bowels, accompanied by severe tormina and tenesmus; skin dry and hot; pulse 115 per minute, small; features pinched. I prescribed

Dose, a teaspoonful every hour.

Also: Rx Ipecac pulv., grs. x., every ten minutes, till thorough emesis is produced; after which there was no more nausea during the attack. Requested quiet in the recumbent position as an essential part of the treatment.

I saw him again in the evening; condition the same except the pulse more full. He was getting up to stool about every fifteen minutes. I continued the treatment with the addition of an anodyne, "not to cure the dysentery, but to give the patient rest."

Nov. 3d—Found the patient had passed a bad night with no abatement of the dysenteric symptoms. I then noticed a sallowness of the complexion was appearing, and he complained of a "weight" in the right side, where I found some tenderness on pressure. Discontinued the anodyne, and prescribed:

Dose, a teaspoonful every three hours, and repeated the first prescription.

Nov. 4.—Found the patient had passed a bad night, with no abatement of any of the symptoms till 8 o'clock in the morning, when he began to perspire, and slept an hour. I stopped the Nux, and repeated the first prescription, and gave Quinia Sul. grs. ijss. every two hours till he had taken six doses. With a mild tonic and a repetition of the first prescription, he convalesced nicely.

Now I "want to know you know" whether the Salts did nay good in the treatment of the above case. I suppose if you give to any reader of the Journal a case of dysentery, he will put down Aconite and Ipecac as the basis of treatment, and add such collaterals as the case may demand, providing, however, that there is no indication for a specific remedy.

I believe the result in this case and the cases reported by Prof. Locke last month would have been the same if the Magnesia Sul. had been left out.

Maybe where there is evidence of intestinal accumulation, it will be of service the same as any other cathartic to free the canal of foreign matter, still I am inclined to the opinion that the Aconite and Ipecac, if you please, will be as successful without the catharsis as with it. At least, if it was an experiment, we have failed to learn anything by it, because it was too badly mixed.

The Eclectic Medical Journal, Vol. XXXIV, 1874, was edited by John M. Scudder, M.D.