On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox.

  • Fox, Wilson, 1831-1887.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    cold alone, witho\it the employment of rpiinine ; and I question whether in mine, when the same effect was observed after the baths,* any direct effect could be attributed to the quinine. The large dose at first given to Mrs. Erophy produced some gastric disturbance; and I think that a minor degree of this complication is to be attributed to its employment in Caley’s case. It would therefore appear desirable that future cases should be ti'eated without it, until at least it is seen whether any more distinct indications call for its employment. In Caley’s case the quantity of urine and urea passed during the febrile stage was very large, but both were higher in the later than in the earlier periods of the treatment. Forty-eight hours after the treatment was commenced he passed 109 ounces of urine, containing 527 grains of urea; on the fifth day 191 ounces, containing 767 grains ; on the twelfth day 165 ounces, with 894 grains ; though on the eighth day 64 ounces of lu-ine only contained 220 grains, and on several days the amount of urea was less than 500 grains. The quantitative analysis of Mrs. Brophy’s urine was only commenced on the fifth day after the extreme pyrexia. Sub- sequent to this day the greatest quantity of urea passed was 433 grains, and it never but once exceeded 350 grains. It is probable therefore that the products of the decomposition of tissue were eliminated in the first four days, during which the patient was, however, still pyrexial.** I may, in conclusion, be permitted to remark that I trust that this treatment may be hereafter found equally successful in other febrile diseases presenting similar phenomena of hyper- pyrexia, and in some cases of pyaemia, scarlatina, puerperal fever, and even of tetanus. It is a possible accident in the whole class of these affections, and it is probable that many of those whose duration is definite will present a more favoui-able field for its utility than acute rheumatism, which may, as in Caley’s case, be indefinitely protracted, even after the immediate danger of death has been averted ; but in the specific fevers, if life can only be protracted and the strength maintained through their natural course, they tend finally to a spontaneous recovery. ' Seo Diagrams II. and III. 2 See tables of analysis of the \irino, Appendix.