Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1842-10-15
ARLINGTON, Oct. 81, 1912.

ARLINGTON, Oct. Bib 1912.
Mr.. HuFsToN,-Dear Sir II consider it d
duty that every physician owes 10 the cornmu-.
NIFTY IN which he moves, to communicate free
~ and honestly to his brother physicians, all
important facts which may have come into his
possession. either from long experience, mi
mute research ,or otherwise. IL is indlspensa-
bic 10 the advancement Of science, that medi-
cal men should be on the most friendly and in
innate terms, and do most unhesltatingly
say that the man that will lock up III his own
bosom from mefcenary m'tlves, any import
ant discovery he may have made IN The treat
mcnt of disease, is neither n philan'hropist or
a christian. ] seud You n short account Of
what | consider ohe Of the most iusidieus
Diseases that ever visited the human family,
which occurred on The plantation Of Mr.. VIM.
G. Gayle, near Baton Rouge, and the result
OF n post mGrtcn examination. Il was n disease
known 20 physicians by t G name Of conees-
tive typhtts fever. The patient was n slave
aged about seventeen years, enacIaIed APP
pearancc. lie complained on Thursday the
20th ult. Of slight InllapoEitlon, bad Iittle or
no fever, as his master believed; he received
The common treatment for mild fever and no
apprehension or Alarm was felt until Satur-
day the LIST inst, when he was taken with
very considerable hHulorrhage from the bow
els, stomach or liver. DR.. Harvey WAS called
on Sunday the 2nd, hut did not see the case
until late Sunday night, he found him in a
cotpetose or state of stupor, tongue swollen so
much as TO ill the mouth, hard and dr.; his
prescription seemed to relieve The most dis-
tressing SYMPTOMS for a time. and Monday and
Tuesda. he appeared better. On Tuesday
evening | saw him with DR.. Harvey, and after
having examined, and received a history OF
the case, | pronounced it at once hopeless,
and believed it TO have been so from Satnr-
day. Or my expressing this opinion, Mr..
Gayle smiled, and remarked that i should
have seen him on Sunday night: that he was
now a hundred per cent better. The result of
the examination fully sustain ed me in the
opinion I had given it was very evident that
from that period, he was entirely out Of the
reach of all remedies. The stomach was in
a high state of congestion, and a considerable
portion Of it in a state Of gangrene; the whole
intestinal canal was more or less lnilamed
and congesred; the lever intestine, were in a
state of gangrenc. The liver had the appear
ance of having been parhoiied, and such had
been the state Of engagement that all the
intestines in the Immediate vicinity OF that
organ were highly tinged externally from an
~cfusicn OF imperfectly formed bile. The lungs
were more highly congested than | ever saw
them from any disease the kidneys and
spleen ere very much enlarged and sPongy,
the brain highly congested, %effuslon OF bloody
serum TO the extent of several ounces, had
taken place, the upper part of the scu!l pre-
scn;ed a moststrange appearance, the vessels
between the membrane and the Uranium being
all very much engorged and this lmme-
diately under that portion OF the scalp that
had been shaved and blistered.
It would be folly in the extreme for me
10 attempt in so small a space as the columns
of a newspaper TO follow up this insldlous
disease through all its winnings and doubllngs,
for it at ore time or another puts on all the
symptoms, of almost every disease we are sub
lee, to, and very often indeed, the most expe-
rienced and vigilaDt physicians are decieved,if
rot in The disease, in the different stages and
it frequently runs through them all like a
quarter horse: the slightest mistake or neglect
never fails 10 leave the physician IN the lurch.
| consider it very unsafe for any medical man
TO prescribe for a*longer time than twenty
| four hours The most promtneEt symptoms
are great restlessness, wild expression of coun-
finance, unequal temperature OF the surface,
the knee pans always cod, the tongue very
often soft, white and fabhy, and after the
second parcxism a white p~elicIe is always to
be observed on the gums; they present the
anpearance of a scalded chickens loot, and
| " i form in half an hour after being rubbed
off The disease very often assumes the ap-
nearauce of the mildest in'ermitant, and the
grea est difficulty | have fsnnd in its treat
1ment, is in being able to persuade the pa
TENT he is sick enough to submit to rigid
treatment.
Iwould advise all young pract,t oners to be
verv cautious in the use Ct the lancet er
emet;cs at this season OF the year; lrrepara-
j BE mischief may be done by a single bleed,
inc. or an emetic. DR.. Isaac A Smith, late O
s. Francisviile, who stood Preemlnent IN his
nrofsssjon, and was very successiu': IN the
treatment of coneestIve lever, has often telt
mo that he uniformly refused to visit a pa
fiaut tina, had been bied or vamited, that he
had never known one to recover. | was cailet
a few davs ago to a patien:, OF robust eonsti
tution; he had alt the symptoms OF a very higi
Grade of bilious infiamatcry fever; h" lad
@ hinh bounding pulse, difficult TO deFresS, grea
nam in the head and back. constant SIGH! n,
With a Great sense OF iullress Of the chest.
n believed the free use al the lancet was stroHg
" indicated. I oes1ed a We L, and stood vat
nv finger on The pulse: he had not lost fv
-,iaces OF bleed wren his pulse sunk to b
;pp eodt4tctrrz etounS