The mountain Democrat., 1865-02-04
Kew 6oaS Of Treating snia.IlPi,oo1,

|
It iS an accepted article Of faith anon
medical men that smallpox alone can be
get Bu s'lpox ; that it cannot arise sponta
neously, or, in other words, that II cal
never be the result Of morbi6c agencis
which, under other circumstances, wOult
have resulted in other maladies. Thi
doctrine is declared by Miss Nightingal
to be wholly unwarranted by fact. Oh
servatiOn has proved to her that smallpox
is not Invariably generated like cats ant
Dogs" every germ Of the disease bein(
necessarily the progeny Of parent germ!
of its own kind. She has seen and smell
smallpox growing up under her nose
amidst conditions which entirely preclu
ded the hypothesis Of contagion from
without, and which she is convinced
would not have precluded the possibility
o! averting the outbreak Of that particu
lar form of disease.
Miss Nightingale's remarks are full o.
encouragement for the present moment
for they foretoken the discovery'of some
new mode Of dealing with that horrible
malady, whether it occur in man or in
the lower animals, which shall despoil il
Of more than half it's terrors, by prevent
ing or crippling its self-diffusive force and
in all directions abating its development
Stacking the intensity Of its deadly effica
cy. DR.: D. F. Rennie, surgeon Of the
Slst regiment, now in China, is the dis
coverer Of q now mode Of treatment, that
has been employed with extraordinary
success by himselfin the British embassy
at Pekin, as we'll as among the troops Al
Tien.tsin and elsewhere, and also BY
some of the medical practitioners al
Shungbae. Brigadier General Stavely,
commanding the British troops 10 China,
was SO impressed by the superior results
which had been obtained by the new sys.
TEN as compared with the old, that he
addressed the following memorandum,
dated Tien-tsin, 2sth February, 1862, to
a senior medical officer at that station:
"The senior medical officer will he
good enough to make full report Of the
result of the treatment for the smallpox,
Distinguishing the cases which have been
treated according to DR.. Rennie's system,
from those treated by the usual practice VI
AS the Brigadier General commanding
proposed that this report be laid before
his Royal Highness the General COM
manding in chief, and as he considers
that Rennic's theory, if correct, is sub.
ject of the greatest importance. not only
to the British army but TO the world al
large, every medical officer capable oI
giving information on the subject is called
upon to do so in the fullest possible
manner.
1t was further directed by the Briga
der General that DR.. Rennie should be
called on to include in his report on small
pOx, notice Of the principle guiding bis
practice id dysentery, its success having
been very apparent in serious cases ii
which the ordinary mode of treatment
had altogether failed. DR.. Rennie re
ported accordingly. DR.. Rennie's view
Of the origin of smallpox are completely
in harmony With those Of Miss Nightin'
gale. We may state broadly that he re-
CARDS it IS symptom, rather than substan'
tive disease. The pustular eruption thnt
characterizes it is the terminal stage Of a
disorder which might, under different cir
cumstances, have Terminated in purulent
effusion 10 the interior of the body, INSTEAD
Of on its surface.
The purulsnt matter might have been
| deposited in the substance Of the lungs,
and the disease would have received the
name either Of consumption or pneumo-
MIA, according to the rapidity Of its course.
Had the samc matter found a receptacle
in the liver, it would have produced acute
inflammation, followed by abscess -
Thrown out on the surface Of the intes-
tines or in q. pustular form, 1t would have
constituted one Of the forms os dysentery.
It might have been extruded in q diffuse
form on the skin, and then it would have
been called phlegmonous erysipelas--
Guided by these conclusions, DR.. Rennie
makes it Q rule in dealing with the va
rious forms Of tropical diseases that come
under his hands, whatever may be the
symptoms present at the moment, always
to test the condition Of the blood and as
certain whether the diseased action de-
pends upon the presence in it of purulent
or other matter.
If the test gives an affirmative result,
he proceeds to extract the morbid matter
from the blood, which. he effects by re-
peatcd outward friction with the same
mcdicant which served him in the first
instance as a test. This is either croton
oil or tartar emetic ointment, both Of
which have long been employed external
" in medicine, as couhter-irritants for the
relief of symptoms, such as inflammation
of the lungs or air tubes. In such cases
they have been invariably applied over
the immediate seat Of the disease, and
the effects they produce generally puru-
lent eruptions) are specially referred to
the peculiar irritating properties they are
supposed to possess.
DR.. Rennie is, however, convinced that
they produce no specific effect whatever,
and that the suppurative action which
ensues from their use is q local determi
nation to the skin Of pre-existing disease
of the blood. 1t is principally by means
of friction with croton oil or tartar emetic
ointment, systematically applied, that DR..
Rennie declares he has prevented large
amount of serious disease, and cured q
good deal that had become serious. It is
above all by this method that he has
achieved that extraordinary success in
the treatment Of smallpox and other dis.
eases, held by him to be primarily iden'
tical with it, which has been officially
certified by the superior military author
tiles in China.-[ London Times.
.-.
Gor.-The word got is often used su.
pcrhuously and incorrectly in familiar
nxnrncrionc When In ranlu To NV Il and