The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1873-07-23


carded and posted upon every dwell.
ing. And if any member of family
should at such time say I am sick.
require him to lay down and stay
there until he shall say am well.
The materies morbi of many diseas-
es may not be stunned or turned
aside. We cannot shun measels,
smallpox or scarlet fever, but we
may avoid cholera in the way to
which have now referred.
Suppose: however, the disease
cannot be avoided. can it be success
fully treated? / affirm thatit can.
TREATMENT.
Cholera consists in three promi-
nent stages-the premonitory, ex-
plosive and collapse. In the pre-
monitory stage, which consists main
Iy of loose bowels, all that lis neces-
sary is to require the patient to lay
down and keep still, give twenty
drops of laudanum and as much
spirits camphor, little iced toddy
with light diet. If the symptoms
do not at once abate, give ten grains
of calomel, with half grain of opium,
and repeat every six hours until the
stools are bilious. ~ Many of these
cases will require, in addition, for
permanent relief, after the bilious
secretion has been established, the
use of quinine in four grain doses
every four hours, for several days.
Some of them are prone to run into
diarrhpa, or dysentery which will
require the usual remedies in such
cases.
The explosive stage which is
ushered in by active purging and
more or less vomiting of rieewater,
together with frequent pulse, cool
skin, and in many instances cramp
ing, should be actively treated with
mercury, opium, blisters of canthari-
DIES, sinapisms OF mustard, astrin-
gents by the. rectum and stomach,
bottles of hot water, cracked ice,
icewater, iced tea, iced wine; with
great quietude, the avoidance of
all fatigue, together with rubbing
with chloroform, and it's inhalation
for the cramps. The above consti-
tutes the line of treatment, varied to
suit peculiar cases which after long
experience 1 have found to be most
efTectual.
But to be more explicit. Mer-
curry is the great remedy, and if the
case is seen in time for its appropri
alton will always save the patient
AS to the form Of it, the quantity
and times, as we'll as the mode Of
administration, there may be a diff
ference Of opinion. A late distin
guished writer prefers the sulphide
most practitioners prefer calomel or
protochloride. One of our ablest
physicians prefers small doses-the
fourth or twelfth Of a grain at short
intervals. l am in the habit Of US
ing calomel in decided doses every
hour in violent cases, or every four
hours in the milder, until three or
four portions have been taken. If
there is sick stomach, with vomiting
prefer to give it floating upon a
tablespoonful Of water, in eight or
ten grain doses, with twenty drops |
Of laudanum, or half grain Of opium.
If there be no vomiting, l prefer |
pill of ten grains with half grain Of
opium. l prefer calomel, because it |
is tasteless, easy Of administration,
and if it once reaches the mucus
cannot be elected and |
because there. is no danger of using
too much, the only solicitude being
to give enough. Why it is that
recreation or bile puts a stop
to cholera, may not, in the present
state of science, be explained, but
it is a we'll established fact, recog
niZed by the whole intelligent pro-
fession. Any bile will save a case of
cholera. The next most valuable |
remedy is opium. In fact it was
maintained a few years ago by DIR.
that opium was, of it
self a sufficient remedy. He adj
vised it at eight and ten grain
doses. The practice of 1849, in
this country, was founded largely
upon this theory, 1t, however, sig
nally failed, and no doubt was the
cause of much evil and many deaths.
Opium shold be given in moderate
doses, say half to one grain, rare
ly more, especially when given at
short intervals. When thus used,
it is not only great quieter of ir-
but is one of the best sus-
tainers of vital force, which in this
disease is always so much impaired.
The next most valuable remedy is
a blister of cantharides, which should |
be applied over the abdomen, at the
very onset in violent cases, and |
which some of the former students
in the Medical Department of the |