The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-07-24
TYPHOID FEVER.

III az hatAAsh 80 ~ p" - -N%HNE
Sd, 1870, was AZ article By DR.. Wilks, of Ash
ford, Kent, England, Oh the treatment of typhoid
fever by the use Of sulphurous acid, which if the
statement be true, (and there Is no reason to
suspect falsehood in such a matter) should receive
ali the publicity possible, since this fever is 50
frequent and, under most modes Of treatment, 50
deadly a visitor in many communities. Speaking
of sulphurous acid, DR.. Wilks says
This summer We have used the acid in more
than a hundred and seventy cases with signal results;
Of them al, only one died. and he vas a habitual
drunkard and woald not take his medicine"
After quoting from his note book some most
unpromising cases that recovered under its use,
he goss on TO speak of his method Of using It.
He says
1.-The acid should lie given in doses Of from two
and q half to twenty minims, according to age, re-
peated every four hours, and continued for 4 week,
ten days, or even more, until the patient complains
Of tasting, smelling, or feeling like sulphur; or in the
case of infants, until they actually emit an odour Of
the gas from their skin and lTeath.
"I have never pressed its use beyond this. under
the belief that the system must BY that time be
supersaturated; nor have l ever seen reason to regret
stopping at that point.
"When l have seen the case early, before the
diarrhea has become severe, I have given simply the
sulphurous acid, favored with syrup of orange peel,
in water.
"When the diarrhea was troublesome | have
added s~ulphuric acid and laudanum, according TO
the age of the patients.
'Thus my usual formulae for adults have been the
following:
"Recipe-Sulphurous acid, two ~drachms; syrup
orange peel, three ~drachms; water, six ounces; or
"Recipe-Sulphurous acid, two drachms; dilute
s%ulphuric acid, two d~rachms; tincture of opium,
twenty drops; syrup of orange peel, three drachms;
water, six ounces.
For infants Recipe-Sulphurous acid, fifteen
drops; syrup of orange peel, three drachms; water,
one ounce; or
"Recipe-Sulphurous acid, fifteen drops; dilute
s%ulphuric acid, fifteen drops; tincture of opium, two
drops; syrup of orange peel, four d~rachms; water,
one ounce.
"a sixth part Of either of these mixtures is to be
taken every four hours.
"Iu one case only, can | recollect diarrhea setting
in during the sulphurous acid treatment, and with
out having previously existed; but the patient had
old standing renal disease, from which she still suf-
fers, though she has almost forgotten fever.
LEST l should be misunderstood, 1 will state dis
tinctly what | claim for the sulphurous acid in
typhoid fever; that it arrests the further develop
800 ROASOh, 1AN - SOubihNAHS lulo
arrest long enough, exterminates the fever Briefly,
it is an antidote.
"In some of my earlier cases, l left of the acid
after a few days use, because the patients seemed
better. In almost all such cases, there was relapse,
which again Immediately arrested upon the resump-
ton of the acid.
81 believe that, when we set the cases soon
enough, we may stamp out the disease then and
there. For instance, in one t~hirty-six hours L was
sent for to see four children belonging to two differ
et families visiting in the town.
81 had no doubt as to what their symptoms de-
noted, and at once gave the acid. On my visits next
morning, L was met in each house with smiling faces
and the assurance that had been mistaken in my
diagnosis, for the little patients were much better.
OF these children, three remained under my care,
took the acid for o week, and made complete recov-
cries without relapse. The fourth seemed to all so
little that the parents would not heed my advice, but
carried her home after two days of treatment.
Shortly afterwards, l learned that, three days after
reaching home, she had been attacked by typhoid
fever, and hardly escaped with life. l make no
doubt that, had the other three also discontinued the
acid as soon as they seemed we'll, they too would have
had a return of all their symptoms, and have suffered
the ordinary course of typhoid fever. Very possibly
1 have failed to convince you of the advantages of
using this drug; but let me again remind you of the
plain fact that, of one hundred and seUenty-three
cases of this ferer occurring in our practice during
the past fourteen months, tto only died, and those
two did not take the acid; for the one it was not pre-
scribed; the other was a drunkard, and would take
nothing. Of the one hundred and seyenty-one who
took sulphurous acid, not one lost his life; and there
were but few who were not convalescent within fifteen
days of commencing the treatment.
"Surely such results will induce you to try the
medicine for yourselves when opportunity offers"
1t might be added that, the mortality from
typhoid in the best conducted English hospitals,
has heretofore been not less than from twelve to
fifteen per cent. The treatment has generally
consisted, mainly, of careful feeding and nursing,
combined with gentle stimulation, merely to sus-
tain the patient through the course of the disease,
which terminates spontaneously if the patient
can he made to live over the thirtisth day.
Let it be remembered by the reader that the
quotations above are from one of the most re-
spectacle medical journals extant, and not the
irresponsible utterance of the average newspaper !;
that the writer is an English physician of reputa-
ton and, his treatment based upon the modern
fungoid theory of disease, which is now revolu-
tienizing both surgery and therapeutics. Re-
Numbering this, tie fatality Of the disease, and
the inability of the average doctor to cope with
it, the stricken, or their friends for. them may be
induced to try what, under the circumstances,
can be no bold or baseless experiment.