Letters on the Cholera Asphyxia, as It Has Appeared in the City of New-York; Addressed to John C. Warren, M.D., of Boston, and Originally Published in That City. Together with Other Letters, Not Before Published (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1832 Excerpt: ...or even at its invasion, we find one organ sustaining more of the burthen than another, and vice versa, it is only what is constantly witnessed in other constitutional affections, and does but arise from their varying susceptibilities, or the idiosyncrasies or other accidents appertaining to the subject. It follows from the principles which I have endeavoured to advocate, that the extreme vessels must be the instruments of this disease, and it is upon those organs that we must make an impression in the treatment. One of the morbid conditions is a general contraction over the whole body. This will explain some of the vital, and some of the more mechanical phenomena. It will account in part at least for the carbonization of the blood, which can no longer pursue its unembarrassed course through the lungs; it will account in part also, for the shrinking of the skin, and the collapse of the features. Such a universal contraction must affect the general circulation and contribute to the venous congestion, and probably produces a strong impression on the heart through the medium of sympathy. But doubtless more is owing to the nature of the morbid action itself. It is established in every organ; in the liver and kidneys it is especially denoted by the failure of their secretions. It is a useless multiplication of causes to ascribe the deficiency of bile to the failure of digestive excitement;--and its disappearance from the evacuations has been unnecessarily assigned to a contraction of the ducts from irritation of the intestinal mucous membrane. We constantly find nearly the same quantities of bile in the vesicle after death from other diseases, and it is not usual in Cholera for that organ to be distended;--nor have I ever been able to detect more than a trace of...