- Email: [email protected]
THE WATER-CURE.
571
prussic acid,
tincture of
sesquichloride
of to Dr. Hutchinson.
What
precept does he
iron, beef-tea, brandy with soda-water (not wish to enforce by the publication of his salt), creosote, and small portions of solid case ?2 Does he regard it as at all bearing
the state of the upon the merits of hydropathy ? Assuredly not. It only shows the imprudence of the person who lost his life by the untimely and improper use of what is stated by one of the physicians whom Dr. Hutchinson has such a horror of-one of those who have taken the contents. After ten days of this judicious trouble to investigate the facts relating to stimulation, the patient died, as might be hydropathy-that it is a strong and dangerexpected, and almost the only morbid ap- ous remedy in the hands of unskilful persons. If Dr. Hutchinson were present at the pearance detected on post-mortem examination, was "the mucous neerrabnune q the post-mortem of a person who had died from stomach injected from the effects of the an overdose of prussic acid, what conclusion would he come to? To be consistent, he vomiting." Can it be doubted that the patient died would at once avow his horror of a remedy from poisoning, and that the immediate so dangerous to life, and stigmatise those gencause of death was inflammation of the tlemen who, after long and patient investi. stomach? It appears that the vomiting gation, had found it a most valuable remedy, ceased some time before death, and Dr. as quacks-or more. Hutchinson imagined its cessation was atDr. Hutchinson is evidently moved" by tributable to his havin " frequently" admi. the true professional horror of any innovanistered "one drop of creosote." Can he tion upon old-established rules of treatment, possibly be ignorant of the well-known fact and iu his hurry to show his disgust at such that vomiting almost invariably ceases, in an absurdity as hydropathy, and in his haste such cases, some hours before death, and to consign it "to the contemptuous tomb of that its cessation indicates the gradual de- all the Capulets," has, instead, only perpeparture of vital energy, which repeated doses trated a non sequitur. of creosote would be exactly calculated to Apologising for the length of my letter, I have the honour to be, Sir, your very obehasten? Dr. H. must be strangely incompetent to dient humble servant, NON-HYDROPATHICUS. practise his profession, if he pours in drugs and stimulants, with such precipitate rashJanuary 16,1844. ness, upon a stomach which long abstinence from them had rendered peculiarly suscepLETTER FROM DR. H. BENNET tible to their injurious influence, and where, ON consequently, especial caution ought to have AUSCULTATORY SOUNDS. been observed in then’ administration. I have met with many instances of this unTo the Editor of THE LANCET. natural irritability of the stomach, in patients who had pursued a course of the SIR,—On referring to THE LANCET of water-cure. the 25th of November, and on comparing In conclusion, I have only to remark that with the original the quotation from your I trust I shall have awakened Dr. Hutchin- editorial article on auscultation contained son to a more charitable feeling towards his in my paper of the 6th instant, I find professional brethren, in having directed his that I have to plead guilty to the charge of grave attention to his own remark, that this imperfectly quoting the passage I alluded to. case was « striking in its course, andfearful The omission complained of in your last in its termination," I am, Sir, your very number was made by me quite inadvertently ; humble servant, indeed it can only be considered an error of JAS. FREEMAN, M.D. the pen, inasmuch as in my subsequent remarks on the indistinctness of certain valuable Cheltenham, January 18, 1844. As we always wish to give all parties auscultatory phenomena, I evidently coma fair hearing, we have inserted without bated the assertion contained in the original : « Every sound delay the above letter, as also that of11 Non- paragraph which runs thusthat is worth one auscultation, yielded by We have been unavoidHydropathicus." of confidence, is, to a well-organised ably obliged to omit many passages of Dr. straw Freeman’s letter, as we cannot make our and well-trained ear, as distinct, although not so loud, as the stroke of St. Paul’s bell." Journal a medium for personal attack. The words marked in italics are those which I unintentionally omitted. THE WATER-CURE. As regards the question at issue, I still con. tend that all sounds yielded by auscultation To the Editor of THE LANCET. in disease are valuable, whether distinct or SIR,—As a constant reader of your Jour. indistinct, as they all have a pathological nal, I take the liberty of putting one question meaning. But some are valuable to nearly
food,"
"
as
frequently
as
stomach would permit"!! The consequence of this treatment is that the original symptoms " continued with little or no improve. ment," but, in addition, "the stomach became very it-ritable," and rejected all its
prussic acid,
tincture of
sesquichloride
of to Dr. Hutchinson.
What
precept does he
iron, beef-tea, brandy with soda-water (not wish to enforce by the publication of his salt), creosote, and small portions of solid case ?2 Does he regard it as at all bearing
the state of the upon the merits of hydropathy ? Assuredly not. It only shows the imprudence of the person who lost his life by the untimely and improper use of what is stated by one of the physicians whom Dr. Hutchinson has such a horror of-one of those who have taken the contents. After ten days of this judicious trouble to investigate the facts relating to stimulation, the patient died, as might be hydropathy-that it is a strong and dangerexpected, and almost the only morbid ap- ous remedy in the hands of unskilful persons. If Dr. Hutchinson were present at the pearance detected on post-mortem examination, was "the mucous neerrabnune q the post-mortem of a person who had died from stomach injected from the effects of the an overdose of prussic acid, what conclusion would he come to? To be consistent, he vomiting." Can it be doubted that the patient died would at once avow his horror of a remedy from poisoning, and that the immediate so dangerous to life, and stigmatise those gencause of death was inflammation of the tlemen who, after long and patient investi. stomach? It appears that the vomiting gation, had found it a most valuable remedy, ceased some time before death, and Dr. as quacks-or more. Hutchinson imagined its cessation was atDr. Hutchinson is evidently moved" by tributable to his havin " frequently" admi. the true professional horror of any innovanistered "one drop of creosote." Can he tion upon old-established rules of treatment, possibly be ignorant of the well-known fact and iu his hurry to show his disgust at such that vomiting almost invariably ceases, in an absurdity as hydropathy, and in his haste such cases, some hours before death, and to consign it "to the contemptuous tomb of that its cessation indicates the gradual de- all the Capulets," has, instead, only perpeparture of vital energy, which repeated doses trated a non sequitur. of creosote would be exactly calculated to Apologising for the length of my letter, I have the honour to be, Sir, your very obehasten? Dr. H. must be strangely incompetent to dient humble servant, NON-HYDROPATHICUS. practise his profession, if he pours in drugs and stimulants, with such precipitate rashJanuary 16,1844. ness, upon a stomach which long abstinence from them had rendered peculiarly suscepLETTER FROM DR. H. BENNET tible to their injurious influence, and where, ON consequently, especial caution ought to have AUSCULTATORY SOUNDS. been observed in then’ administration. I have met with many instances of this unTo the Editor of THE LANCET. natural irritability of the stomach, in patients who had pursued a course of the SIR,—On referring to THE LANCET of water-cure. the 25th of November, and on comparing In conclusion, I have only to remark that with the original the quotation from your I trust I shall have awakened Dr. Hutchin- editorial article on auscultation contained son to a more charitable feeling towards his in my paper of the 6th instant, I find professional brethren, in having directed his that I have to plead guilty to the charge of grave attention to his own remark, that this imperfectly quoting the passage I alluded to. case was « striking in its course, andfearful The omission complained of in your last in its termination," I am, Sir, your very number was made by me quite inadvertently ; humble servant, indeed it can only be considered an error of JAS. FREEMAN, M.D. the pen, inasmuch as in my subsequent remarks on the indistinctness of certain valuable Cheltenham, January 18, 1844. As we always wish to give all parties auscultatory phenomena, I evidently coma fair hearing, we have inserted without bated the assertion contained in the original : « Every sound delay the above letter, as also that of11 Non- paragraph which runs thusthat is worth one auscultation, yielded by We have been unavoidHydropathicus." of confidence, is, to a well-organised ably obliged to omit many passages of Dr. straw Freeman’s letter, as we cannot make our and well-trained ear, as distinct, although not so loud, as the stroke of St. Paul’s bell." Journal a medium for personal attack. The words marked in italics are those which I unintentionally omitted. THE WATER-CURE. As regards the question at issue, I still con. tend that all sounds yielded by auscultation To the Editor of THE LANCET. in disease are valuable, whether distinct or SIR,—As a constant reader of your Jour. indistinct, as they all have a pathological nal, I take the liberty of putting one question meaning. But some are valuable to nearly
food,"
"
as
frequently
as
stomach would permit"!! The consequence of this treatment is that the original symptoms " continued with little or no improve. ment," but, in addition, "the stomach became very it-ritable," and rejected all its