Medical and physiological problems, being chiefly researches for correct principles of treatment in disputed points of medical practice / by William Griffin and by Daniel Griffin.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and physiological problems, being chiefly researches for correct principles of treatment in disputed points of medical practice / by William Griffin and by Daniel Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    95/266 (page 89)
    SUDDDN DEATH IN JAUNDICE. F9 unwilling to be disturbed. From this very dangerous state she was rescued by active and continued purging; the yellow tinge gradually disappeared, and in a few days she regained her usual health. Within a very short period afterwards, another member of the same family was attacked ; a boy, of about 13 years of age. My brother was requested to see him, and found him moaning and comatose; his belly tender to the touch, his pulse slow, and his skin of a satfron colour ; his breathing was not stertorous.— This case was more sudden than either of the foregoing ; the boy was seized with sickness of stomach and vomiting at night, and in the morning was jaundiced and insensible. In this state he lay, until nearly the end of the second day, without medical aid, up to which period his bowels had not been moved. An in- effectual effort w'as then made to purge him, but he was unable to swallow, and died in a few hours. The parents were now, it may be supposed, highly apprehen- sive for their remaining children, and the event proved not with- out just reason. After the lapse of a month their next boy, John Barrj', aged eleven years, shewed symptoms of jundice. He grew languid and heavy, and in two days time the tunica albuginea and skin were of a deep yellow. There was a great sluggishness of the bowels, and slight tenderness of the abdomen, but very little pain. He did not complain of his head, but like the o thers was seized with sickness of stomach and vomiting. I had early notice of this attack, and was vigilant in looking for the superven- tion of coma, although from any existing symptoms there was no greater reason to apprehend it than in any common case of jaun- dice, if I except some slight dilatation of the pupils and sluggish- ness in their movements. The boy was up and about, and did not in fact appear to be very ill ; but the fate of his brother and sister left a lesson not to be forgotten, and I accordingly warned the mother to give me instant notice on the occurrence of the slightest stupor,—he was in the mean time actively purged. There was little change in him that night or the next, but on the suc- ceeding morning I had a messenger with me at an early hour, to say that he had fallen into a state of insensibility in the night, and could not now be roused. I found him quite comatose, with slow pulse, dilated pupils, and almost a total loss of sensation and volun- tary motion. On pinching his hand severely, however, he evinced