Inquiry respecting Mr. Charles Whitlaw's practice in scrofula and cancer : and the propriety of instituting an asylum, under his care, for these complaints, &c. / by A. Rennie.

  • Rennie, A.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiry respecting Mr. Charles Whitlaw's practice in scrofula and cancer : and the propriety of instituting an asylum, under his care, for these complaints, &c. / by A. Rennie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and justice have been strangely metamorphosed: if my dishonour shall turn out for the good of society, it is well. The charge, that this visit was of a private nature, is entirely unfounded, as it was made at the request of, and in company with, one of the Committee; and the opinions I may have expressed, were made in the same undisguised manner as I had before been accus- tomed to do on every occasion. The next case I adduce, however, is one In which I do acknow- ledge myself to have given an opinion against the propriety of Mr. Whitlaw's treatment, though, I believe, till this moment unknown to the Committee : and in respect of this case, I do insist upon my right to undeceive the patient, when under an error, in confidence, on me- dical treatment; and no censure of any Committee shall in future deter me from pursuing exactly the same course. This was a gentleman who laboured under an affection resembling paralysis, connected, accoi'ding to the opinion of some physicians, Avith retrocedent gout. Ihe patient I met in the steam-boat going to Margate. He was then under Mr. Whillaw's care. He described to me his symptoms; told me, that the most eminent phy- sicians declared to him that he was not certain of his life a day, and he was exceedingly desirous to obtain my opinion as to the nature of his complaint. Mr. Whitlaw had, as usual, ordered him No. 1 and the vapour-bath. He was anxious to obtain my opinion as to these remedies. His complaints were, violent headache and giddiness, numbness of the hands and feet, so much so, that he could not sit in a church or warm room, without losing the power of his extremities; yet was this patient ordered into a vapour-bath of a heat near 100, and that for the professed object of sweating out of his body the acrimony/ of ihe buttercup. Every symptom indicated increased de- termination of blood to the head 4 and, in such circumstances, a rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain, from the highly accelerated circulation produced by the vapour-bath, which was exceedingly likely, were instant, inevitable death. In such a case, what was my duty? Had death happened, silence on my part were just as virtually criminal, as the actual recommendation of the practice, and I therefore hesitated not a moment to point out the danger to the patient. There was another very similar case, in like manner put into the vapour-bath, though the patient had previously been told, by medical men, that she could not do so without hazard of her life. The pa- tient escaped with life, and Mr. Whitlaw immediately made a boast of the circumstance. I conceive it unnecessary to expatiate longer on this resolution of the Committee, respecting my conduct in warning a person when his life is in danger. The next case will show Mr. Whitlaw's knowkd^ of' cancer. A person came to consult him at Margate, in my presence. The