An outline or synopsis of the new medical doctrines contained in Knapp's Researches on primary pathology and the origin and laws of epidemics / drawn up by the author.

  • Knapp, M. L. (Moses L.), 1799-1879.
Date:
1858
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An outline or synopsis of the new medical doctrines contained in Knapp's Researches on primary pathology and the origin and laws of epidemics / drawn up by the author. 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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    the first step towards reducing practical medicine to a cer- tain science. Reference.—For the author’s definition of this primitive dyscrasia, called the scorbutic diathesis, see p. 14 to 26, vol. 2; also p. 33 to 37, vol. 2, bearing on the same point, viz: the first link in the morbid chain or predisposition to disease. Also, see the testimony of the old and modern authors quoted, bearing on this point. Remark.—The book shows the origin of the scorbutic diathesis in impaired nutrition, and its idiopathic character, very clearly, as the following quotations will prove: “Putrid gums, a stinking breath, and loosening of the teeth, we find also in persons who, by long fasting, are de- prived of a supply of fresh chyle.”—Lind. “I have always observed men of the rigorous orders in the church of Rome, greatly scorbutic. They are remark- able for rotten gums, part of which are commonly eaten away, want of teeth, and a most offensive breath.”—Ibid. “The same symptoms are observable in those who are starved to death.”—Ibid. “I am fully confirmed in my opinion that whatever weakens the constitution, and especially the organs of di- gestion, may serve, without any other cause, to introduce this disease in a slighter or higher degree.”—Ibid. “The children at the well known school at Tooting were mostly disposed to scurvy from bad diet before the cholera broke out among them.”—Barnes. “ I have known some symptoms of it to arise in old peo- ple, in consequence of long abstinence, owing to the want of appetite. Dr. Stark, who, by way of experiment, re- duced his diet to the least quantity he could subsist upon, was thereupon affected with symptoms of scurvy.”—Blanc. “ The author has witnessed a case of the disease in a young lady, who was confined, for a long time, for the cure of an obstinate diarrhoea, to a diet exclusively of barley.”— Wood. Proposition II.—That this primitive dyscrasia, long