Examination of the prejudices commonly entertained against mercury : as beneficially applicable to the greater number of liver complaints, and to various other forms of disease, as well as to syphilis / by James Curry.

  • Curry, James, -1819.
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of the prejudices commonly entertained against mercury : as beneficially applicable to the greater number of liver complaints, and to various other forms of disease, as well as to syphilis / by James Curry. 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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    With respect to the opinions which I enter- tain, and the practice which I recommend as the arising from an inflammatory erethism or irritation of the liver, in consequence of that intimate sympathy which exists between these two viscera at all stages of life, but especially during the infantine and puerile periods; and as a corollary from this, that, although at no time during the progress of the complaint, are we to omit the use of means directed to the head itself as a measure of security, yet that the most success- ful plan is, to take up the disorder in the early and probably the only curable stage, as hepatitis, and treat it by leeching and blistering the right hypochondrium, and by calomel given in such doses as, first to excite the secretion, and next to emulge the ducts, of the liver. Although, from what I re- collect as common in my own time, I thought it not unlikely, that the singular opinions of a London teacher might have been promulgated in the societies at Edinburgh by some of the students who annually go from hence,—and in that way a hint have reached the acute and observant author (then re- siding in the immediate vicinity of the Scottish metropolis), yet I was very far from insinuating any thing like plagiarism on his part; and by a letter lately received from him I am perfectly convinced, that he drew his conclusions from his own observation, and is therefore equally entitled to the claim of originality in the doctrine. I am additionally gratified to learn from him, that a treatise which he is now about to pub- lish on Apoplexy, will shew a similar coincidence in our peculiar opinions; and thus tend to elucidate and confirm another point in that comprehensive Pathology which I have been 90 long labouring to complete.—In the mean time, I earnestly recommend an attentive perusal of his work on Hydrocephalus, as displaying not less acuteness of remark, than soundness of judgment, and unwearied assiduity in ob- serving disease.