Arsenic : its physiological and therapeutic effects / by James Begbie.

  • Begbie, James, 1798-1869.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Arsenic : its physiological and therapeutic effects / by James Begbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fully on the mind: the patient, in attempting to drink from a wine-glass offered to him, convulsively seized the vessel between his teeth, broke it, wounding his tongue, from which blood flowed freely, the sight of which alarmed him ; calming his agitated frame, and placing his muscles for a time under the government of the will. The mind was throughout the illness undisturbed, and the natural functions were duly performed. No remission of the symptoms had attended the remedies hitherto prescribed. He was ordered the arsenical solution, in the usual dose of five drops, thrice a day, which he continued under the observation of Dr Finlay. On see¬ ing him again together on the 17th—ten days after our last visit— there was a marked remission in all the choreic contortions. The eyeball was suffused, and the tongue, which was still suddenly thrust out, and as suddenly drawn back, was swollen and whitened. He was ordered to continue the drops. On the 28th he was nearly well; all the symptoms having gradually abated in the interval. He was able to maintain himself in a state of rest, to articulate plainly without grimaces, and to swallow without snapping. The arsenic had been followed by a full development of its physiological effects, to which was added a copious crop of boils. Me was per¬ mitted to discontinue the medicine, at the end of three weeks from the time of its commencement, when every symptom of his malady had disappeared. Dr Finlay informs me, that a slight attack of the same character, occurring about a twelvemonth afterwards, was speedily arrested by a return to the same mode of treatment. The case illustrates the remark made in a former paper in regard to the value of arsenic as a remedy in chorea, and, along with others, still enables me to say that in this disease I have never seen it fail. The sequel of one of those, formerly recorded, however, is worthy of notice. The little girl, whose choreic illness in connection with her father’s second rheumatic fever, 1 formerly detailed to the Society, after her recovery under the use of arsenic, continued in good health for several years; her father, meantime, suffering a third attack of rheumatic fever. Without a return of chorea, and uncom¬ plicated with any affection of the joints, the daughter, three years ago, was found to be labouring under cardiac disease. Its advent had been slow and insidious, and unmarked by any symptoms calculated to attract attention or point out its precise origin. It then existed in the form of disease of the mitral valve, with hypertrophy of the left ventricle. It made rapid progress, embarrassing more and more the circulation, and involving the lungs and liver in the general mischief. Breathless and dropsical—the closing fate of many a choreic patient—the poor child was removed from suffering. No opportunity, I regret to say, was afforded of examining the body after death, but numerous examples are on record of the diagnosis made during life, in such cases, being verified by dis¬ section.