Page:The Journal of Tropical Medicine, volume 6.djvu/210
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THE JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. (June 1, 1903.
The treatment of dysentery by ipecacuanha in massive
doses was perhaps the one solid fact that stuck in the
mind of the student in the days before we had Schools
of Tropical Medicine and Students’ Manuals. How-
ever brilliant may have been the results that warranted
the enthusiasm of Indian practitioners, my own ex-
periences have been deeply disappointing, and I have
met many tropical practitioners who have had the
same experience. Whether it be that the dysentery
of India and the East is different from that of Egypt
and Central and Equatorial Africa, I can venture to
express no opinion, but certain it is that while some
of us employ salines and others local irrigation, very
few employ ipecacuanha, owing to its depressing effect.
Had I known then what I know now of his history,
I should have advised a very different line of treatment.
There are two other points to which this case draws attention, (1) that it behoves medical men to exercise the most careful supervision over their published utter- ances, lest they may disturb the faith of an intelligent and unscientific laity in any recognised form of treat- ment, and in avoiding one danger, they fall into a greater. Those who have disturbed the faith of the laity in quinine and have frightened them with the bogey of hemoglobinuria have much to answer for, for they have often destroyed a faith in a prophylactic of proved practical value and given the doubter nothing in ex- change.
The other point is that the case draws attention to what is, and is probably so elsewhere, a real danger— the indiscriminate use of coal tar antipyretics in malaria. My own experience is that the need for them in malaria is limited to a comparatively few cases orly ; that they are cardiac depressants and reduce the temperature only at considerable cost to the patient’s strength. That they accelerate the sweating stage I doubt not, but Dover’s powder does so just as well and more safely. When phenacetin is used, it should always be given with a stimulant, of which a little whiskey is a useful
and generally handy example.
Assouan, Upper Egypt, May, 19038,
HORDER’S CLINICAL CASE FOR BLOOD FILM WORK, &c.
Designed by Edward Horder, F.R.C.S.Edin..
THe accompanying illustration represents a plated metal box, 33 in. by 33in. by 141m., made for me by Charles Baker, Optician, 244, High Holborn, London, W.C.
It is divided into partitions which contain all the requisites for staining blood, sputum, &c., and will, I think, prove useful to those who make a study of the blood, &¢., a routine practice.
Contents : Glass slides, 3 in. by 1 in. (this space will hold 2 aluminium frames to be used instead of glass Glass bottle with india-rubber bung, to hold
slides). 2 sizes cover-glasses. ‘T'wo glass stoppered bottles for staining fluid, e.g., carbol-fuschin and Jenner’s stain, ‘
One stoppered bottle for alcohol, and one measure glass,
grad. cc. Pipette, vaseline, brush, &c., &c. Cover-
glasses when spread with blood, &c., ready for staining. “Soloids”” of various staining powders. Tissue paper tor blood spreads. Pestle, mortar and funnel. Hollow lid for forceps, filtering paper, needles, linen, &c. Hinged ring, which can be thrown out to receive glass filter or small bottle. Spirit lamp, watch glasses, and stand for use in heating stains.
The same firm has also made for me an aluminium frame, the object of which is to obviate the necessity 3 carrying a large number of the usual 3 in. by 1 in. slides.
Cc. BAKER, 244 HIGH HOLBORN The frame is 76 mm. by 26 mm. (3 in. by 1 in), with an opening of 33 mm. by 24 mm.. A glass slide, 76 mm. by 26 mm., is attached to the under-surface of the frame by means of screws. There are two springs in the opening for holding a large cover-glass, 32 mm. by 24 mm., firmly to the glass slide, and also a small spring on the frame for securing a provisional label.
To prepare the frame for use, a 32 mm. by 24 mm, cover is laid on the glass slide beneath the two springs ; the specimen, on a smaller cover, is placed on the centre of the larger one, and is now ready for examination.
For specimens which are to be stained, the blood _ can be spread on either cover, but for wet ones requiring immediate examination, the smaller cover should receive the drop of blood.
The glass slide beneath the frame is made of the best white plate glass, and will, with ordinary care, need but an occasional renewal.
The two sizes of covers with the frame are the only
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