Vigorous counter-irritation, by means of hot bottles
and sinapisms to the extremities, etc., proved useless. Digitalis and
champagne, when administered, were immediately vomited. The pulse ran up
from seventy until it could no longer be counted at the wrist, while
the beats of the heart increased to one hundred and twenty and more per
minute. The extremities grew cold, and the face became covered with
perspiration. The urine was highly albuminous. Nitrite of amyl was then
administered by inhalation: at first, three to five drops; then, ten to
twenty; and finally, more or less was poured on the handkerchief without
being measured. During each inhalation the condition of the patient
rapidly improved, but as quickly grew worse, so that the drug was
continued at short intervals all night, ten grammes in all having been
used. In the morning the patient was better, and 0.5 gramme of digitalis
was then given in infusion per rectum, and repeated on the following
day, after which the patient remained comparatively well until a year
and a half later, when a second attack of the kind just described was
quickly cut short by similar treatment.
Another noteworthy case was that of a robust man of thirty years, who
was attacked with acute gastro intestinal catarrh. The patient had
as many as one hundred watery evacuations in forty-eight hours, with
fainting fits, violent cramps in the calves of the legs, two attacks
of general convulsions--in short, he presented the picture of a person
attacked with cholera.
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