Citation

Schneck BF. The Chicago medical journal 1859; 16(1): 34-36.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1859)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

37411223

PMCID

PMC9750296

Abstract

Case 1.--April 7th, 1858, was called to the wife of Wm. Hoffman, who was said to have fallen in the following singular way; engaged in lifting a heavy iron kettle from the fire while washing, she slipped, fell, and struck with her left side the edge of a cedar bucket. The fall, was thus only from the perpendicular to the horizontal. She was taken up insensible. I found her recovered, it is true, but alarmingly ill. There was no pulse at the wrist; no throbbing of the carotids; a mere flutter audible at the heart; the entire body as cold and white as that of a corpse; and the lips, even, perfectly blanched. Indeed, the shock to the system was so great that the woman threatened to die every moment. This prostration may have been owing to the solar plexus of nerves having been greatly affected by the blow. She complained also of a stitch in the left side, which was much benefited by a tight bandage. Brandy was freely used; sinapisms, hot bricks, etc., were applied to the extremities; and yet for two days and a night the woman lay in the same collapsed state, though perfectly conscious and rational. On the third day she vomited, and complained of severe pain in'the abdomen, which began to swell enormously, and a real peritonitis supervened. On the fifth day the tongue became dry, a profuse watery diarrhoea set in, and the symptoms of enteritis were clearly declared.

During all this time the treatment was fomentations, opium and calomel, brandy and nourishment; the stimulants, though contra-indicated by the inflammatory action, being nevertheless required by the extreme collapse which was ever present

Language: en