On Chorea and Choreiform Affections

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... the first indication of any toxic symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhoea, itching of the eye-lids, oedema, or skin eruptions. Pigmentation of the skin is occasionally met with; a more serious effect is neuritis, of which there have been 1 MedicoChirtirgical Transactions, Vol. IV, 1813. recently several cases reported. Considering the rarity of this toxic action upon the nerves, the cases in which it occurs must be regarded as instances of idiosyncrasy. Thus Marshall reports1 a case of neuritis and pigmentation in a boy of six years of age, who had taken Fowler's solution of arsenic, n x t. d., for about five weeks. The zinc compounds were much used during the first half of this century. Of other remedies cimicifuga, antipyrin in full doses, that is from twenty to sixty grains in the day, chloral, exalgine, sulphonal, and physostigmine have all been warmly recommended. Recently H. C. Wood has urged the use of quinine in large doses, and has reported very favourable results. Certain features and complications require special treatment. In the cases with arthritis the joints should be wrapped carefully in cottonwool, and opiates may be needed to allay the pain. The salicylates may, of course, be tried, but in the arthritis associated with chorea we rarely see the prompt and satisfactory results so constant in acute rheumatism. Should pericarditis or endocarditis supervene, the icebag may be kept applied to the praecordia. It allays the cardiac excitement, and in the former condition checks, I believe, the tendency to exudation. In the chorea insaniens hydrotherapy should be thoroughly tried, either in the form of the wet-pack or the bath. In order to apply the pack or put the patient in the bath it may be necessary at first to give...