In the Medical Record of New

Elmer Lee of

York, Dr.

records his

Chicago experience of the treatment of cholera during the recent epidemic in Europe by means of copious eneineta of The offer of his services was soap and water. made by him to, and accepted by, the medical staff of the Oboukoof Hospital in St. Peters-

burg,

in which

unfortunate

were

100

prejudice

the Russian

against

physicians,

always

poor which

matter to

obtain

of which

are

an

kept

He mentions the

cases.

which

prevails amongst hospitals and

both

makes it

early report

kind,

difficult

of cases; many knowledge of

back from the

tlie authorities 011 that account; that the treatment of the sick is and

a

and that the

notwithstanding

notably humane appliances and general

improved ideas of the of patients is to be treatment and management of found in a high state perfection in the hospiapplication

of modern and

tals of St.

Petersburg.

l)r. Lee's plan of treatment consists in the introduction of the soft rubber tube three andfeet long and of a suitable size, which

a-quarter

should be neither too small nor too large so as to pass in front of the sacral promontory and

5*8'

INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

[Feb.

1893.

sigmoid flexure ; the size which lie found belter, results with plain soap-suds as with convenient, and which could be most special antiseptic or germicidal solutions. successfully introduced, corresponds to No. 48 into the

is most

It

of the French measurement.

should also

be of proper firmness to prevent its bending back, when its progress is obstructed by a fold of in-

He believes that he

able in every the sigmoid flexure into

testine.

was

pass it beyond The passage of the tube descending colon. is favoured by a flow of irrigating solution from its open end, while gently rotated and urged case to

the

He believes that it is reasonable

forward. these

means to

far

the ileo-ccecal

as

against

the

expect

caecum

introduce the

to

water

by as

and when pressure is sufficiently prolonged the

valve,

valve opens and admits some part of the water However that may be, it is not into the ileum,

improbable

that

a

secondary effect

of the colon and the

portion

of

irrigation of that

thorough cleaning r>

o

of the bowel is also to relieve the small

intestine of its contents. On the admission of fit once to the

taken

he is

and his clothes

bath-room, *

removed he is laid down

patient

a

on

his back

011

being o

the irri-

gating table, the knees

drawn up and the muscles relaxed, and the long tube after

of the abdomen

being lubricated the rectum

far

as

with soap is gently pushed into as it can be made to go, and a

stream of warm water and to run into

soap-suda

is allowed

the colon, until the pressure of the contents

the

of

causes

the bowel

discharge through the rectum. When the bowel has been thus cleaned the patient is placed in a bath of water, and afterwards conducted to

warm

bed,

clean outside and in.

irrigation was sufficient; but, rule, given and sometimes a third. internal remedy Dr. Lee employed only As an Hydrogen Dioxide diluted with distilled water Frequently

one

two were

as a

intervals of three hours. The number of cases treated in this way by Dr. Lee, was 27; the number of deaths three, aud reco-

in

at

cupfuls

veries 23, ment. same

one case

remaining

still under treat-

cases were

also treated in the

Nearly 100 way by the physicians

lished.

At

of the

Hospital, but yet pubtreated Lee only two Hamburg, Dr.

the fiual records of these

cases are not

value of the treatment is said to have been manifest to the cholera staff of physicians, who regretted that the irrigation plan of cases ;

but

the

treatment had not

of the

epidemic.

been tried during the height Dr. Lee fouud as good, if uot

auy