Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

——1854.] Impalement upon a Pitchfork-handle. 53over the palatine arch, and the tonsils. The capillaries appearengorged ; sometimes the epithelium is apparently removed.When this condition occurs, a transudation of blood oftensupervenes, to the patient's great alarm, and the no small embarrassmentof the physician. The blood sometimes scarcelycolors the saliva, and sometimes forms considerable coagula.The haemorrhage is often preceded by pruritus and cough. Ifthe remedy is persevered in, notwithstanding these symptoms,the haemorrhage increases. On the contrary it ceases promptlywhen the medicine is suspended.Auscultation excludes the idea of an alteration of the bronchialmucous membrane, or of the pulmonary tissue, a negativeproof, which, when combined with direct inspection, is sufficientto enable us to assign to this haemorrhage its true seatand cause.The researches of Dr. Gamberini will doubtless, as a firstresult, inform practitioners of the possibility of this accident,and the change of prescription which it indicates. Pereiraand Cartoni teach that cod-liver oil should be rejected in thetreatment of phthisis, because it favors the recurrence ofhaemoptysis. Is it not very probable, if the foregoing explanationsare correct, that these authors have been deceived in regardto the phenomenon, and have mistaken a staphylorrhagiafor the haemorrhage caused by the softening of tubercles ? Thisquestion acquires great importance from the fact that cod-liveroil is probably the best remedy for certain forms of phthisis,and that, consequently, it would be most unfortunate to attributeto it dangers which it does not possess, and to depriveourselves of a precious resource against true haemoptysis, inconsequence of chimerical apprehensions. [Bulletino dellaScienze Mediehe. Gaz. Med. Paris. St. Louis M. fyS. Jour,By a singular coincidence the following two very remarkablecases are reported in the same number of the AmericanJournal of the Medical Sciences, (Oct., 1853.)Impalement upon a Pitchfork-handle, entering per Yasinam:Recovery.Dr. Sargent, of Worcester, reported (to the Boston Societyfor Medical Improvement) the case, which had occurred in hfspractice nearly two years ago. A lady, of abou] 37 years ofage, who had borne several children, the last about three vearsprevious to the injury about to be mentioned, and whose lastmenstrual period had been about a week before, her bowelsalso being in good lax condition, in sliding down from a hayloft,x. 3.vol. x. no. i. 4