PETALISM. 



PETITION OF RIGHT 



MT of ulnlulif ltqert ha* everywhere been observed a* a predisposing 

 oaow to cholera, whiUt entire abstinence from them Menu also to have 

 invited attacks. Exhaustion from fatigue also invites the action of the 

 poison. This ha been remarkably exemplified in the movements of 

 th<- army. When troop* hare been marched a long distance, they hare 

 been immediately Mixed with cholera on reaching their destination, 

 wbiUt soldiers who hare remained in camp during the lame time have 

 experienced no attack at all. 



Treatment ef t'Aofcni. Premising, in a prophylactic point of view, 

 the superiority of avoiding all the predisposing causes of cholera to 

 the absurd practice of swallowing specifics against the disease, our 

 treatment must be regulated according to the state in which we find 

 the patient. The diarrhoea may be treated by a dose of calomel and 

 opium combined with some aromatic, at once, and small doses of opium 

 should be continued every hour till the diarrhoea, is restrained. 

 Bleeding has been recommended at this period of the disorder, but all 

 experience shows this to be a dangerous practice. If the patient is 

 already in a state of collapse, the various modes of treatment which 

 have been adopted prove how little is to be effected when the disease 

 has advanced to this stage. Major Tulloch informs us that the 

 principal remedy of the American aborigines consisted in merely 

 swallowing large quantities of charcoal mixed with lard; yet very 

 nearly the same proportion recovered as among the white inhabitants 

 of the towns who had the advantage of the best medical science. In 

 this country, blood-letting, cold affusion, hot-baths, emetics, purges, 

 astringents, sedatives, and stimulants of the most powerful kind, have 

 been successively tried with very doubtful advantage. The plan 

 however which has excited most attention is that by salines. Medical 

 men, guided by chemical analysis, conceived the project of supplying 

 by artificial means the serum which was found wanting in the blood. 

 With this view lavements and potions of an alkaline solution, resem- 

 bling serum in composition, were administered ; but not being able 

 by this means to arrest the vomiting, it was recommended and put into 

 practice by Dr. Latta of Leith to inject the same fluid into the veins. 

 This was first done by means of one of Reid's syringes, the temperature 

 of the solution being kept at from 108 to 110* Fahr. Of 74 bad cases 

 treated in this method, 22 recovered, and in one case only did any 

 unfavourable symptoms occur, and this was from phlebitis, or inflam- 

 mation of the veins. As much as 33 Ibs. of this alkaline solution have 

 been injected in the space of 62 hours, and with a successful result. 

 Some practitioners have even exceeded in amount this quantity. The 

 composition of the saline injection employed by Dr. Latta consisted of 

 two drachms of common salt and two scruples of carbonate of soda 

 dissolved in sixty ounces of water ; but this formula has been slightly 

 varied in different cases. The immediate effects observed on injecting 

 this fluid into the veins are, an increase of the temperature and 

 respiration, a reappearance of the pulse, if before imperceptible, or it 

 becomes fuller, stronger, and slower, when it was before small, 

 frequent, and feeble. The collapsed appearance of the countenance 

 gradually vanishes ; it becomes fuller and more natural ; the eyes 

 brighten, the thirst diminishes, and the patient expresses himself in 

 terms of gratitude or satisfaction at the wonderful change wrought in 

 his feelings. Rut this change is evanescent ; the purging continues, 

 and the patient is shortly reduced to the same hopeless state in 

 which he was previous to the adoption of this treatment. 



The failure of all heroic methods of treatment has induced the trial 

 of almost all possible forms of treatment. All the metals have been 

 given, as well as the non-metallic agents, the vegetable alkaloids, and 

 mineral acids. Emetics, purgatives, diuretics, sudorifics, all have been 

 tried, and although many of these remedies have been vaunted as 

 cores, the terrible logic of statistical calculation has demonstrated that 

 no one system can claim to be more successful than another. At the 

 commencement of the epidemic all die alike, as the more predisposed 

 are cut down, a larger number recover, and it is at this period the 

 medical practitioner begins to attribute the recoveries to the success 

 of bis treatment. The London College of Physicians obtained the 

 returns of the treatment of several thousand oases, and came to no 

 conclusion as to any particular system. It may, however, be remarked 

 that whatever remedy was given it was accompanied with some of the 

 preparation* of opium, and contrasting those plans of treatment which 

 contained opium as an element, with those in which this remedy wax 

 omitted, it was found that the former were the more successful. 

 Amidst then the vast experience of remedies in this deadly malady we 

 hare only this fact presented with certainty that opium alone in one 

 form or another offers tome chance of relief. 

 PETALISM. [OSTRACISM.] 

 PETARD. [ARTILI.KRT.] 

 PETE CHI.* are small spots of a dark red colour produced by the 

 effusion of drop* of blood in the skin just beneath the cuticle. At 

 first sight they look very like flea-bites, but they do not disappear 

 when they are pressed with the finger. They usually indicate an 

 altered state of the blood, and are often symptoms of very serious dis- 

 eases, as in typhus fever (some varieties of which have hence been 

 called petechial fever), scurvy, purpura, &c. They commonly appear 

 also in very severe case* of small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, and 

 are amongst the worst symptoms by which those diseases are marked. 

 PETECHIAL FEVER [PTcm.J 

 PETER-PENCE, a tax anciently levied throughout England, ac- 



cording to some authorities, of a penny upon each house ; according to 

 others of a penny upon every house which contained twenty penny- 

 worth of any kind of goods, and paid to the pope. This payment, in 

 ancient times, passed under various denominations : Rome-fee, Rome- 

 penning, and Rome-soot were the Saxon names ; Denarii 8. Petri and 

 Census 8. Petri, in Latin. The earliest payment of it is attributed by 

 some to Ins, king of the West Saxons, A.D. 720 ; by others to Offa, 

 king of Mercia, A.D. 790. At one period of his reign, Edward III. dis- 

 continued this payment, but it wag revived by Richard II. It finally 

 ceased at the Reformation. 



(Du Cange's 'ilouary ; Ley. Edw. Conf. <t Will. Cmq.) 

 PETER'S, ST. [Rom, in GEOO. Div.] 



PETININE. Synonymous with Imtylumine. [ORGANIC BASES.] 

 PET1T-SEKJKANTV. [SERJEANT.] 



PETITION. A petition is an application in writing, addressed to 

 the lord chancellor, in which the petitioner states certain facts as the 

 ground on which he prays for the order and direction of the court. 

 Petitions are either ca<ae petitions or not. A cause petition is a peti- 

 tion in a matter of which the court has already possession by virtue of 

 there being a suit concerning the matter of the petition; and tin- 

 petitioner is generally either a party to such suit, or he derive* a title 

 to some interest in the subject-matter of the suit from a party to it. 

 When there is no suit existing about the matter of the petition, it is 

 called an ex parte petition. 



Some cause petitions are called petitions of course, and relate to 

 matters in the ordinary prosecution of a suit, and before a decree. 

 Such petitions are granted upon application of the party petitioning ; 

 and they may be presented at any time, whether the courts are sitting 

 or not. 



Other petitions in a cause, which are not petitions of course, and 

 may be called special petitions, have for their object to carry a decree 

 into execution. Thus a party who has an interest in a fund in court, 

 a legatee for instance who was a minor when the decree was made, 

 may, when he is of age, apply by petition to have his share paid to 

 him, because his right to it has been recognised by a decree or order 

 of the court, or by a master's report which has been confirmed. The 

 nature of the petitions in a cause will of course vary with the subject- 

 matter of the suit. 



Petitions, not in a cause, are of various kinds, and many of them are 

 presented under the authority of particular acts of parliament. These 

 also are called special petitions. Thus a petition may be presented for 

 the appointment of guardians to infants, and for an allowance for their 

 maintenance ; for the purpose of procuring an order of court that 

 infant trustees and mortgagees may execute conveyances ; and for 

 various other purposes. In matters of lunacy, the form of proceeding 

 in the first instance is by petition, the prayer being for a commission 

 to inquire into the state of mind of the alleged lunatic. [LUNACY.] 

 In subsequent proceedings relating to the property of a person, when 

 found lunatic by a jury, a petition is the regular and usual course of 

 proceeding ; and suits are not commenced or defended for the lunatic 

 without the previous approval and direction of the court. 



All special petitions must be presented to the court to which they 

 are addressed, in order to be answered : until they are answered, the 

 court is not fully possessed of the matter of the petition. The answer, 

 which is written on the copy of the petition and signed by the judge, 

 requires the attendance before him of all parties concerned in the 

 matter of the petition at the hearing thereof. It is the business of the 

 petitioning party to serve all proper parties with notice of this petition, 

 and the answer to the petition becomes an order of the court, upon 

 every person whom the petitioner chooses to serve with the petition, 

 to attend at the hearing of it ; and if such person be absent at the 

 hearing, he will be bound by the order made on the petition. Service 

 of the petition consists in delivering a true copy of the petition as 

 answered to the clerk in court whose attendance the petitioner thinks 

 necessary, or to the party himself. In some special cases, the peti- 

 tioner is permitted, on special motion, supported by an affidavit that 

 he is unable to serve the party personally, to leave the copy of the 

 petition at the party's house with one of his family, and this will be 

 considered good service. Special petitions frequently require to be 

 supported by affidavits of the petitioner or some other person, or of 

 both ; and such affidavits may be filed at any time after the petition i* 

 answered. If a petitioner choose to serve a party with a petition, 

 whose presence is considered by the court to be unnecessary, he must 

 pay such party the cost of attending at the hearing of the petition. 



A petition is heard in court by the counsel for the petitioner stating 

 the substance and prayer of the petition, and by reading or briefly 

 stating the contents of the affidavits filed in support of the petition, if 

 any have been filed. If the prayer of the petition is opposed by any of 

 the parties who have been served with it, they arc heard by their 

 counsel, and their affidavits also, if any have been filed, are read or 

 briefly stated to the court. On hearing the matter of the petition and 

 the affidavits on both sides, the court either dismisses the petition or 

 make* such order as it thinks fit. The order when made is drawn up, 

 passed, entered, served, and enforced like any other decree or order of 

 the court. 



PETITION OF RIGHT. Where the crown or a subject has a 

 cause of action against a subject, the ordinary mode of putting that 

 cause of action into a course of legal investigation is by the king's writ, 



