PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. 



431 



treatment inflammatory products were absorbed, and 

 the general state of the patient much improved. 



3. I have been compelled to give a very weak child, 

 weighing less than four stone, twelve ounces of brandy 

 a day for ten days, while suffering from acute rheu- 

 matism with pericarditis and effusion. This quantity 

 did not produce the slightest tendency to intoxication, 

 or exert other than a favourable effect upon the 

 disease. The patient did not begin to improve until 

 the quantity of brandy, gradually increased, had 

 reached the amount stated. 



4. I would state that, among the general conclusions 

 I have arrived at after carefully watching more than 

 one hundred serious cases of acute disease treated 

 with large quantities of stimulants, are the following : 

 That intoxication is not produced, that delirium, if 

 it has occurred, ceases, or is prevented from occurring at 

 all in the course of the case, tJiat headache is not 

 occasioned, that the action of the skin, kidneys, and 

 bowels goes on freely that the tongue remains moist, or, 

 if dry and brown, often becomes moist, that the pulse 

 falls in frequency and increases in power, that respi- 

 ration is not impeded, but that, where even one entire 

 lung is hepatized, the, distress of breathing is not 

 increased ; and it appears that the respiratory changes 

 go on under the disadvantageous circumstances present, 

 as well as if no alcohol had been given* 



* British Medical Journal, 1863. 



