A NEW MEDICAL DISCOVERY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1614, 15 February 1866, Page 3

A NEW MEDICAL DISCOVERY.

{From, the Times, Nov.) At a meeting of English physicians in Paris at the house of Sir Joseph Olliffe, M.D., physician to the English Embassy, Dr. John Chapman, of London, has given an exposition of his discovery of a method of treating disease by controlling the circulation of the blood in differents parts of the body through the agency of the nervous system. This he does by cold or heat, or both together, applied along the spine. Having referred to the fact that the arteries are surrounded by muscular bands, and that these bands, forming collectively what is called the muscular coat, contract and dilate at the bidding of nerves emanating from an assemblage of nervous centres, or ganglia constituting " the great sympathetic," he showed that these ganglia can be so influenced by suitable applications of cold or heat on each side of the spine as to cause them to effectthe contraction or dilatation of the arteries which they govern, and that the spinal cord itself can be influenced in the game way, and can thus have the circulation of blood in it, and therefore its functional activity, increased or decreased at the will of the physician. The doctor then gave an account of the therapeutical consequences of his discovery, which are nothing less, accordto him, than a revolution in the science and art of medicine. One result is the abolition of . the distinction between what are ordinarily called diseases of the nervous system and almost all diseases of the rest of the body. He insists that the latter as well as the former are diseases of the nervous system —symptoms of an excess or deficiency of blood in the nervous centres; that, for instance, diseases of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis are as truly diseases of the nervous system as are epilepsy, paralysic, or insanity, and consequently can be treated most successfully by modifying the temperature of the appropriate part of the nervous region along the back—thus correcting those circulatory and functional disturbances in the nervous centres acted on, which constitute the proximate cause of the disease in question* The lecturer gave an explanatory account of a large number of diseases which he had treated by this method. Congestions of all parts, except the nervous centres themselves, he subdues by applying to the appropriate part of the spine a neat little doublecolumned india-rubber bag filled with hot water. The reverse condition, deficiency or blood—anaemia, he remedies by means of ice, also in an india-rubber bag, of still more ingenious construction. Fevers of all kinds, including cholera, he treats both by cold and heat— cold in the cold stage, heat in the hot, and affirmed that heat along the spine will cause the pulse to fall, and will induce perspiration— abolishing, in fact, the feverish condition. Convulsive affections, he said, are far more amenable to his method than they are to the drugs commonly used in their treatment. He said he had cured several cases of epilepsy, and that that remarkable and not seldom fatal disease

false croup, a» -well as infantile convulsions, may be wholly controlled and cured by means of ice. He mentioned two cases of apoplexy in which the use of cold and heat along the spine had been extraordinarily successful, and expressed the opinion founded on experience that various forms of paralysis and cerebral affections, including insanity, may be treated by his method with far greater success than by any other. He remarked that pleurisy is singularly amenable to heat along the spine; that bronchitis in its first stage may be cut short, and that, in the secondary stage the profuse secretion in the bronchial tubes may be arrested. Spitting of blood and pulmonary haemorrhage can. he said be speedily arrested by the proper application of heat between the shoulder blades. His own experience on this point was confirmed by that of Professor Bencke, of Masburg, who, in the Archive fur Wissenschaftlicee Heilkunde, reports that by adopting Dr. Chapman's method he caused the rapid arrest of pulmonary haemorrhage in an obstinate case of long standing. Adverting to stomach affections, he described the pathology of sea-sick-ness, and the sickness of pregnancy—maladies which he has proved to be curable by means of ice, and expressed the conviction that all kinds of symptomatic vomiting may now be controlled to a surprising d gree. Bowel affections, including both diarrhau and constipation, he declared to be not less tractable ; he referred to several cases of partial paralysis of the bladder which he had cured. The latter half of the lecture consisted of an exposition of the lecturer's doctrines concerning the nature and treatment of cholera. He arranged the symptoms of the disease into eight groups, discussed them in succession, then referred to the post mortem phenomena, and finally described in detail the treatment he adopts. He maintained that the essential nature of cholera consists of extreme hypereemia or congestion of the spinal and sympathetic nervous centres, and showed that every feature of this disease is explicable on this hypothesis. Congestion of these centres causes spasm of the arteries all over the body, as well as perspiration—the veins meanwhile remaining full; hence the coldness, dark colour, cold sweat, and shrunken aspect of the skin. The same congestion cuts off the supply of blood from the organs generally, hence the muscular debility, the sudden and general prostration of strength, and weak pulse, becoming imperceptible. Tiie same congestion causes contraction of the cerebral arteries; hence, i though there is often vertigo, faintness, apathy, there is rarely delirium; the intellect remains clear, however feeble, so ; long as it retains its functions. The con-j gestion of the spinal cord produces the extreme restlessness, tossing, hyperesthesia (intolerance of the bed-clothes) observable in some cases, as well as the spasms of the voluntary muscles, and the convulsions which sometimes occur. The difficult respirations, sunken or suppressed voice, and cold breath he traces to the twofold congestion above-mentioned. The most striking part of his doctrine is that, perhaps, which accounts for the abundant "rice-water" evacuations from the stomach and bowels. His treatment of the disease is a logical consequence of his conception of its nature; he overcomes the stage of collapse by ice along the spine, and heat to the rest of the body, especially the extremities, and afterwards averts any dangerous consequences from the reactionary fever by appropriate applications of heat to the spine itself. Meanwhile, he watches for every opportunity of getting food into the patient as soon as it can be retained. The lecture, though a long one, was listened to with attention and interest, and the lecturer received the thanks of the auditors, who assured him that they should each make a trial of his therapeutical method.