Casualty (medicine)

“ In the latter case death may be due as much, if not more, to other causes than the wound, and sometimes not at all to the wound itself. Thus death may be due to natural causes, latent disease, an unhealthy state of the body, imprudence or neglect of treatment, or improper treatment, etc. These various degrees of responsibility of a wound as the cause of death we will now consider more at length. ”

“ Humanity has likewise much to deplore from this paganism in medicine. The sword will probably be sheathed for ever, as an instrument of death, before physicians will cease to add to the mortality of mankind, by prescribing for the names of diseases.
The facts I have delivered upon this subject will admit of a very important application to the cure, not only of the yellow fever, but of all other acute and dangerous epidemics. ”

“ Apoplexy, organic heart disorders, aneurysms, and other like disorders are in such cases generally the direct cause of death, coitus causing the death indirectly by the excitement and exertion accompanying the act. ”

“ On the other, a collection of rare and extraordinary instances of sudden death which have happened to be preceded by a powerful mental impression, many of which bear clearly upon their face the imprint of death by rupture of a blood-vessel, heart failure, or paralysis, in the course of some well-marked and clearly defined chronic disease, like valvular heart-mischief, diabetes, or Bright's disease. ”

“ People seldom died with the first attack; but the subtle disease hung about them, and returned again and again, and wore, and tugged, and exhausted their energies—kept nibbling, in fact, at body and soul, till, in too many cases, the disease-besieged man surrendered, and his soul marched out. ”

“ KILL OR CURE.
[Reports continue to reach us from our brave troops in the field that they "never felt fitter," are "in the best of spirits," and so forth.]
Have you a bronchial cough, or cold,
And is your ailment chronic
Past every sort of cure that's sold? ”

“ The possibility that heart conditions could be separated one from another, and that some of them could be proved to be comparatively harmless, some of them liable to cause lingering illness, while others were surely associated with the probability of sudden fatal termination, was scarcely dreamed of. ”

“ For months he knew that a disease which held out no hope of cure was slowly but surely killing him, but he nevertheless attended as assiduously to his duties in behalf of suffering humanity as physical pain would permit. ”

“ In a healthy person the violence necessary to prove fatal ought to be greater than in one diseased, and pathological conditions may be found post-mortem, which were pre-existent to the injury, e.g. degeneration of blood-vessels, aneurysm, valvular disease of the heart, phthisical cavities which may have bled, gastric ulcer which may have ruptured. ”

“ My physician himself told me that, for the first three years, my life was in imminent danger, and if in the last three I was less exposed to death at every step, as it were, the giving way of my stomach, the weakness of my chest, were such that all my days were filled with bitterness, and new crosses were laid upon me. ”

“ DEATH. In cases of sudden death interment should be deferred till signs of putrefaction begin to appear, especially when no gradation of disease has preceded, as in cases of apoplexy, hysterics, external injuries, drowning, suffocation, &c. No sooner has breathing apparently ceased, and the visage assumed a ghastly or a death-like hue, than the patient, after his eyes are closed, is too often hurried into a coffin, and the body, scarcely yet cold, is precipitated into the grave. So extremely fallacious are the signs of death that the semblance has been frequently mistaken for the reality. ”

“ Part XLIX And one might observe many other instances in medicine, of considerable injuries not proving serious, but producing a crisis in some affection, while less considerable injuries prove more serious, give rise to chronic diseases, and extend their effects to the whole system. ”

“ A poultice of tea-leaves was tied over the left ear, as if for the relief of pain, and a post-mortem examination showed death to have resulted from an effusion of blood on the brain. A verdict of ‘sudden death from natural causes’ was returned. Thus closed a life which had not yet lasted fifty years, and held the promise of even more than it had already performed. ”

“ Gloom, sadness, and despondency depress the vital forces and lead to death. We have seen patients rapidly sinking, who had given up all hope, and were quietly awaiting the coming of death, snatched, as it were, from its grasp, and restored to health, by words of cheer and encouragement. ”

“ Disease is now so well understood—every step in its march laid down and foreseen—the approach of danger accurately estimated—the liability of the patient, according to his powers of resisting it, to succumb earlier or to hold out longer—all is theoretically so clear that a wholesome suspicion of error in the verdict of the attendants seldom suggests itself. ”

“ When proofs of respiration—it may be to such an extent as to leave no doubt as to live-birth—have been found, the cause of death is then to be investigated. Wounds, and other forms of injury, must be sought for. There may be signs of strangulation, suffocation, puncture of the fontanelles and consequent injury to the brain, the administration of a poison, or other means of procuring death. ”

“ The patients die in fatal cases from exhaustion due to insomnia, lack of nourishment, and their constant activity of body and mind. The prognosis is usually favorable, taking all cases together, but in delirium tremens secondary to surgical injuries or operations the prognosis is serious. ”

“ The lesson to be learned when this situation confronts physician and patient is that of organic limitation. The vital organs are capable of function only within bounds, beyond which. are danger and possible death. Safety rests in natural processes alone; danger lies in tonics and in food.
A general classification of the symptoms of disease tending to limit certain signs to certain ailments can never be made with accuracy. ”

“ Among the secondary causes of death may be mentioned septicæmia, pyæmia, erysipelas, tetanus, gangrene, that is, wound diseases, also the wound accident—as we may call delirium tremens, and surgical operations rendered necessary to the treatment of the case. ”

“ He remarked also that some patients sank under attacks of disease, when, to all appearances, they should recover, and that others recovered, when, according to all reasonable calculations, they ought to die. ”

“ Does it not happen that a patient dies of convulsions, spastic in the sense of their being tumultuous and alternating, and chronic in the sense of exhibiting continuous rigidity, yet after death no disease is found?—It does not often happen to adults. ”

“ Death takes place in a few weeks or after years of alternate suffering and relief. The immediate causes of death are exhaustion, marasmus from starvation, collapse from perforation of an intestinal ulcer and consecutive peritonitis, syncope from sudden exertion, pneumonia, or acute pulmonary congestion, pleurisy, or subarachnoid effusion in the brain, with coma and convulsions.
COMPLICATIONS.—General dropsy results from the hydræmia and languid circulation of the late period of the disease. Other causes of this symptom are coincident diseases of the liver, kidney, or the malarial cachexia. ”

“ The physician who understands only the effect of a dangerous illness, namely, the death of the patient, generally attributes the sickness to uncertain causes and sometimes so remote that they have no connection with the case in question ”

“ The numbness steadily ascended, and seven years from the day the malady first displayed itself the sickness had eaten its way into the patient's brain and had hardened it into stone exactly as it had hardened the muscles, flesh and skin of his body. Then death relieved the sufferer. ”

“ In life-endangering injuries and afflictions the brain and the heart are the organs whose disturbance of function finally ends with death. We can say that in most diseases death takes place through additional development of heart-illness. As regards these science has not by far spoken its last word, but we can say that the clogging up of the blood-vessels of the heart and the destruction of the tender heart-nerves through permanent re-poisoning of the blood is the last cause of death in all chronic diseases. ”

“ When the powers of life are sinking, and the life-giving fluid circulates but feebly in the extremities of the system, and is accumulating in the larger blood vessels and in the heart itself, threatening every moment to stop its faint throbbings, shall he, while he administers the cordial, defeat its effect, by holding up to the eye of his patient the grim visage of death, to oppress the vital forces and curdle the blood in its channels? ”

“ You have it upon the authority of medical men of the highest distinction, that it sometimes occurs that men in the prime of life and in the full vigour of health, are smitten to death by convulsions that leave no trace upon the body of the sufferer. ”

“ Even in the out-patient department, where the conditions of living are not under such strict medical control, the deaths from this frightful malady have only amounted to 4 in 7,000 cases under the same enlightened direction. ”

“ The medicine man then looks at it critically, if it spreads over the surface of the water and whirls about, it is a sign that the invalid will be healed; if it sinks directly in the places where it was put, there is no hope, the sick person must die and the whole is thrown away. ”

“ Symptoms.—In the worst cases these are sudden loss of appetite, small and frequent pulse, haggard eyes, the conjunctiva inflamed, the mouth open, red, and filled with foam, the respiration laborious, plaintive cries, convulsions, palsy of the hind limbs, and involuntary discharge of highly fetid fæces. Death here is the inevitable termination, and that in a short time. But where the progress of the disease is less rapid, the symptoms assume a milder form, and medical aid is available and often beneficial. ”

“ Providence in these diseases seems to act like a mild legislature, which mitigates the severity of death, by inflicting it in a manner the least painful, upon the whole, to the patient and the survivors. ”

“ In the acute form, in which there is at first pain in the' region of the spine and much constitutional disturbance, death may take place rapidly from extension of the disease to those portions of the cord connected with the muscles of respiration and the heart, from an acute bed-sore, which is very apt to form, or from some intercurrent disease. ”

“ The imperfect recovery of such patients from their first attack, and, which is attributed to the depletion, arises from the disease which is left by it, and to the injudicious means, perhaps, that are employed by the too anxious attendants, with the view of restoring the strength. ”

“ It is well known that in the deliquium of pulmonary consumption, in the stage of violent haemorrhages and dropsical swellings, the confidence of the patient often gives way to gloomy forebodings—the harbingers of the long night that never fails to cast its shadows before. ”

“ Descriptions of disease, given by physicians, and advertisements of quackery, are both prolific sources of sickness. As mortal mind is the chief husbandman of error, it should be taught to do the body no harm, and to unweave its own webs.
The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees Invalid's outlook. his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is somewhat helpful to them and himself; but in Science one must understand the resuscitating law of Life. ”

“ Diseases of the body, if not cured, work a steady impairment of health, and bring pains and physical disabilities. If their assaults be upon nervous centres, or vital organs, the danger of paralysis or death becomes imminent. Now, as to this disease of intemperance, which is a social and moral as well as a physical disease, it is not to be concealed that it has invaded the common body of the people to an alarming degree, until, using the words of Holy Writ, "the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." ”

“ Shall the unfortunate sufferer go all his days with his face turned far round to the right or the left, or shall an attempt be made to replace the dislocated bones? an attempt which may succeed, or may cause instant death. The patient must be consulted as to whether he will take the chance. ”

“ The laity, if not the doctors too, constantly lose sight of the fact, that there exists an alternative to the fatal event of ordinary disease; that a patient is liable at any period of illness to deviate, or, as it were, to slide off, from the customary line of disease into another and a deceptive route—instead of death, to encounter apparent death. ”

“ Grief, anguish and despair enfeeble the circulation, diminish or vitiate the secretions, favour the causes which induce disease, and impede the action of the mechanism by which the body may get rid of its maladies. An army when flushed with victory and elated with hope maintains a comparative immunity from disease under physical privations and sufferings which, under the opposite circumstances of defeat and despair, produce the most frightful ravages. ”

“ The conclusions derivable from these premises are as important as they are obvious. The first and most vital is that when a patient is suffering from a disease which will induce catalepsy, and begins to enter that state, the usual remarks and conversation of those at the bedside must inevitably tend to deepen and prolong the lethargy. The patient appears to be dying. The friends, by word and action, are conveying the impression that death is at hand. ”