This section is from the book "A Manual Of Practical Therapeutics", by Edward John Waring. Also available from Amazon: A Manual of Practical Therapeutics.
They have more recently been reintroduced into American and English practice; but, on the whole, the treatment appears to be less efficacious than that of opiates, excepting at the very commencement of the attack, or when the stomach may be supposed to contain a large quantity of spirituous fluid.
* Lib. of Med., vol. i.
Cyc. Pract. Med., vol. ii. p. 860.
Lond. Journ. of Med., June 1851.
3108. In Puerperal and other Convulsions, also in Delirium and Apoplexy, clearly attributable to the introduction into the stomach of crude, indigestible, or poisonous substances, an emetic, by removing the exciting cause, is of essential benefit. Much care and discrimination, however, are required in its employment.
Marshall Hall* considers that an emetic, given either when an attack is imminent, as ascertained by premonitory signs, or when, without these signs, we may be anticipating the attacks generally, will ward off a threatened attack.
 
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