Elements of the practice of medicine / by Richard Bright and Thomas Addison.

  • Bright, Richard, 1789-1858.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of the practice of medicine / by Richard Bright and Thomas Addison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ence, but about 12 or 16 ounces will be a fair medium quantity for an adult. Should the symptoms of excite- ment again increase in a considerable degree, as indicated by the pulse, heat of skin, and pain in the head, we may venture to repeat the bleeding on the following day to a similar or somewhat less extent; but it will rarely be ju- dicious or safe to carry depletion beyond this, unless very particular circumstances demand it. The cold affusion has also been recommended to arrest, or to break the violence of fever after reaction. The re- medy however appears so harsh, that it is not at all times easy to prevail either upon the patient or the patient's friends to consent to its application. Neither is the heat in general such as very urgently to demand it. In cases therefore where the heat and dryness of the skin are con- siderable, cold sponging either with water or with equal parts of vinegar and water may be substituted with pro- priety and advantage; the sponging being repeated as often as the state of the surface shall appear to require it. By thus carrying off the morbid heat, the skin becomes less tense and occasionally manifests a disposition to perspira- tion, the general restlessness is relieved, and the patient enjoys greater repose. The rest of the treatment of this mild form of fever is extremely simple. As a general medicine some give the common saline julep of citrate of potash three or four times a day; others, two or three drams of the liquor ammo- niae acetat. in distilled water with a little syrup of orange- peel, and occasionally a few minims of spt. aether nitrici. When considerable heat and thirst prevail and the state of the bowels permits, some recommend the compound infu- sion of roses as a common drink; but upon the whole, our favourite medicine at present in all the ordinary forms of H 2