Homoeopathic domestic medicine / by J. Laurie ; arranged as a pratical work for students ; containing a glossary of medical terms.

  • Laurie, Joseph, -1865.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Homoeopathic domestic medicine / by J. Laurie ; arranged as a pratical work for students ; containing a glossary of medical terms. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    —characterised by the short, thick set, or close, full frame, with large head, apparently buried between the shoulders, the neck being very short and thick,—and the pulse being of the character of the pletho- ric habit, but if anything rather slower and thicker, the patient being predisposed to sudden flushes of blood to the brain. A nervous constitution (a variety which is often found in combina- tion with the bilious),—especially characterised by predominant ex- citability of body, of mind ; absence of fixity (or changeableness) of ideas, habits, inclinations, &c.; irritability and extreme sensitive- ness and inequalities of temper •—the pulse being accordingly also variable, easily subject to exceeding acceleration, but often subsiding, in sedate moments, to a movement slower than is customary. The patient is subject to the various affections so difficult of distinction and classification, which come under the head of Nervous diseases ; such as spasmodic affections, fits, apparently traceable to no distinct cause,—fugitive and inexplicable pains, particularly such as are aggravated by very slight touch or by approximation, but which are re- lieved by pressure. A dry, wiry constitution (not uncommonly combined with the bilious or nervous),—characterised by swarthy complexion, sharp, deep-set features, searching glance, persistently arid condition of the skin ; firm, hard, wiry condition of the muscular and tendinous fibre; deficiency of flesh and angular frame ; generally, also, rapid motion and quick perception ; the urine is dark, the motions are habitually hard and scanty, the secretions and transpirations are usu- ally deficient, and the pulse is generally distinct and wiry, but com- monly, also, quicker than that of the nervous habit (when unexcited). The patient is subject to inflammatory affections—to which the in- testines are especially predisposed,—as also to diseases generally, which occur (as it were) with suparabundant animal power. A lax, lymphatic, or mucous constitution.—These three varieties, which are, indeed, susceptible of very nice distinctions, are, however, sufficiently analogous to be united in a work of this kind,—they are opposed to the foregoing. The complexion is generally fair, the flesh apparently full, but soft, flaccid, and puffy ; the skin pallid, the frame rounded, the muscular and tendinous fibre unstrung, yielding, and relaxed; sensations of chilliness prevail, and the individual is usually more sensitive of cold than of heat, but is also alive to immoderate elevation of the latter; the natural generation of heat is deficient, the circulation sluggish, the pulse being slow (sometimes rather full, but always soft, easily compressed, yielding). The pa- tient is subject to the transmutation of every disease into a sluggish, persistent, or chronic form, (the crisis and resolution being in general imperfect)—to superabundant secretions or accumulations of phlegm —to catarrhal affections—to abscesses—to excessive discharges of phlegm, &c, &c.—to the accumulation of water (by decomposition or imperfect composition of the blood) about particular organs, or