Volume 1

A manual of medical treatment, or, Clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical treatment, or, Clinical therapeutics / by I. Burney Yeo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    In severe cases, and for hastening suppuration, we have found notliing more efficacious than a gargle of Ao^ water containing about 2 grains of borax or of bi- carbonate of soda to the ounce ; the patient should be directed to keep gargling or holding this in his mouth as constantly as possible. Inhaling the steam of hot water, or hot water containing some aromatic substance such as benzoin, camomile, sage, hops, camphor, or opium, is also very useful. Externally profuse hot fomentations, apjilied frequently with a large sponge, the head and neck being held over a large basin, and in the intervals hot moist sponges fastened round the throat, greatly hasten the progress of the case. If we can distinctly satisfy ourselves that there is a superficial collection of pus which we can easily reacii by a guarded bistoury we should at once let it out, but jjatients constantly complain of being uselessly put to pain by these punctui'es which appear to give no relief. The swollen and (Edematous surface of the tonsillar swell- ing often gives a fallacious sense of fluctuation to the finger, which induces the medical attendant to puncture prematurely. Hypodermic injections of morphine and atropine are sometimes given to allay the suffering, and some physicians think, if given early, they tend to shorten the course of the disease. After suppuration and discharge of the abscess, tonic treatment is needed—bark and ammonia in rheumatic cases, or quinine and acid in non-rheumatic cases, or iron and quinine in cases of great debility. The following antiseptic gargle in acute tonsillitis, after incision, is recommended by Schnitzler:— R7 Sodii p<alio5-hitis ) Boracis j ^'^ qnadragmta (gr. xl). Aqu£e latirocerasi ... drachmam (3]). Aqua3 destillataj _ ... ad uncias octo (^viij). Misce, fiat gargarisma. In children we have seen retrogression of the chronic enlargement, which remains after the acute c—33
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