On some points in the pathology, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of pneumonia / by C.H.F. Routh.

  • Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909.
Date:
1855
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some points in the pathology, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of pneumonia / by C.H.F. Routh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Here, then, is a remedy to be preferred to blood-letting, because, while it is equally powerful in its action, it has the advantage of sparing his blood for the future contingencies of the disease. (h) The peculiar heat of skin which exists in the first stage of pneumonia is believed, as I before stated, by several emi- nent observers, to be pathognomonic of the disease in the first stage. If it be made to include under this term the pulmonary congestion alluded to, I must fully concur in it. I believe that it is owing to hyperoxygenation of the blood in the cutaneous capillaries even more than to the hurried respiration in the lungs, which, in an inflamed lung, must be necessarily interfered with and defective, as occasion- ally evidenced by the lividity of the countenance. Follow- ing out Mr. Taylor’s practice, and encouraged by the ex- periments of Messrs. Becquerel and Breschet on the effects produced by varnishing over the skin with various sub- stances, I have been commonly in the habit of ordering my patients, especially children, to be rubbed over the entire body with a mixture of sweet oil and mutton suet; and I can speak in the most commendatory terms of its effect in cooling the surface of the skin, and reducing the fever; and this in cases where sudorifics had failed in producing per- spiration. I can give no better explanation than that already suggested for these results: but I speak practically, and after extended experience: indeed, I may say I know no surer means, and I might add, no speedier remedy; for it is generally effective within three hours in reducing heat of skin and most of the unpleasant effects of anorexia. The disadvantage is the objection usually made to olea- ceous inunction by adults. Probably, in some of these, a wet sheet or hydropathic packing would effect the same result. My experience, however, of this mode of treatment is limited to a few cases of fever, in which it was followed with good effect ; and the reports of M. Hegele of Augs- burg, who states that he used it successfully in forty cases of pneumonia. The experience of Moreau, Moneta, and Compagnani, before referred to, tends to the same direction. 2. The second indication is to relieve the local symp- toms by removing the local mischief and promoting expec- toration. I shall best explain my practice here by speaking of the plan adopted under three heads, a. Remedies acting generally on the system, and at a distance from the affected