On the treatment of pneumonia by the ice-bag / by D.B. Lees.

  • Lees, D. B. (David Bridge), 1846-1915.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of pneumonia by the ice-bag / by D.B. Lees. 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.

    14/24 (page 14)
    105*4° was reached, but a rapid fall followed, and at 10 A.M. of the next (the sixth) day the temperature was only 100*2°. In spite, however, of the continued application of the ice, there was a rise in the afternoon to 103°, but this proved very temporary, and next morning (the seventh) 99° was again reached, and the ice-bag was removed. After this convalescence followed. E. Cases in which no Immediate Arrest of the Pneumonia followed the Application of Ice, but Obvious Belief to Symptoms resulted. Case 13.—Minnie C , aged twenty, admitted into St. Mary’s Hospital on April 10th, 1888, on the seventh day of a pneumonia of the right base. Her temperature was 104*4°, and an ice-bag was at once applied. There was a fall of three degrees in the next few hours, but next morning the temperature was again 104°, in spite of the continued appli- cation of the ice, and it remained between 103° and 104° for three days. On the tenth day there came a sudden fall to 98°, and the ice was removed. On the eleventh day, how- ever, it rose again to 102°, and the same happened on the twelfth day. Examination showed that the cause of this was the appearance of a small area of fresh inflammation at the base of the opposite lung. A second ice-bag was placed over this spot, and after this the temperature did not exceed 101°, and in three days more she was quite con- valescent, the physical signs having disappeared. Here the ice-bag did not shorten the duration of the disease (unless, indeed, it may be credited with arresting an incipient attack on the previously healthy side), and it produced only temporary reduction of temperature, but the patient ex- pressed herself as considerably relieved by it.