A complete handbook of treatment : arranged as an alphabetical index of diseases to facilitate reference, and containing nearly one thousand formulae / by William Aitken.

  • Aitken, William, 1825-1892.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A complete handbook of treatment : arranged as an alphabetical index of diseases to facilitate reference, and containing nearly one thousand formulae / by William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    State is to be strictly withheld. It is necessary, as a rule, to give food at certain intervals and in certain quantities. A wine-glassful should be given at least every two or three hours, according to the state of digestion and the demands upon the strength of the patient. It may be that the patient is unable to swallow, from the dry and shrivelled state of his tongue. Before offering him food or drink, therefore, the nurse should put a teaspoonful of lemon juice and water into his mouth. She must then wait a minute or so, until the fur upon the tongue and mouth is softened and moist, after which the patient will often drink or take his food with ease. The patient ought to have his mouth regularly washed out with a linen rag, saturated with water, in which a little soda has been dissolved. Milk in small quantities frequently re- peated will be found an excellent diet; and animal broths and jellies may ultimately be given. The extractum carnis, as prepared by Liebig or Valentine, is a most valuable nutri- ment for typhoid fever patie'nts. The best drink is pure spring water, or soda-water, or barley-water, or water that has been mixed with oatmeal, but is free from any particles of oats. The patient generally desires and requires to drink freely, in order to replace the loss of fluid by perspiration and diarrhoea; and, in the advanced stages of the fever, plen- ty of drink should be given by the nurse. The utmost caution is necessary as to diet and aperients during convalescence; first, as to opening the bowels, castor- oil or simple enemata are the only means which should be resorted to; secondly, as to diet, no flesh meat should be al- lowed till at least seven days after all the febrile phenomena have passed away, and the food should be as free as possible of excrementitious matter. Malt liquors should not be taken before food. Enteritis.—Definition.—Inflammation of the small in- testines generally, or limited locally. Treatjjient.—The treatment of enteritis and intestinal ca- tarrh, when not arising from a morbid poison, is by leeches to the abdomen, gentle purgative medicines, combined with an opiate, fomentations, and purgative or opiated enemata. After the inflammation has subsided, mild tonics, as the compound tincture of gentian, with nitro-muriatic acid, may be substituted, with the prospect of recovering the lost tone of the parts. When catarrhal diarrhoea exists, if congestion prevails, connected with the hepatic region, a cathartic dose