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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    In the acute attack the patient must be made—(i.) comfortable, being protected from pain and exposure to cold air, especially as regards the joints; (2.) to encourage free excretion from the skin especially, and from the kid- neys. The general management of the patient is therefore all important. No linen must touch the skin. A flannel shirt must be worn next its surface, and the patient must be put between soft blankets. ''Bedding in blankets reduces by a good three-fourths the risk of inflammation of the heart run by patients in rheumatic fever, diminishes the in- tensity of the inflammation when it does occur, and dimin- ishes still further the danger of death by that or any other lesion; at the same time it does not protract the convales- cence (Chambers's Lectures, chiefly clinical, p. 147). The patient ought to be carefully wrapped up in blankets of the newest and fluffiest kind that can be got, which are to be so arranged as to shut off all accidental drafts of air (Dr. Roberts). On no account are the bed-clothes to be thrown off, however warm the surroundings may become; for an evenly high temperature to the skin, combined with absolute rest, are of the greatest value in rheumatic fever. These two conditions are worth all other means of relief put to- gether (Dr. King Chambers). The bed should be protected, by screens from draughts of air. All the joints, whether affected or not {i.e., the limbs), ought to be enveloped in cotton wool, a layer of which ought also to be put over the chest on both sides, with an arrangement for permitting the region of the heart to be easily got at for its occasional ex- amination iDr. Roberts). On the other hand, the following are the indications which have guided Dr. R. Southey of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in the treatment of acute rheumatism:— To relieve local pains; to reduce fever; to diminish the gravity of the various complications; and to promote early and complete convalescence, I do not consider that the materies morbi are eliminated either by sweating or by purg- ing. A spring bed with a tightly stuffed horse-hair mattress over it, is that which rests and supports the trunk and limbs, and relieves the joints most. I am no advocate for, and have never allowed my patients to be placed between the blankets instead of the sheets; neither will I permit flannel bed-shirts to be worn. The object I have in view is t-o keep one uniform temperature about them, which the bed provides for; but not to keep the patient swathed in flannel