Institution for administering medical aid to the sick poor ... and for preventing the spreading of contagious diseases.

  • Institution for Relief of the Sick Poor (Dublin, Ireland)
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Institution for administering medical aid to the sick poor ... and for preventing the spreading of contagious diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/42 (page 18)
    live, and at the same time contributes to obviate the effusion of serum into the ventricles of the cerebrum. The presence of much inflammatory action in the abdomen likewise indicates the expediency of bloodletting.—The bold application of the last- mentioned remedy is particularly imperative in cases of general idiopathic inflammation of the intestines and peritoneum, and, when performed in suitable time and quantity, it is mostly suc- cessful. Cathartics, of mild but sufficiently active operation, are highly beneficial in this complaint after, though not before, the relaxation of the bowels by bloodletting and fomentations. I have again and again witnessed the most serious evils result from a too early and repeated use of strong or heating cathartics in the height of this inflammation. In place of then evacuating and relieving the intestines, they irritate them, and thereby aggravate the malady. I am not an advocate for the lancet on trivial occasions. I am in the habit of having recourse to it only where, after a due consideration of every circumstance, it seems to me to he well indicated. In such cases I in general order for adults a full bleeding of from nine to eighteen or twenty ounces, adapted to the nature of the sickness, and the state of the patient; and I find them incomparably more efficacious than small ones. A bleeding of