Sea-sickness and how to prevent it : an explanation of its nature and successful treatment, through the agency of the nervous system, by means of the spinal ice-bag : with an introduction on the general principles of neuro-therapeutics / by John Chapman.

  • Chapman, John, 1821-1894.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sea-sickness and how to prevent it : an explanation of its nature and successful treatment, through the agency of the nervous system, by means of the spinal ice-bag : with an introduction on the general principles of neuro-therapeutics / by John Chapman. 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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    is dyspnoea nlth pain and a sense of fulness in the chesty a double column of heat be applied between the scapulee, the irritative eough Avill subside, bland mucus will be secreted^ the painful sense of fulness and diffieulty of breathing will be relieved, and the thoracie integuments, previously warmer, will become cooler than normal. Again, if heat be applied along the lower half of the dorsal spines, the usual restraining influence on the peripheral circulation will be exerted; and meanwhile, in many cases, nausea, and in some cases vomiting even, will be induced. And again, if heat be applied along both the lower dorsal and the lumbar spines, the bowels will be deprived of their wonted supply of blood, and, in some cases, the amount of mucus poured out from the intestinal mucous membrane will be so copious as to induce diarrhoea. And contrariwise : if in a case of so-called general relaxation, associated with a cold, unduly moist (clammy) skin, ice be applied along the whole spine, the system will experience a tonic influence, and simultaneously the skin will, as a general rule, become both warmer and drier. If, during the latter stages of bronchitis, when all inflammatory symptoms have subsided and mucus is exuded and coughed up in great abundance, ice be applied between the scapulae, the temperature of the thorax will be raised and the secretion of mucus will be lessened or arrested. Analo- gous results may be obtained by the same means in each segment of the body. During severe sea-sickness the skin is eold and is eovered with perspiration, mucus is vomited from the stomach after whatever food it may have contained has been ejected, dian’hcea often occurs, and each of these morbid states is subdued by the use of the spinal ice-bag. “ Now the condition described in the first of the two preceding paragraphs as induced by heat, and in the second as restrained or subdued by cold, is two-fold: in the first case, it consists in a contraction or collapse of blood-vessels, and simultaneously in an excessive outpouring from the glandular organs—especially from those of the mucous membranes and of the skin; in the second case, it consists in a dilatation of bloodvessels, and in a diminution of the activity of the glandular organs—especially of those of the mucous membranes and of the skin. It cannot be said that one of these conditions being induced the other necessarily occurs, for they may be induced separately: when the surface of the body is exposed to a high temperature, profuse sweating occurs, but a maximum amount of blood circii-