Volume 2

Virtue's Household physician : a twentieth century medica a practical description in plain language of all the diseases of men, women and children with the latest discoveries in medicine and most approved methods of treatment / by a corps of eminent specialists, practising physicians and surgeons ; Herbert Buffum [and others].

Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Virtue's Household physician : a twentieth century medica a practical description in plain language of all the diseases of men, women and children with the latest discoveries in medicine and most approved methods of treatment / by a corps of eminent specialists, practising physicians and surgeons ; Herbert Buffum [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HEART DISEASES. These things being done, give some quieting or antispasmodic medicines, or one of the following prescriptions : (285), (97), (135), (124). Inhale 5 drops of nitrite of amyl on a cloth frequently. Great relief is often obtained by sending a current of magnetism through the region of the heart, by applying one pole of the machine in front, and the other upon the back. During the intervals, the general health is to be improved by a wholesome, nourishing diet, gentle out-door exercise, and a careful control of all the passions, ^of a grain of nitro-glycerine every hour, whil^ in pain, steadies and slows the heart. Polypus of the Heart. A PORTION of the fibrin sometimes separates from the blood in the heart and large vessels, and becoming more or less organized, forms polypuses, which fill the cavities to which they are attached, and seriously obstruct the circulation. Physical Signs. — When the pulsations of the heart, previously regular, become suddenly anomalous, confused, and obscure, so that they cannot be analyzed, we may suspect a polypus. General Symptoms. —A sudden and great aggravation of the bad breathing, without any visible cause, — the patient being in agony from a sense of impending suffocation, and tossing about from side to side, struggling for breath. The pulse small, weak, irregular, in- termittent, and unequal; the surface and extremities cold; the face, livid, — to which there is generally added nausea and vomiting. Treatment. — When the polypus is once formed, the case is hope- less. The treatment, therefore, can only be preventive. The chief things to be done are, to keep the patient in a state of entire tranquillity, and to bring the circulation to the surface, by keep- ing the skin warm, and excited by friction. This will call the blood away from the heart and great vessels, and lessen the chances of the polypus. Displacements of the Heart. The heart may be misplaced from birth. I have seen a case in which it lay upon the right side, and had always been in that posi- tion. Its action was natural. A variety of causes may tend to push it out of its place, as water in the cavity of the pleura. In such cases, it will return to its place when the water is drawn off or absorbed.