A universal formulary : containing the methods of preparing and administering officinal and other medicines : the whole adapted to physicians and pharmaceutists / by R. Eglesfeld Griffith.

  • Griffith, R. Eglesfeld (Robert Eglesfeld), 1798-1850.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A universal formulary : containing the methods of preparing and administering officinal and other medicines : the whole adapted to physicians and pharmaceutists / by R. Eglesfeld Griffith. 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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    overlooked by both lecturers and writers on the practice of medicine. We are acquainted with but two treatises on the subject, in our language, that can be referred to with confidence—the general observations prefixed to A Practice of Physic, by the late Dr. Dewees, and The Domestic Manage- ment of the Sick Room, by Dr. A. T. Thomson, of both of which we shall freely avail ourself in the following pages. Ventilation in the Sick Room. Where it is possible, the room in which the patient is confined should be large and loftyj and in all cases provided with a chimney; the npper sashes of the windows should be capable of being let down, which is not always the case ; in a word, the room should be of such a construction as to permit the freest ventilation and renewal of the air without injury to the patient. For- tunately for the comfort as well as for the benefit of the sick, a great change has taken place as regards their treatment in this respect; at one time, and that not many years since, it was considered essential to their recovery that air should be carefully excluded from their apartments, and every means was taken to accomplish this result; but a more rational mode of treatment is now generally adopted, though physicians occasionally^ meet with individuals wdio obstinately adhere to the idea that all access of the outer air is inju- rious to the sick. The air of a sick chamber soon becomes impure, and must be changed by the admission of fresh air from without, ancl not, as is too frequently at- tempted, by the use of disinfecting agents in the chamber itself; which, although they may mask or destroy offensive odors, only tend to vitiate the air still more. It may be confidently asserted that no disinfecting or fumi- gating agent is capable of rendering the air of a sick chamber so pure and salutary as it can be made by proper attention to cleanliness and free ventilation. This latter can in most cases be accomplished without risk to the patient, by proper management, and should never be neglected. It should be regu- lated by the season of the year, the state of the atmosphere, and the cha- racter of the disease. In winter, in consequence of the draught occasioned by the fire, a renewal of the air of the room takes place to a greater or less degree ; but a sick chamber should, if possible, be heated by an open fire, and not by a stove, as the air is thus more rapidly changed, and the un- pleasant emanations caused by a large surface of heated iron are obviated. The state of the weather should also infiuence the mode of ventilation, for it must be obvious that, if it is damp, it would be injurious, if admitted into a sick room directly or in large quantities. The character of the disease should always be considered ; as a general rule, all acute affections require more ventilation than those of a chronic nature, except such as are attended with offensive discharges. No precise rules, however, can be laid down on the subject of ventilation as respects the mode in which it is to be attained ; this must, in a great measure, be left to the discretion and good sense of the attendants. Ventilation is especially required in infectious and contagious disorders, as, in close, ill-ventilated apartments, the power of infection is greatly aug- mented, and is, as it were, concentrated. The infectious miasm is greatly weakened or diluted by a free access of air, and its powers much augmented by a damp, close atmosphere. Next to ventilation, and of equal importance, is the Temperature op the Sick Room. There is a very general, but erroneous, opinion among nurses, that a sick person should be kept very warm, to prevent his taking cold, and, consequently,