Surgical diseases of infants and children / by P. Guersant ; translated from the French by Richard J. Dunglison.

  • Guersant, P. (Paul Louis Benoit), 1800-1869.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical diseases of infants and children / by P. Guersant ; translated from the French by Richard J. Dunglison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    proved successful in our hands. This application, employed exter- nally at once, with the internal use of the alcoholic tincture of aconite-leaves in divided doses, fifteen to twenty drops in the twenty-four hours, has sometimes prevented purulent absorptions, an accident of sufficient rarity, it is true, in children, but one which has come under our observation. If the wounds become pale and grayish, the application of charpie steeped in solution of chlorinated ^ soda has been found of service. Pure lemon-juice has succeeded in giving by the next morning a healthy appearance to a wound of an unpromising character. But if the local treatment we have just indicated, and the fre- quent or occasional renewal of the dressings, according to the increase or diminution of suppuration, be of great importance to the success of operations, the general after-treatment is, in a ma- jority of cases, still more essential. Usually, when there is no supervention of convulsions—and this is an accident which we have rarely observed, even after the most serious operations in children —or there are no special indications, we would do well to attend to the nourishment of the patient from the very day of the opera- tion. On the first day, children nursing should be given the breast in preference to the bottle, should this be possible, and as much or as little food of this kind should be given them as they may de- sire, but they should only be nursed every two hours. For other children, it is proper to commence by some fluid nourishment, on the first day giving them milk or broth, and after the succeeding day soup, wine, etc., gradually bringing them back to the diet to which they have been accustomed. To this may be sometimes added tonics, chocolate, cofiee, and often cinchona in its various « forms. This diet has seemed to us indispensable, except when there exist internal diseases which attack the patient consecutively, and which demand on the part of the surgeon a ready medical know- ledge, so that he may not overlook these affections, and may properly combat them. Without this there is but httle success in surgery. We should not, then, lose sight of the fact that before an operation we must be physicians, surgeons in its performance, and at last physicians again to cure the patient and bring to a suc- cessful result many of our surgical operations. Finally, all the means we have just extolled may fail, if we neglect the hygienic surroundings of our patient. All things