The topical uses of water in surgery : presented to the American Medical Association at its session of May, 1852 / by Charles A. Pope.

  • Pope, Charles A. (Charles Alexander), 1818-1870.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The topical uses of water in surgery : presented to the American Medical Association at its session of May, 1852 / by Charles A. Pope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    temperature of the part remains diminished, the transient reactive pain passes off, the redness and tumefaction of the skin disappear. The vitality of the part is depressed, and its irritability is moderated. If the contact be maintained for a long time, the blood, which is constantly driven from the contracted and diminished capillaries, is compelled to take another direction. This tendency may be in- creased, both by diminishing the mass of blood, and by counter- irritation at a distant point. Thus we may moderate or prevent an inflammation, or sometimes cause it to abort when already esta- blished. In other cases, we can drive the blood from an engorged organ, or inversely to a point where its presence is desirable. As the continuous application of cold deprives a part of its caloric, it acts like an antiseptic, in preventing chemical decomposition and putrefaction, which cannot occur without a certain degree of caloric. From what we have said of the modus operandi of cold water con- tinuously applied, it should prove especially salutary in the treatment of the inflammatory process. And since inflammation in its various stages is itself the great and frequent condition or complication, which the surgeon is called upon to combat, and it is in its treatment that the benefits of refrigerants have been most lauded, whilst the opposers have here raised their most serious objections, we shall be excused on account of its importance for dwelling somewhat on this head. The means employed for mitigating or abolishing inflammation have been classed by McCartney, in his admirable work on the sub- ject, under seven heads :— 1. Remedies which diminish the force of the heart, and give the disposition, generally, to the small arteries, to go into the contracted state. Along with nauseants and general and local abstraction of blood, refrigerants certainly diminish the size of the small vessels, and consequently the force of the heart also, so far at least as this is concerned in impelling the blood through the constricted capillaries of a part. Cold water unquestionably fulfils this indication. 2. Means that effect a diminished size of the arteries, or reduce the sensibility in the inflamed part. Cold applications do both; and the more superficial the vessels the greater the effects, as in violent sprains of joints. 3. Lotions or fluids which exert sedative and astringent power. Here, too, cold water, even by itself, and unmedicated, completely answers the purpose.