Neurasthenia / by Gilbert Ballet ; translated from the third French edition by P. Campbell Smith.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Neurasthenia / by Gilbert Ballet ; translated from the third French edition by P. Campbell Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    disposition of the mind is a furttier valuable adjuvant to the treatment of muscular asthenia. But if immobility has its advantages, it has also serious inconveniences; it tends to diminish the appetite, to increase the gastro-intestinal atony and the constipation, and finally to main- tain the peripheral circulation in a state of torpor, injurious to the general metabolism. It is to obviate these disadvantages that Weir Mitchell has very ingeniously associated massage and fara- disation of the muscular masses with rest in bed. Massage must be carried out, as far as possible, by the nurse. It acts on the skin, the circulation and secretions of which it invigorates, and on the muscles by stimulating their action and thereby their nutrition. It also causes a marked accelera- tion of the heart, and even a slight increase in the excretion of urea (Weir Mitchell). It is performed as follows. After coating the cutaneous surface with vaseline or oil of sweet almonds made slightly aromatic, the first manipulation is prac- tised ; this consists in pinching and rubbing the skin, which is taken between the thumb and the other fingers so as to be freely moved over the subcutaneous cellular tissue. It is necessary to act very gently at first; then the force and dura- tion of the mechanical effort are progressively increased. The frictions must be performed with the ulnar border or with the flat of the hand, and must proceed from the distal to the proximal Neurasthenia. 23