The diseases if infancy and childhood; for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt.

  • Holt, L. Emmett (Luther Emmett), 1855-1924.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases if infancy and childhood; for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    but this is not the general experience. The treatment of pneumonia by the application of the ice bag to the chest has some excellent advocates, although my own experience has not led me to look upon it with much favor. It is admissible only in lobar pneumonia. The use of cold in in- flammations of the larynx, trachea, or bronchi is, in my opinion, positively contra-indicated, certainly so in infants and young children. Cold is best applied to the head by an ice cap made like a helmet; an ordinary rubber or flannel bag filled with ice may answer the purpose. The rubber coil filled with ice water is also an excellent method. For inflamed glands or joints the ice bag should be used; for the eyes cold compresses changed every minute. The Hot Pack.—All clothing is to be removed and the child's body covered with towels wrung from water at a temperature of from 100° to 110° F., after which the body should be rolled in a thick blanket. These hot applications may be changed every twenty or thirty minutes until free perspiration is produced, which may be continued as long as necessary. This is mainly useful in ursemia. The Hot Bath, like the mustard pack or the mustard bath, may be used to promote reaction in cases of shock or collapse. The patient should be put into the bath at a temperature of 100° F., the water being gradu- ally raised to 105°, or even to 110°, but rarely above this point. The body should be well rubbed while the patient is in the bath. A thermometer should be kept in the water to see that the temperature does not go too high. During the bath, in most cases, cold should be applied to the head. The Hot-Air or Vapour Bath.—All the clothing should be removed and the patient laid upon the bed with the bedclothing raised above the body ten or twelve inches, and sustained by means of a wicker support. The bedclothing should be pinned tightly about the neck, so that only the head is outside. Beneath the bed clothing hot vapour is introduced from a croup kettle or a vapourizer. This will usually induce free per- spiration in fifteen or twenty minutes. It may be continued from twenty to thirty minutes at a time. Instead of vapour, hot air may be intro- duced in the same way. The air space about the body is indispensable. The vapour bath is applicable chiefly to cases of uraemia. The Mustard Bath.—Four or five tablespoonfuls of powdered mustard should be mixed for a few minutes with one gallon of tepid water. To this should be added four or five gallons of plain water at a temperature of 100° F. The temperature of the bath may be raised by the addition of hot water to 105° or 110° F. if desired. Nothing is more efficient than the hot mustard bath for a general derivative effect in bringing the blood to the surface in cases of shock, collapse, heart failure from any cause, or in sudden congestion of the lungs or brain. The bath should not usually be continued for more than ten minutes. If necessary, it may be repeated in an hour.