Address on insanity before the New York State Medical Society / by Samuel White.

  • White, Samuel, 1777-1845.
Date:
[1844?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on insanity before the New York State Medical Society / by Samuel White. 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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    equalizing circulation, is the warm bath. The patient should be immersed from twenty to thirty minutes, the heat at 96 Far- henheit, refrigerating the head while in the bath, when the heat of the part should indicate its necessity. Warm bathing will be found particularly beneficial and appropriate in me- lancholia and delirium tremens. Fixed alkaline salts added to the water, are useful in removing the sebaceous oil from the surface of the body. The nitro-muriatic bath is a valu- able and effective agent in a congestive state of the liver, and should be repeated in connection with the usual remedies, until we have evidence of a healthy secretion of bile. The value of the shower bath is known to all, yet it is too indis- criminately used. Great prudence and watchfulness is neces- sary in its application. Should atony prevent a suitable re- action and warmth over the surface, it may do serious and lasting injury. A pitcher of cold water poured over the back part of the head is often grateful as well as useful to the patient. In the second stage of Insanity, a more tonic treatment be- comes necessary, and it is to be regulated according to the age, constitution, and temperament of the patient. The va- rious preparations of iron, nitrate of silver, followed with a solution of iodine to prevent a discoloration of the skin, con- joined with suitable moral treatment, will often decide the future prospects and destiny of the patient. In moral treatment, no more restraint should be used than is absolutely necessary for their own and others' safety. Chains are never necessary in an institution. You cannot chain the human mind, nor cure a patient in chains. I have never used one. Pinel is entitled to an enduring monument of fame, for having been the first who dared to break off the chains of the maniac, throw open his prison door, bring him forth to the light of heaven, and to the enjoyment of the es- sential elements in their purity. Whenever they have been brought to the Asylum in chains, I have made it a point to remove them with my own hands, as I am sure by so doing, to gain permanently the confidence of the patient.