Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle.

  • Biddle, John B. (John Barclay), 1815-1879.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    27/642 (page 33)
    MATERIA MEDICA. The agents employed in the treatment of diseases are denom- inated Remedies, and the branch of medicine which is devoted to their consideration is termed Materia Medica. Remedies may be divided into Hygienic, Meclianical, Imponderable, and Pharmacological agents. Hygienic Remedies are usually treated of in works specially devoted to the subject. PART I. MECHANICAL REMEDIES. Mechanical Remedies belong chiefly to Surgery. A few agents of this class being, however, employed in the practice of medicine, are included in the Materia Medica. They are blood-letti)!g (general and local), setons, issues, bandages, friction, acupuncture, and aspiration. I. General Blood-letting is performed principally by ?7^;/^- section or phlebotomy, which is usually practiced on the median- cephalic or basilic veins of the arm—sometimes also on the external jugular and other veins. From the veins at the elbow it is done by passing a ligature above the point selected, the patient being in the sitting posture, and making an incision in the most prominent vein ample enough to permit foij-iij of blood to escape per minute, and allowing it to flow until syn- cope approaches. To stop the flow, remove the ligature, apply a compress, and place the patient in the recumbent posture.