Domestic medicine : a treatise on the practice of medicine, adapted to the reformed system, comprising a materia medica / by J. Kost.

  • Kost, J., 1819-1904.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : a treatise on the practice of medicine, adapted to the reformed system, comprising a materia medica / by J. Kost. 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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    Cathartics. — In this disease cathartics are not advi- sable, because of the irritation they are apt to excite in the bowels. It may, however, be proper sometimes to use a dose of olive, almond, or castor oil, as they are emollient, and less irritating than cathartics in general. Fomentations.—Fomentations of hops, camomile and rue, with a few pepper pods stewed in vinegar, and applied to the bowels externally, are sometimes of sig- nal service. Slippery elm water, or the mucilage of gum arabic, should be drank pretty freely, with a view to their emollient effects on the bowels. INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. (Pkrenitis.) Phrensy, as the disease is sometimes called, is char- acterized by a considerable fever, violent headache, redness of the face and eyes, intolerance of light and noise, watchfulness and delirium. 'The disease comes on with a sense of fullness and heat in the head, flushing of the countenance, redness of the eyes, and a full pulse. The stomach and bowels soon become disturbed by sympathy, and hence there is, sometimes, more or less vomiting, and pain in the bowels. The pain in the head is not always severe; when the morbid action affects the substance of the brain alone, there is seldom much pain, as this tissue is not very sensitive, but when the meninges or mem- branes are implicated, which is generally the case, the pain is distressing. As the disease advances, the fever increases, and the delirium sets in; the patient looks wildly, talks inco- herently, grits his teeth, and becomes very restless. At the highest stage of the disease, the headache some- times becomes intolerable, and the delirium rises to a raving pitch.