The treatment of pleurisy with effusion / [H.D. Rolleston].

  • Rolleston, Humphry Davy, Sir, 1862-1944.
Date:
[1913?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of pleurisy with effusion / [H.D. Rolleston]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    journey. South again in 1910 his name became prominently asso¬ ciated with the work of the Grouse Disease Commission. On this last voyage he was surgeon, artist, and head of the scientific staff. Of the manner in which Captain Scott and his companions met their deaths much has already been written. We will here do no more than record bur admiration for the noble self-sacrifice in the \ v cause of science and discovery which they have shown. Their names will be for ever associated with all that is truest and best in the life and history of the British race. That one of them shoulcKhave received his training within our X. walls is a fact o*f which all St. George’s men must be proud. The full appreciation of Dr. Wilson’s life and work we shall leave to those who knew him best. We take this opportunity to offer oufysincerest sympathies to Mrs. Wilson in her sad loss. * * * We regret to have to announce also the death of Professor McHardy, another distinguished old St. George’s man. CDe Creatmcin of Plcurisp witl) €ffu$ion. In these short articles it is probably better to give personal opinions and experience, whether universally accepted or not, rather 1 than an exhaustive account of a subject. Without pretending to deal with the whole question, I therefore propose to touch on some points in the treatment of pleurisy with effusion. Pain, which diminishes or disappears as the increasing effusion j separates the inflamed layers of the pleura, is the most urgent / symptom in the early stages. It may be so agonizing as to prostrate f the patient, seriously disturb the heart, and so demand a hypodermic 1 of morphine; but this is somewhat exceptional, and usually local : measures suffice. As the visceral pleura is insensitive, the pain of >1 pleurisy is due to irritation of the parietal layer which is supplied by the intercostal nerves. There is, therefore, a justification for the empirical practice of local applications to the corresponding surface ) of the chest. These fall into two groups or, perhaps, expressed >J more accurately, act in two ways, according as they are analgesics or counter-irritants. This division, however, is far from water¬ tight, for the actions may both be exerted at the same time by poultices and hot fomentations containing opium, the drug