Domestic medicine : $b or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitionersBuchan, William
Science
Domestic medicine : $b or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners
Buchan, William
Medicine, Popular -- Early works to 1800
When the inflammation is formed, the symptoms in general are similar to
those of the inflammatory fever. The pulse indeed is often weak,
irregular, and trembling; but sometimes it is hard and contracted. When
the brain itself is inflamed, the pulse is always soft and low; but when
the inflammation only affects the integuments of the brain, viz. the
dura and pia mater, it is hard. A remarkable quickness of hearing is a
common symptom of this disease; but that seldom continues long. Another
usual symptom is a great throbbing or pulsation in the arteries of the
neck and temples. Though the tongue is often black and dry, yet the
patient seldom complains of thirst, and even refuses drink. The mind
chiefly runs upon such objects as have before made a deep impression on
it; and sometimes, from a sullen silence, the patient becomes all of a
sudden quite outrageous.
A constant trembling and starting of the tendons is an unfavourable
symptom, as are also a suppression of urine; a total want of sleep; a
constant spitting; a grinding of the teeth, which last may be considered
as a kind of convulsion. When a phrenitis succeeds an inflammation of
the lungs, of the intestines, or of the throat, &c. it is owing to a
translation of the disease from these parts to the brain, and generally
proves fatal. This shews the necessity of proper evacuations, and the
danger of repellents in all inflammatory diseases.
The favourable symptoms are, a free perspiration, a copious discharge of
blood from the nose, the bleeding piles, a plentiful discharge of urine,
which lets fall a copious sediment. Sometimes the disease is carried off
by a looseness, and in women by an excessive flow of the _menses_.
As this disease often proves fatal in a few days, it requires the most
speedy applications. When it is prolonged, or improperly treated, it
sometimes ends in madness, or a kind of stupidity which continues for
life.
In the cure, two things are chiefly to be attended to, _viz._ to lessen
the quantity of blood in the brain, and to retard the circulation
towards the head.
REGIMEN.——The patient ought to be kept very quiet. Company, noise, and
every thing that affects the senses, or disturbs the imagination,
increases the disease. Even too much light is hurtful: for which reason
the patient’s chamber ought to be a little darkened, and he should
neither be kept too hot nor cold. It is not however necessary to exclude
the company of an agreeable friend, as this has a tendency to sooth and
quiet the mind. Neither ought the patient to be kept too much in the
dark, lest it should occasion a gloomy melancholy, which is too often
the consequence of this disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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