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
The patient must, as far as possible, be soothed and humoured in every
thing. Contradiction will ruffle his mind, and increase his malady. Even
when he calls for things which are not to be obtained, or which might
prove hurtful, he is not to be positively denied them, but rather put
off with the promise of having them as soon as they can be obtained, or
by some other excuse. A little of any thing that the mind is set upon,
though not quite proper, will hurt the patient less than a positive
refusal. In a word, whatever he was fond of, or used to be delighted
with when in health, may here be tried, as pleasing stories, soft music,
or whatever has a tendency to sooth the passions and compose the mind.
Boerhaave proposes several mechanical experiments for this purpose; as
the soft noise of water distilling by drops into a bason, and the
patient trying to reckon them, &c. Any uniform sound, if low and
continued, has a tendency to procure sleep, and consequently may be of
service.
The aliment ought to be light, consisting chiefly of farinaceous
substances; as panado, and water-gruel sharpened with jelly of currants,
or juice of lemons, ripe fruits roasted or boiled, jellies, preserves,
&c. The drink small, diluting, and cooling; as whey, barley-water, or
decoctions of barley and tamarinds, which latter not only render the
liquor more palatable, but likewise more beneficial, as they are of an
opening nature.
MEDICINE.——In an inflammation of the brain, nothing more certainly
relieves the patient than a free discharge of blood from the nose. When
this comes of its own accord, it is by no means to be stopped, but
rather promoted, by applying cloths dipped in warm water to the part.
When bleeding at the nose does not happen spontaneously, it may be
provoked, by putting a straw, or any other sharp body, up the nostril.
Bleeding in the temporal arteries greatly relieves the head: but as this
operation cannot always be performed, we would recommend in its stead
bleeding in the jugular veins. When the patient’s pulse and spirits are
so low, that he cannot bear bleeding with the lancet, leeches may be
applied to the temples. These not only draw off the blood more
gradually, but by being applied nearer to the part affected, generally
give more immediate relief.
A discharge of blood from the hæmorrhoidal veins is likewise of great
service, and ought by all means to be promoted. If the patient has been
subject to the bleeding piles, and that discharge has been stopped,
every method must be tried to restore it; as the application of leeches
to the parts, sitting over the steams of warm water, sharp clysters, or
suppositories made of honey, aloes, and rock-salt.
If the inflammation of the brain be occasioned by the stoppage of
evacuations either natural or artificial, as the menses, issues, setons,
or such like, all means must be used to restore them as soon as
possible, or to substitute others in their stead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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