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
CAUSES.——The immediate cause of the jaundice is an obstruction of the
bile. The remote or occasional causes are, the bites of poisonous
animals, as the viper, mad dog, &c. the bilious or hysteric colic;
violent passions, as grief, anger, &c. Strong purges or vomits will
likewise occasion the jaundice. Sometimes it proceeds from obstinate
agues, or from that disease being prematurely stopped by astringent
medicines. In infants it is often occasioned by the _meconium_ not being
sufficiently purged off. Pregnant women are very subject to it. It is
likewise a symptom in several kinds of fever. Catching cold, or the
stoppage of customary evacuations, as the _menses_, the bleeding piles,
issues, &c. will occasion the jaundice.
SYMPTOMS.——The patient at first complains of excessive weariness, and
has great aversion to every kind of motion. His skin is dry, and he
generally feels a kind of itching or pricking pain over the whole body.
The stools are of a whitish or clay colour, and the urine, as was
observed above, is yellow. The breathing is difficult, and the patient
complains of an unusual load or oppression on his breast. There is a
heat in the nostrils, a bitter taste in the mouth, loathing of food,
sickness at the stomach, vomiting, flatulency, and other symptoms of
indigestion.
If the patient be young, and the disease complicated with no other
malady, it is seldom dangerous; but in old people, where it continues
long, returns frequently, or is complicated with the dropsy or
hypochondriac symptoms, it generally proves fatal. The black jaundice is
more dangerous than the yellow.
REGIMEN.——The diet should be cool, light, and diluting, consisting
chiefly of ripe fruits and mild vegetables; as apples boiled or roasted,
stewed prunes, preserved plums, boiled spinage, &c. Veal or
chicken-broth, with light bread, are likewise very proper. Many have
been cured by living almost wholly for some days on raw eggs. The drink
should be butter-milk, whey sweetened with honey, or decoctions of cool
opening vegetables; or marsh-mallow roots, with liquorice, &c.
The patient should take as much exercise as he can bear, either on
horseback, or in a carriage; walking, running, and even jumping, are
likewise proper, provided he can bear them without pain, and there be no
symptoms of inflammation. Patients have been often cured of this disease
by a long journey, after medicines had proved ineffectual.
Amusements are likewise of great use in the jaundice. The disease is
often occasioned by a sedentary life, joined to a dull melancholy
disposition. Whatever therefore tends to promote the circulation, and to
cheer the spirits, must have a good effect; as dancing, laughing,
singing, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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