If there be good grounds for believing that the incited action has
been caused by suppression of any discharge, that should be encouraged
to return, and the cause of the suppression must be avoided. If a
gonorrhœa have been suddenly arrested by the employment of stimulating
injections, these must be instantly discontinued; and some have even
gone so far, in such cases, as to introduce bougies impregnated with
gonorrhœal matter, in order to procure a renewal of the discharge.
In cases of suppression of purulent discharge from the ears, or the
surrounding parts, followed by external ophthalmia, a blister or
sinapism should be applied in the neighbourhood of the part from which
the discharge formerly issued. When the menstrual evacuation has been
arrested, leeches and fomentations should be applied to the pudenda, or
around the anus, and emenagogues administered internally; the patient
should be placed in a quiet and well ventilated apartment, and kept
free from any emotions of the mind; all noise and other sources of
irritation should be studiously avoided.
If the incited action in the eye do not subside, as it often will
not, on removal of the exciting cause, recourse must immediately be
had to very active means for its subjugation; for in no other organ
does inflammatory action proceed more rapidly to an unfavourable
termination. By timely use of antiphlogistic means, those consequences
of external ophthalmia, which we have already treated of, may be
avoided; and, with respect to most of them, it is much better to
prevent their occurrence, than combat them after they have been allowed
to take place. The eye is more valuable to a great proportion of people
than a limb; and the surgeon is very culpable if he be not master of
this part of his profession, and able to undertake the management
of every disease and accident to which the eye is liable. “In cases
of inflammation the general treatment is the same; but each variety
requires peculiar attention during the cure, depending on the structure
and function of the tissue affected.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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