Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and CattleClaridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Science
Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle
Claridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Hydrotherapy; Veterinary medicine
For occasional attacks of gout in the extremities, the constitution
being otherwise robust:--
In the morning, put a bandage on the part affected, pack the patient in
blankets (sweating process) until perspiration appears in the face.
Then put him into the half-bath--water 62° to 65° Fahr.; let him be well
rubbed in this from 5 to 25 minutes, or until friction can be applied to
all parts alike. Cold water should be occasionally poured over head and
shoulders during the operation. This ended, put bandages round the waist
and on the afflicted part.
For the second treatment:--About mid-day, rubbed in a packing-sheet;
take a sitz-bath for fifteen minutes--first time tepid 64°, afterwards
cold; then put the offending member into cold water for ten or fifteen
minutes, and renew bandages.
In the afternoon, at 5 o'clock, repeat mid-day treatment. During the
day, drink ten to fourteen tumblers of water.
The above treatment will generally put an end to a slight attack of
gout; but to eradicate it from the system, the cure must be followed up.
To effect this, for the sweating process on the second day, substitute
the packing-sheet until warm, which generally requires the patient to
lie in it from thirty minutes to an hour.
Where a bath cannot be obtained, the rubbing sheet is used instead; this
should be very little wrung out, and if one does not cool the body, a
second or a third should be applied.
The douche is often applied in gout; but as that cannot be the case in
ordinary practice, the practitioner must use his discretion in
prescribing it.
It is good treatment to use the sweating process in the morning, and the
packing-sheet in the afternoon.
The bandages must be worn day and night, and changed often.
_Cases._--A patient, fifty years of age, with rheumatic gout, bad
digestion, nervousness, fingers blue and swollen, slight pain in the
knee, much debilitated, was ordered:--In the morning, five rubbing
sheets, two or three minutes each, allowing a short interim between
each. At noon, the same. At five o'clock, the same. Ten tumblers of
water daily. Bandages to parts affected, and round the loins always. On
the patient experiencing great pain under the knees, the morning
treatment was changed to lying in packing-sheets until well warmed,
followed by the tepid bath. Patient soon improved in health.
A----, forty-six years of age, suffered fifteen years from periodical
attacks of gout, and had his last severe attack in his feet, hands, and
elbows, accompanied by paralysis, which affected his voice.
_Treatment._--Laid in packing-sheet until perspiration ensued (two or
three hours); then tepid bath renewed by cold water being thrown over
head and shoulders; noon, rubbing-sheet, followed by sitz-bath 62° for
fifteen minutes; cold foot-bath fifteen minutes, and head-bath ten
minutes; afternoon, morning treatment repeated.
Alternate days, sweating in blankets instead of the sheets; all other
treatment the same as before.
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