Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different FormsMunde, Charles
Science
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms
Munde, Charles
Hydrotherapy; Scarlatina
In the winter of 1845-46, during an epidemic, which ravaged the city of
Dresden and the neighboring villages, I was called to see a child,
belonging to a tradesman, blessed with a large family, but without
sufficient means to support them. I found the whole family crammed
together in a room of moderate size, the patient lying in a bed near the
window. There was a large fire in a sheet-iron stove, upon which the
mother was preparing the scanty dinner of the family. The air was filled
with the exhalations of the living, beside the smell from the potatoes
and sourkrout, which was undergoing the cooking process, the sundry
boots and shoes lying around or being under repair in the hands of the
father, and a few pieces of linen hanging behind the stove for the
purpose of drying. In an adjoining alcove lay the body of a little boy,
who had expired the day before, a victim of scarlet-fever.
I found the patient, a fair-haired little girl of about eight years, in
a state of sopor, which had lasted a day and a half; there had been
delirium for two or three days, during which time the child had never
had a clear moment. There was a purple rash all over the body. The
temperature of the body I found 112 F., on placing my pocket-thermometer
under the pit of the arm; the pulse was small, but exceedingly quick.
There was considerable inflammation of the throat and swelling of the
face; the breath was very bad. There was a blister on the throat and a
mustard plaster on each of the soles of the feet.
I sent for a large wash-tub and water, which I mixed with some warm
water, so as to make it about 65 deg.. I had the child undressed, and placed
in the empty tub, after removing the blister and mustard; then I poured
the water slowly over her head, shoulders and the rest of the body. The
second pail brought her to consciousness, but only for a moment. As the
delirium returned, I continued to pour water over her; till the tub was
filled about nine inches, when I used the water from the bath. In
fifteen minutes, I found the heat of the body diminished about five
degrees. Soon after, the child became conscious, and its mind cleared
off more and more, as she continued in the bath. In thirty minutes, the
heat was 103, and the pulse, which first could not be counted, 135, when
I removed her from the bath and put her in a wet-sheet pack, where she
fell asleep. The pulse continuing slower, coming down to 126, and the
heat not increasing, I left her in the pack for an hour and three
quarters, when I observed an increase of heat, a quickening of the pulse
and a return of delirium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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