Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different FormsMunde, Charles
Science
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms
Munde, Charles
Hydrotherapy; Scarlatina
The water of the first bath still standing in the room, but having
become warmer, and it being found troublesome to carry much water
up-stairs to a fifth story; I sent for a pail more of fresh water,
lowering the temperature of the bath to 71 deg., and, placing the child in
the bath, threw water over it, as I had done before. This time the bath
produced a beneficial effect much sooner, and I removed the patient from
it in about twelve minutes. The heat of the body had gone down to 101,
the pulse was 118, and the patient was perfectly conscious, complaining
a good deal of her throat. I placed a wet compress on the throat and
chest and had her put to bed, but ordered the bed to be removed further
from the window, and the latter partly to be kept open. I need scarcely
say, that I had opened it soon after entering the room.
When I returned in about five hours, I found the patient covered with a
thick feather-bed, the window closed, the air of the room as bad as
before; the patient was delirious, the heat 110, the pulse upwards of
150.
I repeated the bath as before, but continued only twenty minutes; then I
packed her again, placed a wet compress on her head, opened the window
entirely, and left, promising to be back in an hour.
This time, on my return, I found the window open, the air better, the
child conscious in her pack. I left her a quarter of an hour longer;
then placed her in a bath of fresh water, of 70 deg., kept her there five
minutes, and put her back to bed. It being late in the evening, I
recommended changing the compress on the throat and placing another on
the stomach, and in case of renewed delirium, a cold compress on the
head, to be changed frequently.
When I called in the morning, I found the patient again in delirium, the
heat 110 deg., the pulse 140.
The bath was repeated for twenty-five minutes, when the heat went down
to 100 deg., and the pulse to 120. The patient being conscious, I had her
packed again and left her about two hours in the pack. When I returned,
I found her head almost clear; the bath of 70 deg. for ten minutes
brightened her very much. Her throat continued very troublesome, one of
the submaxillary glands was very much swollen, and broke afterwards, on
the fifth day of my treatment, discharging fetid matter. Also the
parotid gland on the same side became seriously affected, swoll
considerably and looked as if the ear might be endangered. The patient
developing heat enough, I used nothing but wet compresses, and water and
vinegar for a gargle.
The heat and delirium returning, the patient was bathed and packed twice
more the same day; the pack lasting only an hour to an hour and a
quarter. The night was pretty good; there was little delirium.
The third day, the patient was packed twice, and had four baths, and the
bowels being costive, an injection of tepid water in the evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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