Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
6. Certain FUMIGATIONS and VAPOURS. An accidental cure of a pulmonary
affection by the smoke of rosin, in a man who bottled liquors, raised
for a while the credit of fumigations. I have tried them, but without
much permanent effect. I think I have seen the pain in the breast
relieved by receiving the vapour from a mixture of equal parts of tar,
bran, and boiling water into the lungs. The sulphureous and saline air
of Stabiæ, between Mount Vesuvius and the Mediterranean Sea, and the
effluvia of the pine forests of Lybia, were supposed, in ancient times,
to be powerful remedies in consumptive complaints; but it is probable,
the exercise used in travelling to those countries, contributed chiefly
to the cures which were ascribed to foreign matters acting upon the
lungs.
7. LOZENGES, SYRUPS, and DEMULCENT TEAS. These are too common and too
numerous to be mentioned.
8. OPIATES. It is a mistake in practice, founded upon a partial
knowledge of the qualities of opium, to administer it only at night,
or to suppose that its effects in composing a cough depend upon its
inducing sleep. It should be given in small doses during the day, as
well as in larger ones at night. The dose should be proportioned to the
degrees of action in the arterial system. The less this action, the more
opium may be taken with safety and advantage.
9. DIFFERENT POSITIONS OF THE BODY have been found to be more or less
favourable to the abatement of the cough. These positions should be
carefully sought for, and the body kept in that which procures the
most freedom from coughing. I have heard of an instance in which a
cough, which threatened a return of the hæmorrhage from the lungs, was
perfectly composed for two weeks, by keeping the patient nearly in
one posture in bed; but I have known more cases in which relief from
coughing was to be obtained only by an erect posture of the body.
10. Considerable relief will often be obtained from the patient's
SLEEPING BETWEEN BLANKETS in winter, and on a MATTRASS in summer. The
former prevent fresh cold from night sweats; the latter frequently checks
them altogether. In cases where a sufficient weight of blankets to keep
up an agreeable warmth cannot be borne, without restraining easy and full
acts of inspiration, the patient should sleep under a light feather bed,
or an eider down coverlet. They both afford more warmth than double or
treble their weight of blankets.
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