Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle AgesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Medicine, Medieval; Physicians
After his book on diseases of the head, his most important section is on
diseases of the respiratory system. In this he treats first of angina,
and recommends as gargles at the beginning light astringents; later
stronger astringents, as alum and soda dissolved in warm water, should
be employed. Warm compresses, venesection from the sublingual veins, and
from the jugular, and purgatives in severe cases, are the further
remedies. He treats of cough as a symptom due to hot or cold, dry or wet
dyscrasias. Opium preparations carefully used are the best remedies.
The breathing in of steam impregnated with various ethereal resins, was
also recommended.
He gives a rather interestingly modern treatment of consumption. He
recommends an abundance of milk with a strong nutritious diet, as
digestible as possible. A good auxiliary to this treatment was change of
air, a sea voyage, and a stay at a watering-place. Asses' and mares'
milk are much better for these patients than cows' and goats' milk.
There is not enough difference in the composition of these various milks
to make their special consumption of import, but it is probable that the
suggestive influence of the taking of an unusual milk had a very
favorable effect upon patients, and this effect was renewed frequently,
so that much good was ultimately accomplished. For hemoptysis,
especially when it was acute and due as Alexander thought to the rupture
of a blood vessel in the lungs, he recommended the opening of a vein at
the elbow or the ankle--in order to divert the blood from the place of
rupture to the healthy parts of the circulation. He insisted that the
patients must rest, that they should take acid and astringent drinks,
that cold compresses should be placed upon the chest (our ice bags), and
that they should take only a liquid diet at most lukewarm, or, better,
if agreeable to them, cold. When the bleeding stopped, a milk cure was
very useful for the restoration of these patients to strength.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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