Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889Various
History
Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Hot baths reduce temperature by causing free perspiration afterward,
and cold packs reduce it by cooling the surface sufficiently long to
reduce the heat of the blood, and, if used judiciously, seldom fail of
success. I have reduced the temperature four degrees in two hours by
wrapping around a child a sheet wet with tepid water, and no other
covering. Cold packs are sometimes objectionable, because of their
depressing effects, and should only be used to reduce high temperature
and when there is no congestion or inflammation of any of the vital
organs of the body.
Cold water poured in a small stream from a pitcher upon the head for
five or ten minutes will often relieve headache, and is a benefit in
all inflammatory brain diseases, if, at the same time, you can put the
feet into hot water containing mustard or pepper.
Large enemas of warm water will care for spasmodic colic, and I have,
in one instance, relieved strangulated hernia by the same method, and
at another time the same result was accomplished by a large injection
of warm linseed oil. I have often applied a cloth wet with cold water
upon the throats of children suffering with spasmodic croup, with
satisfactory results.
I have seen infants suffering with diarrhea or summer complaint,
sleepless, worrying, fretting, or crying from thirst, begging for
water, and the mother or nurse afraid to give it more than a
teaspoonful or two at a time, saying that it vomited everything it
drank as soon as taken. I have often, when visiting such cases, called
for a glass of cold water, and, to the surprise of the mother, would
allow it to take all it could drink, which usually would be retained,
and the child would soon be wrapped in a refreshing sleep. Without
medicine, a proper regulation of the child's diet would soon restore
it to health again.
The spasms of children, from whatever causes, or the eclampsia from
uraemic poisoning, are often readily controlled when immersed in hot
water or given a hot vapor bath or corn sweat. If the convulsions of
children are accompanied by a high temperature, put them into water of
100 deg. and then gradually cool it down to 68 deg. or 70 deg., and then keep them
in a room of the same temperature, with little covering. If the
temperature rises, repeat the treatment as frequently as necessary,
and I think you will not be disappointed in the results.
Scarlet fever and diphtheria, two of the most dreaded and formidable
diseases of children, are largely shorn of their terrors when, in
addition to an early and thorough medicinal treatment, the little
patients are bathed in as warm water as the surface will allow
frequently, or for thirty minutes wrapped in a warm, wet blanket,
followed by warm, dry coverings, to maintain the perspiration that
such treatment usually produces. It has proved to me a valuable aid in
eliminating from the blood the specific poison which causes these
diseases, and I can safely recommend it to your notice and trial.
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