The practice of medicine, according to the plan most approved by the Reformed or Botanic Colleges of the U. S : embracing a treatise on materia medica and pharmacy ; illustrated with numerous engravings ; designed principally for families / by J. Kost.
- Kost, J., 1819-1904.
- Date:
- 1847
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The practice of medicine, according to the plan most approved by the Reformed or Botanic Colleges of the U. S : embracing a treatise on materia medica and pharmacy ; illustrated with numerous engravings ; designed principally for families / by J. Kost. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![Injections.—This mode of administration, is often of incal- culable advantage, especially if the medicine cannot be admin- istered in the common way. The same medicines may, in general, be administered in this way, that are used per stom- ach. One, two, or three table-spoonfuls of the anti-spasmodic tincture, or as much each, of the tincture of lobelia, and com- pound tincture of myrrh, with a pint of warm water, is a prop- er quantity to be administered at a time. The injections should be repeated as often as once in fifteen minutes, until relief is obtained. Bathing.—The vapor bath, in apoplexy, will perhaps give relief quicker than any other means, but the facilities for its administration are not always at hand. To apply the vapor, the patient should be so surrounded by blankets, or quilts, so as to confine the vapor to the parts below the neck. Emetics.—This class of remedies are indicated, when the disease arises from taking poisons, drinking spirits, or from ta- king large quantities of food. It is proper here to make some remarks about the practice of bleeding, in the treatment of apoplexy. Blood-letting is the means chiefly depended on by fashionable physicians, and the people have become so much accustomed to its practice, that they consider a treatment imperfect without it. The practitioner is saluted by the cry, Bleed him! Bleed him! Oh, why dont you bleed him; and it is sometimes with considerable difficulty, that the mischievous, and dangerous practice is avoi- ded, by those who are not decided in their character. The idea generally prevails that the disease arises from a superabundance of blood, and that hence no treatment can be better than blood-letting: but this is a mistake. It is not the quantity of blood that does the mischief, but it is the interrup- tion of its free circulation. Indeed, it is often the case, that ap- oplexy arises from the loss of blood. Professor Dunglison, re- marks on this head: Any thing that gives occasion to reple- tion, and on the contrary to exhaustion and debility, may oc- casion irregularity of action in the vessels of the brain, and, indeed, in the whole of the circulatory system, and produce hyperaemia [fulness,] of that viscus. The effect of extreme ex- haustion in inducing this state is seen in the prostration caused by excessive uterine, hemorrhage. The patient may be pulse- less, pale, and exanguious, [bloodless] and, in the course of a few hours, may labor under the most manifest symptoms of ac- tive cerebral hyperaemia. * * * * In all sudden and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2101727x_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
