Outlines of medical treatment / by Samuel Fenwick and W. Soltau Fenwick.

  • Samuel Fenwick
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical treatment / by Samuel Fenwick and W. Soltau Fenwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that is not readily compressed coexisted with inflammation of an important organ, venesection should be performed. I believe they were quite correct, but in the present day it is exceedingly rare to meet with this hard pulse, and consequently bleeding, on their own principle, is seldom required. You must not, however, coiifound the pulse of old age with the hard pulse. The former is hard, not from undue tension of the circulation, but because its coats are rigid. You can easily distinguish it by first emptying the vessel by the pressure of the finger, and feeling it while thus compressed. There are other methods of depleting the circulation in inflammation besides bleeding. By purgatives, more especially_those of the saline class, you can drain away a ]X)rtion of the more fluid part of the blood, without depressing the action of the heart too severely. In most cases you will find purgatives of value, for, in addition to the depletion they produce, they remove any source of irritation that may be present in the intestinal canal. ^n some instances it is advantageous to reduce the heart's action by tartar emetic. This powerful remedy is most eflB-cacious in pneumonia and bronchitis, but it may be used whenever you think it desirable to depress the circulation. Aconite and the veratrum viride are also o« ----- employed for the same purpose, but they are not so gene- rally useful as antimony. The blood-vessel^of ^n inflamed part are frequently overloaded, whilst the state of the general circulation calls for no interference. The pulse is soft, although the local symptoms are severe. Here you can often relieve by leeches or_cupjpiugj when the use of the lancet would be detrimental. This is more especially the case where the serous membranes are affected. You will often see large doses of opium fail to afford relief, when, after the
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