Volume 2
A dictionary of practical medicine, comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different epochs of life. With ... prescriptions, ... bibliography ... formulae / [James Copland].
- James Copland
- Date:
- 1832-1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine, comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different epochs of life. With ... prescriptions, ... bibliography ... formulae / [James Copland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![tary habits avoided; exercise in the open air taken daily, and both the mind and body duly occupied without fatiguing either the one or the other. In some cases, depending upon disease of the brain or its membranes, the appetite is morbidly increased, and much more food is taken than is requisite to the wants of the frame. Others are connected with indulgence in spirit- ‘uous liquors. It is almost unnecessary to add, that unless these excesses be guarded against, and the diet and regimen duly regulated, medical treatment will not be efficacious. 67. u. TREATMENT oF ConvuLsionsIN INFANTS AND Cuitpren.— A. Many of the measures al- ready recommended in the parozysm may be also employed in this classof patients; butin a suitable form, and with strict reference to existing patho- logical states. Where we observe the indica- tions of cerebralirritation and congestion(§21,24.), cupping on the nape of the neck, behind the ears or occiput; the warm bath or semicupium, with cold affusion ; cold epithems, &c., on the head, the hair having been removed or cut close; a dose of calomel, or of calomel and scammony if the child can swallow, and a cathartic and anti- spasmodic injection ; are suitable remedies. The jugular vein may be opened in robust or well- grown children; but care should be taken not to bleed them to syncope, as a return of the con- vulsions may be thereby occasioned. Children ought to be blooded with great caution during a fit; for although I cannot go so far as to say, with Harris, that it is dangerous to bleed in the paroxysm, yet I believe that the convulsions will occasion a hurtful quantity of blood to flow without any immediate effect, if the evacuation be pushed with the view either of subduing them, or inducing syncope. It is as improper as it is futile to lay down any rules as to the extent to which depletion may be carried. It is obvious, that when the child is plethoric, the head large and hot, the eyes suffused and prominent, the carotids throbbing, &c., it may be practised freely, even in the fit, without risk. 68. a. Convulsions sometimes proceed from the nature of the ingesta. If this be the case, and if the abdomen be distended, an emetic should be exhibited without delay. Seizures not infrequently arise during the period of dentition, from indigestible or irritating substances in the prima via, and in such cases often commence in simple flatulent colic. After an emetic has been exhibited, or even independently of it, a purg- ative, if it can be taken, should be prescribed, along with carminatives or antispasmodics, and a clyster thrown up. Incases of this description, I have found a dose of calomel, with soda or potash, or the hydrarg. cum creta, followed by either of the following mixtures, a carminative enema, and friction with an antispasmodic liniment on the abdomen or spine, the most successful means : — No. 158. Re Magnes. Uste 3ss.; Sacchari Albi 9j.; Olei Anisi 1) v.; tere bene simul, et adde Aque Feeniculi Dul. 3 jss.; Spirit. Ammon. Fetid. 1] xv.; Pulv. Rhei Xvj.; Syrup. Papaveris 3ij. Fiat Mist., cujus capiat coch, unum, vel duo minima, tertiis vel quartis horis. No. 159. R Olei Ricini 3 iij.—3 ss. ; Olei Terebinth. 3). —3ij.; tere cum Vitel. Ovi, et adde Aq. Foeniculi 3ss.— 3j.; Syrup. Papaveris et Syrup. Rose aa 3 ij. M. Fiat Mist., cujus sumat partem quartam vel-tertiam, tertiis vel quartis horis. 69. b. Clysters, containing valerian, assafoetida, yolk of egg, and any of the carminative waters, to which oleum ricini or ol. olive may be some- times added, are the most appropriate to those cases. Much discrimination is required as to the choice and continuance of cold applications to the head, particularly if the warm bath or semicupium be simultaneously resorted to. These combined means should never be left to the dis- cretion of a nurse, at least without the personal superintendence of the practitioner in the first instance. In general, as soon as the temperature is reduced, and the features become pale and shrunk, or the fontanelle (if unclosed) level, or at all depressed, whether the convulsions, or sopor, when present, disappear or not, the application of cold to the head, in any form, should be left off, to be again resumed when the symptoms re- quiring it recur. 70. c. During dentition, or even before the teeth approach the margin of the gums, free scarifications ought to be practised, and repeated as soon as the scarified parts cicatrise, otherwise the obstacle to the passage of the teeth will be thereby increased. If general or cerebral ple- thora be not present, or has been removed, and the bowels have been fully evacuated, any of the alkaline or earthy sub-carbonates, with aqua foeniculi, or aq. pimente, ether, camphor, &c., with the extract of conium or hyoscyamus, or the syrup of poppies, or small doses of lauda- num, may be prescribed with the view of sooth- ing the susceptibility and irritability of the frame at this period. Form, 347. 442. 865. have been ordered by me very generally in such cases, at the Infirmary for Children. In very young in- fants, convulsions may be occasioned solely by the retention and accumulation of acid and acrid sordes in the prima via. ‘These are readily re- moved by a dose of calomel, followed by olea- ginous or other purgatives, the semicupium, and clysters. Tissor and Suarp state that they have been produced by the retention of the meconium owing to spasmodic stricture of the sphincter ani. This is, however, a rare occurrence. Emollients, oleaginous laxatives, the semicupium, clysters, and anodyne liniments, are appropriate to such cases. It has been repeatedly contended for by most of the older, although denied by many modern writers, that the anxieties, the more violent passions, and the irregularities of the nurse, may change her milk so as to disorder the digestive organs, and thereby give rise to convulsions in delicate infants. This fact is established by repeated observation. I perfectly agree with Mr. Norrn, who has taken a very judicious view of this sub- ject, that it should never be overlooked. The obvious remedy in such cases is to change the nurse ; and, if this cannot be done, to remove as far as may be the cause of disorder; to promote her digestive and excreting functions; to tran- quillise or subdue any mental disturbance or febrile action that may affect the state of the milk, and to prescribe for the infant aperients with soda or ammonia, or other antacids and antispasmodics. I have often employed the oxyde of zinc or of bismuth with soda, or the pulvis crete compos., and either the pulvis ipe- cacuanhe comp., or small doses of conium or hyoscyamus, with much advantage in these cases; or simply the sub-borate of soda in cam-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33285330_0002_0116.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
