Report of a Committee of the associate medical members of the Sanitary Commission on the subject of pneumonia.

  • United States. Sanitary Commission.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a Committee of the associate medical members of the Sanitary Commission on the subject of pneumonia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    24/28 (page 22)
    merly in vogue has donbtless diminished the rate of mortality, yet tlie improvement is equally shown in the rapidity and completeness with which health is regained. In concluding this Eeport, the following propositions are submitted, embodying the practical views which have been presented respecting the management of pneumonia: 1. Uncomplicated pneumonia, limited to one lobe, in gen- eral, does not claim active treatment of any kind,—simple pal- liative remedies and hygienic measures being alone required. 2. Blood-letting and other antiphlogistic measures, with a view of subduing the inflammation, are not warranted by a sufficient probability of success, and, if resorted to for this purpose, will be likely in many cases to do harm. 3. Blood-letting is useful, not by a direct effect on the local affection, but indirectly by diminishing the intensity of the symptomatic febrile movement. It is admissible only in cases cliaraeterized by intensity of the febrile movement, when the affection is said to be sthenic, and only in the first stage of the affection. 4. In the cases to which blood-letting, if employed at all, should be i-estricted, the good effects may generally be ob- tained by saline purgatives, together with sedative remedies, such as the preparations of antimony and the veratrum viride. 5. The remedies just named are indicated only in the cases referred to. Given in cases indiscriminately, and carried to an injudicious extent, they may do much harm. They sliould be used with great circumspection, and rarely after- tlie first stage of the disease. It is never advisable to push them so far as to occasion distressing nausea or vomiting, and enfeeble the heart's action. 6; Acute pain, depending on co-existing ])]eurisy, does not call for general blood-letting. Dry or wet cupping, fomenta- tions, and stimulating applications to the chest are useful, and, if not effectual, opium may be given sufficiently to relieve this