A manual of practical therapeutics : considered with reference to articles of the materia medica / by Edward John Waring ; edited by Dudley W. Buxton.

  • Edward John Waring
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of practical therapeutics : considered with reference to articles of the materia medica / by Edward John Waring ; edited by Dudley W. Buxton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    is often most grateful, even from the commencement, especially when the stomach is irritable. Brandy and iced champagne, either alternately or mixed together, will often remain on the stomach when everything else is rejected. (Mr. Savory.') These remarks apply equally to Dissection Wounds, when the attendant fever assumes an asthenic or a dynamic form ; the diet should at the same time be nutritive and stimulant. 84. In Snake Bites, the free use of stimulants is most import- ant ; the quantity should be regulated solely by the effects pro- duced. In America, we are told by Dr. Addy,^ alcoholic stimulants are given to the extent of intoxication—a state which is regarded by the practitioners there as evidence of the effects of the poison being overcome. Of all stimulants liquor ammoniae is the best, and when injected into a superficial vein, in the man- ner directed by Prof. Halford, its value seems to be enhanced. The quantity required varies according to the severity of the case, from Tt^x-xx of the strong liquor, with double the quantity of water. No ill effect, local or otherwise, seems to have fol- lowed this practice. [See Ammon. Liquor.] 85. In Chronic Diseases, stimulants may often be resorted to with advantage, but as a general rule they are not so imperatively called for as in acute diseases, and their use is attended with special dangers. Dr. Anstie^ has ably pointed out the chronic cases in which there is a marked tolerance of alcoholic stimu- lants, and furnishes some excellent rules, which should guide us in their use. His remarks are as follows: i. There assuredly is a marked tolerance of this kind in many cases of Chronic De- bility which have been induced by one or more copious Hefnor- rhages. 2. There is a variety of Pulmonary Phthisis, especially common in persons with delicate skin and slight frame, with marked tendency to colliquative sweating, and a notable inability to assimilate either ordinary food or fatty matter of any kind, in which the tolerance for large and long-continued doses of alco- hol is very remarkable, and the benefit produced by such treat- ment is very great. 3. In certain Chronic Neuralgias of the aged, where the power of digesting ordinary food is nearly sus- pended by reflex irritation, an almost exclusively alcoholic diet, continued for some time, occasionally works wonders. 4. In certain Itifantile Chronic Diseases, attended with marasmus and an inability to digest ordinary food, small and frequent doses of alcohol, continued for some weeks, produce a remarkable revo- lution in the general condition. There are two rules, the ob- servance of which ought to become general, only to be departed from under very special circumstances. One is that alcohol should never be directly prescribed for the relief of chronic pain, * Lancet, Jan. and Feb., 1867. * Dub. Med. Press, March 30, 1859. 3 Practitioner, July, 1869.