Useful hints to those who are afflicted with ruptures : on the nature, cure, and consequences of the disease ; and on the empirical practices of the present day / by T. Sheldrake.

  • Sheldrake, Timothy, active 1783-1806
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Useful hints to those who are afflicted with ruptures : on the nature, cure, and consequences of the disease ; and on the empirical practices of the present day / by T. Sheldrake. 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.

    158/198 (page 122)
    ease and comfort will be diminished, if those mischiefs, which are the consequence of improper pressure be not produced ; it is a fact, that Avhen a rupture has been neglected, it will at first be difficult to keep it in its place : * but bv atten-* tion, perseverance and due care, the tendency to descend Avill diminish in a few days so much, that a truss, wliieh at first seems not to be suiKcient to keep up t!ie rupture, will afterwards do so under every circumstance in which the exertion of the patient's labour or exercise may place him. After examining all these circumstances, the most rational plan seems to be to construct, adapt and apply to every case, such a truss as appears likely to answer every purpose, then to direct the patient to avoid much exercise and vio-r ient exertions for several days, till he has accustomed him- self to bear the full pressure of the bandage without incon- venience, and is able to manage it pertectly by himself: he may then engage in his usual exertions, and even make any exertion he may think proper in perfect safety. Having obtained trusses that are perfectly adapted to his case, alid learned hpw to apply them with propriety, the patient is likewise to be informed how to guard himself against some inconvenienciqs, which,at times, may fall upon every person who wears a truss, but are peculiarly apt to attack those who haye bad ru]itures at the time they first Ijegin to apply trusses, or such a§ are peculiarly liable to * A case which strongly exemphfies this fact came under my ob- servation some time ago. A gentleman had a troublesome scrotal hernia, and incipient asci'es besides : this rendered it very difficult to keep up his rupture, and indeed he had quite neglected it, but his surgeon having convinced him of the danger he incurred, induced him to,apply to mc. I found it extremely difficult to adapt trusses to his pe- culiar situation, and when this was done, the patient was not able to take proper care of himself; when his rupture got down he knew not how to reduce it, so that he was continually sending for his surgeon or jTie; at length he was ordered into the country for the benefit of his health, here he could have no assistance with respect to his rupture, and •was forced to depend upon his own exertions, the consequence was, that on his return to town he had regained his health, his rupture gave liim no trouble, and he \yore with ease those trusses, which, before he went into the country, seldom kept it upon him more than half a day at a time. This patient's trusses were certainly pot altered; the change in their effect may be justly attributed in part to the change in the pa- tient's health, partly to the power he acquired of applying them pro- perly, and in part to the diminution of that tendency the rupture ha^ t(j dcsct iid in contcqucnce of its being so long neglected.