Aids to rational therapeutics : specially designed for students preparing for examination / by J. Milner Fothergill.

  • Fothergill, J. Milner (John Milner), 1841-1888.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aids to rational therapeutics : specially designed for students preparing for examination / by J. Milner Fothergill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    45/134 (page 39)
    too conflicting about salicylic acid for anyone to attempt to appraise its value as an anti-pyretic. Low Temperatures. — In the treatment of low temjjeratures we can use heat, either applied ex- ternally, or, as hot fluids, taken internally. A hot poultice over the heart will always stimulate its action. If a low temperature is not the result of disease of the lungs, or heart, it may be due to alcoholic intoxication, or to the effects of opium, chloral, or aconite, or other toxic agent, which kills by bringing the circulation and the respiration to a standstill. The temperature falls as these vital actions becomes arrested; while the fall of temperature further paralyses their enfeebled centres ; and so life is extinguished. Medicinally the best agent to employ is belladonna, which increases body heat and excites both the circulation and the respiration. It should be given in the form of atropine, the dose of which can be carefully measured; and it is tasteless. Bella- donna has an unpleasant taste, and all galenical pre- parations of it are of uncertain strength. It may be given so : Am. Carb., gr. iv. Liq. Atropise Sulph., ]\ i. Aq. Mentha?, 3L 4ta quaque hora. Such a combination I find most useful in cases of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, where there is a strong tendency to a low temperature. ' If the case were urgent, as in alcoholic poisoning, my own plan of action would be to inject subcutaneously thirty minims of the Liq. Atropias. On Feb. Hth, 1878 I had a grain of sulphate of atropia injected,'at once into the arm of a woman who was dying from opium poisoning, with the most satisfactory results In the