The therapeutic action and application of the mineral waters of Aix-les-Bains, Savoy : a paper presented to the Section of Medicine of the British Medical Association at Brighton, Aug. 1886 / by Stanley M. Rendall.

  • Rendall, Stanley M.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The therapeutic action and application of the mineral waters of Aix-les-Bains, Savoy : a paper presented to the Section of Medicine of the British Medical Association at Brighton, Aug. 1886 / by Stanley M. Rendall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    12/16 page 12
    of the skin, a result that rarely fails where the above treatment is properly carried out. The general vapour bath can be given in these cases in con- nection with, and combined with the douche, or separately, by means of the “caisse,” where the patient sits in a closed box, into which the vapour has free access, with his head and neck project- ing through a hole in the cover. This severe treatment requires, of course, strict medical surveillance. It produces at first, as a rule, an increase or awakening of the rheumatic pains; but this, as I said, is a good sign, and the pains are not often severe enough to require a discontinuance of the treatment, though it may, at times, be necessary to modify the temperature, or lessen the duration of the douche, and give an occasional day of repose, if the patient find it too debilitating. But we do not get in the rheumatic patient the constitutional disturbance, and distress, which would arise in a gouty patient, if treated in the same manner. In all cases it is well to commence the treatment mildly, and gradually to increase its severity as required by the individual case. This is especially true of a large number who come under treatment at Aix, where the diagnosis is doubtful, as evidenced by the opposite opinions, given by the various medical men whom the patient may have consulted, some considering the affection as a gouty one, and others as rheumatic. In such a doubtful case, considerable light is often thrown upon its true nature by the effect of the treatment, which sometimes entirely settles the question, by exciting characteristic local manifestations. Counter-indications to Aix treatment are chiefly found in some forms of kidney and heart disease. Advanced kidney disease is a decided counter-indication. In all cases where there is albumi- nuria, the effect of the treatment upon the kidneys must be care- fully watched, under pain of seeing acute mischief supervene, the irritated kidney being unable to excrete the increased amount of urea and uric acid thrown into the general circulation, and their consequent retention quickly showing itself by uraemic symptoms. Degeneration of the muscular fibre of the heart is a formal counter-indication to any treatment.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3