Lectures on the ordinary agents of life : as applicable to therapeutics and hygiene, or, the uses of the atmosphere, habitations, baths, clothing, climate, exercise, foods, drinks, &c. in the treatment and prevention of disease / by Alexander Kilgour, M.D.

  • Kilgour, Alexander, 1803-1874.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the ordinary agents of life : as applicable to therapeutics and hygiene, or, the uses of the atmosphere, habitations, baths, clothing, climate, exercise, foods, drinks, &c. in the treatment and prevention of disease / by Alexander Kilgour, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    here was a stimulant; cold affusion would have extinguished the remaining spark of life. A wider difference still exists in this, that the cold affusion removes the impurities thrown out by the exhalants, which impurities may even clog up the mouths of the vessels, and be a mechanical obstruction to the escape of the fluids. Perhaps the value of the cold affusion is not less in this way than as merely removing the caloric. Many prescribe the cold affusion in the fever which pre- cedes the exanthemata, but I would have some hesitation in using it during the time that the eruption is appearing. I am afraid that in some cases it would repel it, and occasion danger; and the cases in which this would take place we cannot easily distinguish from others in which it would be beneficial. In the delirium of fever, when not depending upon exhaustion, but on excitement, and in the delirium of phrenitis, a more powerful remedy cannot be conjoined with the use of the lancet. The furious variety of mania will likewise receive a check by the application of the cold bath, but in this case as well as in the former, the cold must be continued until its sedative effects have taken place. The maniac must be held below the pump, or shower bath, until he be rendered cold and torpid. In rheumatism, and in gout, the application of the cold bath has been recommended by Hippocrates and others amongst the ancients, and by many of the moderns ; but in both cases it must be very frequently dangerous. A recession of the gout to some of the viscera may be produced, and the patient's toe will be cured at the expense of his life. In the interval of the attacks, however, it will be proper. In the treatment of a great many chronic diseases we trust much to the use of the cold bath, and the object in these cases is not the abstraction of caloric, but the excitement and tone which follow the application of the cold water. To general feebleness or weakness of the system, whether constitutional, or the consequence of disease,- or of f 2