The village-pastor's surgical and medical guide, in letters from an old physician to a young clergyman, his son.

  • Skrimshire, F. (Fenwick), 1774 or 1775-1855.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The village-pastor's surgical and medical guide, in letters from an old physician to a young clergyman, his son. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    general prove sufficient to stop the bleeding, or a small dossil of lint over each bleeding orifice, and a compress of rag over all, will in nineteen cases out of twenty be all that is required. I have, how- ever, known some instances of great danger from the long-continued bleeding from leech-bites in very young children, and which, let me impress it strongly on your mind, always bespeaks either want of thought, or want of judgment in the attendants; for nothing is so easy of application in these cases, and nothing so efficacious as pressure : no pressure can be so firm, so evenly, or so easily persisted in, as pressure with the fingers; and however numerous the orifices, there can seldom be difficulty in finding the point of a finger for each, nor can there be much hardship in continuing this pressure for hours together if required. I have sometimes known dossils of lint, then scraped felt from a hat, then the byssus septica, a dark brown soft felt- looking substance growing in damp cellars, then hour, starch, compress upon compress of lint or rag, sponges, and cloths, all in requisition, and the oozing ol blood still continuing, till the poor little babe has grown pallid and cold, has begun to vawm and has indeed been brought into extreme danger, where a little presence of mind leading to the pressure by the fingers as above described, would have obviated all danger and prevented all alarm. Should you at any time be called to a case of profuse hemorrhage from an old wound or ulcer,