The principles and practice of medicine / By John Elliotson ... Edited by Nathaniel Rogers ... and Alexander Cooper Lee.

  • John Elliotson
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of medicine / By John Elliotson ... Edited by Nathaniel Rogers ... and Alexander Cooper Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/1064 (page 66)
    te oink 9 sate 7 ‘err tye SECTION V.—GENERAL TREATMENT OF DISEASES, 4% Vis Medicatriz.—With regard to most diseases, nature has a constant tendency to rid herself of them. It is ordained by Providence, to a great extent, that the injurious causes to which we are exposed should have but a temporary effect. Either the body has the power of resistance, or the causes exist temporarily; either from being applied but temporarily to the body, or from being able to exert no more than a temporary influence. In this way it is that, generally speaking,—although there are many exceptions,—there is a tendency to shake off disease. This power of the body to shake off its morbid state, is called by writers the ‘* vzs medicatriz nature,’’* or autocrateia.”” For example: if any thing too acrid be taken into the mouth, a great flow of mucus and saliva is the consequence; which has a tend- ency to dilute the acrid matter, and wash it away. So with respect to acrid matters taken into the stomach;—the stomach has a tendency to reject them; or if they be passed through the stomach into the intestines, the intestines are excited to action and they are got rid of. ‘This is the general tendency of the frame. ett BO Zemporary Diseases.—Again; many causes of disease are only temporary. A. person is exposed to a great cause of disease;—the cause ceases; and of course, in many instances, the eflect ceases likewise. It is not a necessary consequence, however, that the effect should cease because the cause is removed; but it very fre- quently happens thus. Again: there are other causes which cannot produce an influence upon the body, however long they are applied, for more than a certain _ periods« If we take the poison of small-pox, it produces a disease of only a certain duration. The patient may die; but if not, the disease can only last for a certain time; and when it has once occurred, the body, in the greater number of cases, be- comes insusceptible of it again. ‘These are the various means which nature has provided for getting rid of disease;—for getting rid of noxious causes before they produce actual disease; and for getting rid of diseases themselves. ; Some have so great a confidence in nature, that they leave every disease to itself; and that sort of treatment is called “the medicine of expectation’’. (** medicine ex- pectante’’). Such treatment often does well;—it is the best in many cases, both medical and surgical; but it is totally inapplicable to a large number. No one, with a violent inflammation of the lungs, would consent to sit down quietly, in the hope that he would grow better day by day; when he knows that, by the lancet, he may obtain immediate ease, and get rid of the complaint. When.a person has taken poison into his stomach, of course he would be mad to wait for nature to effect a cure. He would send for the physician’s medicine, or for the surgeon’s | stomach-pump. Prophylactic, Curative, and Palliative Treatment.—The treatment of the dis- eases of the human body is either ‘* preventive” or ‘‘curative.”” We either attempt to prevent disease from occurring, or we attempt to remove it; and when we can- not remove it, we attempt to palliate it.. ‘The treatment of the human body, in the way of preventing its becoming the subject of disease, is called ‘ prophylactic;’’* that which attempts to cure disease, is called “ curative;’? and when we cannot at- tempt to cure a disease, still we may do a great deal in the way of palliation;—so that medicine is ‘ prophylactic,’’ ** curative,” and ‘palliative.’’ It is very often a great point to enable a person to lite (while he muwsé live) in comfort and happiness; andif he must die, it is a great point to enable him to die easily. In many cases we have to adopt both curative and palliative treatment together;—that is to say, we aim at curing the disease; but we adopt palliative measures, all the time, for the purpose of lessening any one symptom, or particular symptoms, which it is a desir- able object to get rid of, or lessen, before the eure of the disease enables us to do so. For example: in the case of inflammation of the lungs, although we may attempt r] “« The curative power of nature.” > From autos, itself; and ugarew, to govern. ¢ From ago, before; and guaaccw, to defend, *