The family physician, or, Every man his own doctor : in three parts : together with the history, causes, symptoms and treatment of Asiatic cholera, a glossary, explaining the most difficult words that occur in medical science, and a copious index and appendix / by Daniel H. Whitney.

  • Whitney, Daniel H.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family physician, or, Every man his own doctor : in three parts : together with the history, causes, symptoms and treatment of Asiatic cholera, a glossary, explaining the most difficult words that occur in medical science, and a copious index and appendix / by Daniel H. Whitney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    APOPLEXY. Hon of body is a premonitory consideration ; a person of a large head, short thick neck, broad shoulders, short stature, florid complexion, with tendency to corpulency, is more par- ticularly predisposed to apoplexy than those of a different make. Other premonitory symptoms are, sense of weight and pain in the head, with a feeling as if the head were bound round with a cord or wire; giddiness on stooping, or on turn- ing the head quickly round ; deafness, ringing in the ears ; blindness, or flashes of light, and other unusual appearances before the sight; stupor, drowsiness, loss of memory and of temper; faltering of the speech, twisting of the mouth, fall- ing of the eyelids, numbness or palsy of any part of the body, &c. But it is more frequently the case, that without much previous indisposition, the patient falls down suddenly, de- prived of all sense and motion; he lies like a person in a <leep sleep, with difficult and noisy breathing, the blood at the same time continues to circulate as usual. Sometimes the fit commences with sudden and violent pain in the head, paleness, sickness at the stomach, vomiting, and loss of rec- ollection ; he falls down perhaps, appearing like one who lias fainted, recovers in a few minutes, and is able to walk ; but the headache continues, and after a few hours he gradually sinks into the fit. At other times, the patient is suddenly seized with palsy of one side and loss of speech, which alter a while gradually passes into a state of apoplexy. CAUSES. The immediate cause of apoplexy is compression of the brain, induced either by an over-distension of the blood ves- sels, or by the effusion of blood or serum on the brain. Of course, whatever increases the quantity and im] of blood in the head, will have a tendency to produce it; such as violent fits of passion, intemperance, tight neck- cloths, exposure to great heat or cold, large doses of opium, external injury, overloading the stomach, stooping down for some length of time, severe exercise, &c, and tl causes will be more likelv to produce the effect in persons of plethoric habits, and who have the apoplectic form of body. TREATMENT. By way of prevention, the causes which produce It are to be avoided ; those of a full plethoric habit should be i