A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners.
- Christopher Heath
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![Cold affusion may be used to rouse the patient from his comatose condition, and he should then be made to walk about supported by two attendants, who should shake him and shout at him so as to prevent his dropping off to sleep. [In hospital practice it will be found a great conve- nience to send to the nearest police-station for two constables to perform this duty, and the inspector will send relays of men as long as they may be re- quired.] Care should be taken that the patient has his shoes on during these forced marches, or his feet will suffer severely from the rough usage. The house-surgeon may apply an additional stimulus if necessary, by flipping the bare skin with a wet towel or a light cane, but of course this treatment must only be very moderately applied. Strong coffee should be given at intervals as soon as the patient can swallow readily, and the house- surgeon must pay attention to the state of the pulse, for nothing can be more exhausting than the treat- ment pursued, and stimulants should therefore be administered in small quantities if the patient's powers appear to be flaggiug,more particularly if the attempted suicide is the result of want. Care must be taken not to prolong the active treat- ment unnecessarily, for a patient has been known to have died of the exhaustion so produced, and to have shown unmistakeable signs after death of the over- zealous treatment to which he had been subjected. If moderately sensible, half an hour's rest and sleep at a time may be allowed until the dangerous symptoms have quite passed off, when the patient will probably require some days' rest before he is convalescent. Oxalic Acid.—This is not an unfrequent agent in cases of poisoning, accidental or suicidal, the symp- toms being an intensely sour taste in the mouth, followed by pain in the throat and stomach of a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21511299_0098.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
