Counter-irritation, its principles and practice, : illustrated by one hundred cases of the most painful and important diseases effectually cured by external applications. / By A.B. Granville.

  • Augustus Granville
Date:
1838
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Counter-irritation, its principles and practice, : illustrated by one hundred cases of the most painful and important diseases effectually cured by external applications. / By A.B. Granville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    * a sicians,' and the still more celebrated physician of Pergamus,’— who commented on the writings of the former, and eclipsed, the latter in reputation, and whose authority in the medical schools lasted until the seventeenth century,—equally practised external medication to an. extent greater than that of internal medicine. Most of the means. employed by them for that object, have since been discarded or neglected; and the modern science of medicine has reduced those which it still recommends for external use to a very small number indeed. ‘hat we have acted.injudiciously in so doing, is the opinion of. many of the most eminent writers of our day ;. among whom, the celebrated Pinel observes on this sub- ject, “'That a great number of rubefacients (epispastics) have fallen into disuse which ought to, have been ‘retained, and that, it is to be retained; for in the hands of the older .physicians, who. relied more than we do on epispastic medicine, those remedies produced in very many cases the happiest results, such as,it would be in vain to expect from any modern internal remedy whatever.” ° 43. Indeed, stimulating, irritating, or epispastic substances; ap- plied externally to the body for the removal of disease, seem to have afforded in‘ all ages, and from time immemorial,..the most powerful as well as the most efficacious means of cure. Recent writers on China—Mr, Davis, for instance—have assured us that the inhabitants of that country not only look to external remedies as the best means of cure, but possess. some of the most.refined processes for that purpose. Mr. Pearson has stated, in the Medical and Physical Transactions of Calcutta, “ That, instead of our vesi- catories, the Chinese resort. to the means of producing counter- irritation, by drawing out and pinching, with the fingers and thumb, the skin and cellular tissue under it, until the surface is, completely black. In this manner the commander of a ship is said to have been relieved of a severé headache, and an affection of the chest, under the care of a native female—who, for the first complaint, pinched the side of-his neck ;until it was bruised; and, for the second, performed a similar operation on the side of the body.”— (Medical. Gazette.) We also.know’ that the Japanese afford evi- dence of the same fact. -Among almost all the newly-discovered ‘the Oceanic islands, the few remedies found.in use have been such as are applied externally, for the cure of almost every species of malady. In Europe, every nation, according to its greater or.]esser degree of enlightenment, is found to, have recourse to external applications or remedial agents, as means of recovery from disease. y +} “Quel usage ne fait point Celse des frictions contre la. plupart des mala- dies chroniques ?”—PINEL. ak ey oi Sat epispastiques, se laisserent ‘guider par des opinions systématiques, et donne- rent une étendue excessive a ces remédes.””—PINEL. a