The change of life in health and disease : a practical treatise on the nervous and other affections incidental to women at the decline of life / by Edward John Tilt.

  • Tilt, Edward John, 1815-1893.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The change of life in health and disease : a practical treatise on the nervous and other affections incidental to women at the decline of life / by Edward John Tilt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    effects, even if continued for a long time. I have less ex- perience of conium, but believe it to be almost as useful. Indian hemp, when it agrees, and it often does, has the great advantage of not producing constipation or heating the system. Belladonna and atropia act admirably in suppo- sitories or plasters, but I rarely give them by the mouth. Concerning the utility of opium and its numerous components, I cannot speak too highly, whether as a topical agent or as the means of influencing the whole system. I first try Dover's powder, and then morphia, beginning of course with small doses, and much as I deprecate its continued use in large doses, I have not hesitated to sanction the daily taking of two and three grains of acetate of morphia, for several years, when I found that nothing else could quell sickness, diminish ovario-uterine pain, cure hysteria, and render bearable an existence otherwise intolerable. Such cases are very rare, but they must be allowed the benefit of the habitual use of exceptionally large doses of morphia. Hydrocyanic acid in large doses is only suitable when strength is above par, but in small doses I occasionally find it to be better borne than other sedatives by nervous women. Although Dr. Physick exaggerates when he says that il cam- phor was made for women, with whom it always agrees, while it always disagrees with men/' it is a very valuable remedy. The subtle fumes seem to spread like an aura over the nervous system, stimulating it to increased action, causing the capillaries to eliminate with the perspiration, whatever oppressed the nerves, whether it be a liquid, gaseous, or an electroid fluid with which they were overcharged. The effect of this is a subsidence of pain, an increase of strength, and sometimes a sensation of lightness. Camphor seems to correct the toxic influence which the reproductive system has on the brain of some women, and its anaphrodisiac properties have been often shown in priapism and nymphomania. It abates the sexual sting by acting on the cerebro-spinal nerves of the external organs of generation, not on the testicle or ovary. The testimony of Raspail on this point is of great