A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    antea), and the contents should be examined to con- firm, or otherwise, the diagnosis made. The stomach should then be thorouglily washed out with warm water until all trace of the laudanum has disappeared. 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, wlio should shake him and shout at him so as to prevent his dropping off to sleep. [In hospital practice it will be found a gi'eat con- venience 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 flip- ping the bare skin with a wet towel or a light cane ; but of course this treatment must only be very mode- rately applied. Strong coffee should be given at intervals as soon as the patient can swallow readily ; and the house-sur- geon must pay attention to the state of the pulse, for nothing can be more exhausting than the treatment pursued, and stimulants should therefore be adminis- tered in small quantities if the patient's jDowers appeal to be flagging, 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 unmistakable signs after death of the over- zealous treatment to Avhich he had been subjected. If moderately sensible, half an hour's rest and sleep at a time may be alloAved until the dangerous symptoms have quite passed oft', when the patient will probably require some days' rest before he is convalescent. In very bad cases, when the respii-ation is failing,