Clinical lectures on the diseases of women and children / by Gunning S. Bedford.

  • Gunning S. Bedford
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on the diseases of women and children / by Gunning S. Bedford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    tion of those remedies best calculated to invigorate the system, and thus overcome the chlorotic type ; when this is accomplished, the resto- ration of the catamenia will generally follow as a necessary consequence. At all events, not until the chlorosis has been removed, will it be proper to have recourse to emmenagogue remedies, and not even then, except in those cases in which, after the subsidence of the chlorotic symptoms, the amenorrhoea shall still continue. Chlorosis presents itself under one of three forms, and it has, therefore, been divided into the incipient, confirmed, and inveterate. The young girl before us is an example of the confirmed stage of the disorder, which is characterized by pallor and tumeflvction of the countenance and conjunctiva, puffiness of the eye- lids, a white-coated tongue, constipation, insomnolence, palpitation of the heart, &c. Her digestive functions have become so impaired by long-continued constipation, and her blood consequently so much im- poverished, that the indication is obviously, in the first place, the removal of the constipation, and secondly, the general invigoration of the sys- tem. Medicine alone will not accomplish these objects; and if, under any circumstances, a faithful observance of hygienic treatment be called for, it is in a case like the present, where the vital powers of the system are in a .state of comparative dilapidation. It is, therefore, incumbent to impress on this girl the necessity of gentle exercise in the open air, clothing such as will protect her from the cold, the careful avoidance of a humid atmosphere, a tepid bath once a weelv, and frictions with a coarse towel. It will be well to commence with a brisk purgative, for, pale and delicate as she is, you will find she will bear with benefit a positive impression of this kind. Let her take, this evening, the follow- ing powder, and in the morning, | j of castor oil: ]J Sub. Mur. Hydrag. gr. viij Pulv. Rhei. gr. sij Ft. Pulv. It may also be necessary, in order to excite a healthy action of the liver, to give her occasionally, every third or fourth night, ij or iij grains of the hydrag. c creta; and half a pint of tepid water thrown into the rectum, night and morning, will prove highly serviceable in promoting the peristaltic action of the intestines. When the bowels have been freely evacuated, a table-spoonful of the following may be given two or three times a day : Quinse Sulphal gr. xv Acid Sulph. dilut gtt. xr Tinct. Card. Tinct. Humuli Infus. Roear, c. . . . 4 , . ^yi M °: I aa 3 iji uii y