Volume 1
A text-book of medicine for students and practitioners / by Adolf v. Strümpell.
- Adolph Strümpell
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A text-book of medicine for students and practitioners / by Adolf v. Strümpell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
867/874 page 831
![fore a well-known domestic remedy. It is strongly recommended that the child should be made to lie in bed with the hips elevated and the head low. A somewhat strict mental treatment is often effective, since thus the attention to the process is increased, although unconsciously, and the child often learns to wake up at the right time. We have seen many cases of enuresis, which did not recover when treated at home, get well quite rapidly when the children were isolated in the hospital. The employment of the rod is rarely allowable* on the other hand, we often must shield the child from injudicious parents. Internal remedies, such as belladonna and tincture of nux vomica, were formerly recommended, but they seldom do good. Lately the tincture of rlius aromatica has been employed again ; of this, 15 drops are given in the after¬ noon and in the evening before going to bed. In anaemic children preparations of iron are indicated. It is often useful to employ electricity, although it may be that the only influence it has is psychical. We put the broad anode over the lumbar cord, and the smaller cathode over the region of the bladder or on the perineum, and let quite a strong constant current pass through for two or three minutes. The current may also be interrupted and closed a few times. Then we pass the wire end of one conducting cord, which we make the cathode, into the mouth of the urethra for 1 or 2 cm., while we place the other broad electrode on the perineum or above the symphysis, and let quite a strong and somewhat painful faradic current act for one or two minutes (Seeligmüller). The sittings must at first be repeated daily. It is also a very good plan to let the whole body be well rubbed with cold water before going to sleep. It is said that in obstinate cases the introduction of large bougies and the conse¬ quent distention of the posterior portion of the urethra are often attended with rapid improvement. Even in cases in which, despite careful treatment, no permanent success is attained, we have this consolation with regard to the prognosis, that in simple enuresis the abnormal condition usually undergoes gradual and spontaneous improvement as the patient grows older. [Belladonna, strychnin, or nux vomica, or a combination of the two, are often of unquestionable service. If the enuresis is only nocturnal, belladonna alone may be used, either in a single dose at bedtime or three times a day. If the enuresis is diurnal also, the two drugs should be combined and given three or four times a day.] (18)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3136276x_0001_0867.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
