Volume 3

Elements of the theory and practice of physic : designed for the use of students / by George Gregory.

  • George Gregory
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of the theory and practice of physic : designed for the use of students / by George Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    88/426 (page 68)
    the following morning the tongue appears dry and smooth, the opiate was probably injurious ; if moist, it may safely be repeated. In particular states of fever, the efficacy of blisters has been long acknowledged, and several different explanations of the fact have been offered. They have been supposed to act as stimulants, or to have a power of relieving spasm, and they have accordingly been recommended by some at any period of continued fever. By others they have been principally resorted to in the latter stages of the disease. Their good effects have been traced to a principle of revulsion, and they have been chiefly applied by such practi- tioners to the calves of the legs, and the soles of the feet. It is now however generally agreed, that blisters are only useful in obviating those local con-— gestions and inflammations which occur in the course of fever, and more particularly within the head, bringing on that state of cerebral irritation which is marked, sometimes by delirium accompanied with much restlessness and attempts to get out of bed, and occasionally by the opposite, but no less formidable >symptom of stupor, Under these circumstances, | great benefit is experienced from the application of a blister to the nape of the neck ; besides which the head should be shaved, and cloths dipped in a cold lotion constantly applied to it. In cases of local de- termination to any organ of the thorax or abdomen, a blister over the affected part will prove equally ad- Yantageous, |