Ladies' manual of practical hydropathy (not the cold water system) ... / by Mrs. Smedley.

  • Smedley, Caroline Anne, Mrs.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ladies' manual of practical hydropathy (not the cold water system) ... / by Mrs. Smedley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    99/434 (page 79)
    HYDROPATHIC APPLICATION IN EXTREME WEAKNESS, AND TO TUE DYING.—I shall not forget calling upon a late clear friend, a lady nearly eighty years of age, who was dying from natural exhaustion of the whole frame.' Her sufferings were great, simply from the stomach, liver, and bowels being worn out; the vitality and power of action all but gone. Naturally of a healthy constitution, life lingered in the body while thero was hut a spark to keep tho heart moving. On the top of the chest of drawers in the room was a whole row of physic bottles. The doctor, kind and attentive, and celebrated for his skill, had done his utmost to give relief, but was entirely unsuccessful; even morphia, and the most approved sedatives, failed in the usual effect they produced in the earlier stage of the illness. The stomach had lost its heat and vital power to assimilate and dispose of its contents any longer. I advised gentle fomentation at once to the back and front of the bod}', with one wrung-out flannel pad, covering the pad with a piece of light mackintosh to keep in the heat, as the fomenting-can might be too heavy. This gave immediate relief, and after it had h !i q on twenty minutes it was taken off, and with as little disturbance of the body as possible. The parts were then wiped with a napkin wrung out of warm water, and with another soft dry napkin gently wiped dry, having afterwards a broad, dry, warm flannel bandage to put round the body. Whenever the pain returned, half of a fomenting-can, wrapped in flannel, was put over the stomach and bowels, and if it appeared necessary, fomenting again, but only on the stomach, as in such cases care must be observed not to fatigue the body more than possible. If the legs and feet be wrapped in hot mustard cloths, and dry over to keep them warm, it will be of great service, and then wrap them in dry flannel afterwards. Water is by far the best beverage in these cases, and that all but cold. By these gentle means of keeping warmth over the stomach and bowels, nature will be a=sisted and soothed to the last. Discard all physic whatever. If the bowels should be swollen or uncomfortable, and constipated for days, then apply a gentle warm-water enema. A large piece of spongio piline, sprinkled with a little hot water, and bound over ] ich and bowels, and kept on with a flannel wrapper, or tied on with tape, will keep in the vitality, and do great service. Castor oil, which is generally considered a simple and harmless medicine, Dr. Quain, in his work on the rectum, says, is irritating from its acrid properties, and he cautions against the use of it. Shortly after I attended the case named, a near relative of mine, a lady, nearly eighty years of age, lay in a similar state, and her gratitude to God for the relief afforded by these natural, harmless means I shall never forget. I have witnessed the same effect on young persons dying. It is simply keeping the vitality up by artificial warmth, when the body no longer possesses it naturally, or can bear stimulating internally, which has such a soothing effect on (he sinking frame. RELIEF IN A DYING CASE. — An old man named Froggatt, .Matlock Bank, sent for me last week: I found him dying in great agony, and calling upon God to take him out of his misery. Decay of tho vital organs had come on gradually from old age, and from having in former years smoked tobacco