Volume 1
The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.
- M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![latrocluctiou.] gerated, as in diseases of the lungs, or restrained by tlie contraction of its muscles, as in inflam- mation inside the belly. lu the latter case the knees will be drawn up to relieve strain and all pressure on the surface. Even the pressure of bed-clothes will be painful, touching with the fingers being strongly objected to. The presence of tumours within, if of any size, will be ap- ])arent. Dabbing xoith the fingers in the central line, or a little to the left side, just under the ribs, will be painful when the liver is atiected by congestion and other diseases. 5. Under urinary symptoms difiiculty in making inability to make water at all, con- stant dribbling of water (which often occurs not only from want of power to retain the water, but also from retention of water, the bladder being therefore always ovei’-full, and the excess only constantly dribbling away),joar/i in making water owing to gravel, and the place of the pain, &c., all these should be inquired about. In the later stages of fever, particularly in low fevers like typhoid, the patient is unable to make water, that is, retains it, and it should then I’egularly be withdrawn. Sometimes, as in diabetes, the urine is excessive in quantity; in diseases of the kidney it is often diminished in qitantity. Then its colour, and the presence or absence of sedi- ment, are important. In jaundice it is highly coloured, of greenish brown, from joresence of bile. It is often smoky from presence of blood; while in diabetes it is extremely clear and watery looking. In fever there falls a heavy sediment when the urine cools, which is redissolved by heating it. 6. The Skin.—Every one knows what informa- tion can be obtained Horn this source, not only in disease of the skin itself, where eacli disease Inis its own special eruption, but in general diseases as well. Thus many fevers have their own kind of eruption by which the fever may be distin- guished, that of scarlet fever being a general red blush, while in measles spots are raised above the skin. Ill some kinds of paralysis the degrees of sen- sitiveness of the skin is important. The colour has been already referred to. The degree of moisture of the skin gives valuable aid not infrequently. For instance, the peculiar sour-smelling sweat of acute rheuma- tism is characteristic, and so are the night sweats of consumption. The diagnosis of disease, then, is often a very difiicult and complicated task, and is jiroperly performed only by a general survey of the body, and a detailed investigation of the different organs, in the manner indicated by the slight sketch already given. Fuller details are, of course, given under the special diseases. When a diagnosis has been made, and the character and extent of the disease ascertained, it is often possible to estimate what the course and termination are likely to be. This predic- tion, as it may be called, of what is likely to happen is called prognosis. THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. Tlie treatment of disease implies much more than is generally supposed. It is often held to mean simply the administration of drugs; and thus there is put out of count the as im- portant, and often much more successful, treat- ment by diet, rest, or exercise. Treatment really means the placing of the patient altoge- ther in such circumstances as tend, in the utmost degree, to recovery. From this view of it the administration of drugs occupies a smaller place in treatment than is usually given to it. Taking a wide view of it there are two parts in the treatment of any disease:—1. The General; and 2. the Special. 1. General Treatment.—No matter what the disease is, there are certain circumstances that should be attended to as a matter of course. To put a patient in the best possible circumstances for fighting a disease will naturally involve, at the first, maintaining as well as possible his nour- ishment. Now most probably the patient will have no great disposition for food and no great power of digesting it, therefore the necessity of giving food of a kind at once most nourishing and most easily digested. This explains the continual recurrence to milk, which has been well called nature’s food, containing, as it does, all the things necessary for the nourishment of the body, in proper proportion. It also explains tlie prefer- ence for liquid foods, such as beef-tea, broths, &c., and for other “simple diets.” This all seems self-evident, and requiring no emphasis. Yet it is wonderful how many people not only get themselves into a state of disease by the quan- tity and richness or indigestibility of the food they take, but maintain themselves in disease by continuing to burden their digestive organs. It is, for instance, almost past estimating how much harm is done to children, not only in health, but when ill, by the mothers allowing them to eat things suj)posed to be dainties. It is a freqi;ent experience of medical men, espe- cially in dealing with the poorer classes, that some little patient is not recovering with ex-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28124674_0001_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
