Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:
1908-1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    313/430 (page 287)
    Bread The following example may serve as an illustration of this ; A business man who has always been moderate and capable becomes “ nervous ” ; he does not sleep well, giows iiiitable and restless, neglects his business, drinks associates with women, becomes conspicuous bv absence of mind forget- fulness, and “ inconceivable ” social offences, and he will not listen to well- meant counsel. He is looked ujion as overw'orked and neurasthenic, and he is made to go into a hydropathic institution. There, how'ever, the true nature of his affection soon becomes manifest—his mind ’deteriorates verv rapidly, and he mav some day frighten the institute by an attack of mania. The lurther course ol the disease develo])s in various manners, but its main feature is always a gradual collapse of the mental faculties. The memory fails, the cajxicity of judgment is lost, the mentality is dulled, and gradually the patient becomes completely idiotic. It often happens that delirium with exaltation ” develops, which may alternate with hypochon- driacal depression. The deterioration of the mind goes hand in hand with that of the body : the faculties of the muscles rela.x, the gait becomes clumsy, the speech stuttering and babbling, and the writing indistinct and trembling (see Fig. lOo). Slight ])aralytic attacks resembling cpilepsv occur occa- sionally, but the j)atient usually recovers from them ; finally, the condition is intensified by the supervention of paralysis of the muscles involved in swallowing, and failure of the muscles of the rectum and of the bladder. The patient, now' helpless as an infant, dies with the symptoms o{ the most complete exhaustion, provided pneumonia or another affection has not ])reviously terminated his unfortunate life. The principal cause of paresis is syphilis, w'hich has been either neglected or insufficiently treated. In some cases the paretic condition does not appear until ten years or more after the svphilitic infection, and generallv wdien other injuries of the nerves (caused, for instance, by the abuse of alcohol) are added. There can be no doubt that also non-syphilitic ])ersons are affected by the disease, although far more rarely. Heredity also plays a part, but less so than in most of the other mental diseases. Paretic patients arc always best taken care of in an institution, private or public. BRAN-BATH.—This is ]u*epared by adding a decoction of 2 to 6 pounds of wheat-bran to a full bath of a temperature of 95® F. The decoction is obtained by boiling the bran in a linen bag, and the extraction as well as the boiled bran are thrown into the bath. The bran-bath acts soothingly, and is therefore of service in conditions accompanied by itching ol the skin. BREAD.—An article of food which may well be designated as the staff of life. The important position accorded to this substance is well merited, for it contains the most important elements of nutrition required by the body, namely proteids and carbohydrates ; it furnishes in abundance the salts which are necessary for the building up of the body and for the main- tenance of good health ; and in many instances it serves as a means ol