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.

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    Bryonia Burns THE STANDARD PHYSICIAN 296 fitting, rational life. The irritants to be feared and to be avoided are smoke and dust, alcohol and tobacco. A change of residence is often advisable. .■V sojourn in the health-resorts along the south coast is often helpful, not because remedies are to be obtained in these places which are not available elsewhere, but because many patients only in this manner will be able to enjoy a perfect bodily rest, away from the harmful inlluences that jirevail at their homes. The actual treatment should be left to the ])hysician, since it is not always merely a question of comliating cough and cxjiectoration ; the main thing is often to cure or alleviate the original disease which causes the cough (such as heart defects, kidney diseases, gout, and alcoholism). If these causative affec- tions can be improved, the result is usually an essential recovery from the bronchitis. BRYONIA.—The dried root of Bryonia alba, a cucumber-like ]dant growing in Europe. The root contains one or more active glycosides, which are extremely bitter, and which have a very active cathartic action. Bryonia has been used as a cathartic from time immemorial. It causes copious, watery stools ; and in large doses poisoning with violent abdominal pains, sweating, reduction of temperature, and death from collapse. BUBO.—An inflammation and enlargement of the inguinal glands, brought about by the entrance of infectious substances into the lymph- channels. They manifest themselves as painful tumour formations in the groin, and follow contaminated wounds and injuries of the lower limbs, or more especially certain sexual diseases, primarily soft chancre, gonorrhcea, and simple inflammation of the prepuce. Non-painful swellings in the region of the groin occur in cases of hard chancre. See Venereal Disease. The swellings of the glands of the groin in soft chancre show a decided ten- dency to suppuration. It is possible that these may recede, if the patient remains quiet and applies cooling poultices ; but if suppuration and. softening have occurred, perforation takes place at one or several points in the external skin (formation of fistula), unless an operation be previously performed. If the condition is still further neglected, especially in weakly and scrofulous persons, numerous fistulous ulcers form which undermine the skin and are difficult to heal. The fistulous canals which penetrate the skin in several places discharge a thin, putrid pus. If surgical aid is not rendered, the continued suppuration and the loss of substance connected with it lead to a long-lasting sickness which, in the course of time, will exhaust the strength of the patient. Prevention of swelling of the glands of the groin is best accomplished by a corresponding hygienic conduct in the existing innammatory affection responsible for the condition ; above all, by rest and scrupulous cleanliness, and by the earliest possible diminution of the infectious character of a