The medical guide, for the use of the clergy, heads of families, and practitioners in medicine and surgery / [Richard Reece].

  • Reece, Richard, 1775-1831
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical guide, for the use of the clergy, heads of families, and practitioners in medicine and surgery / [Richard Reece]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    enlarged. bowels, &c. the body, should, be kept open by the océasional, exhibition, of rhubarh,;power, with ca- lomel,, as recommended under. the Death of. Rhubarb Powder, No. 26..; To exhibit laudanum with effect, we should ascertain whether the irritation is attended with a diminished or increased vitality. —If the vital powers run too high, as in acute fever, or local inflammation, the dose of. forty ‘or fifty drops will have little or no effect in producing sleep or allaying pain; but if the system be in a re- laxed or debilitated state, twelve drops will probably produce the desired effect. ‘Thus, in the commence- ment of pleurisy, thirty drops of laudanum will not even allay cough; but when the system is reduced by bleed- ing or purging, six or eight drops will succeed in quiet- ing cough, and procuring rest. Hence, in the use of opium or laudanum, it is of great importance to ascer- tain whether it be suber areggn or sub-irritation we have to subdue. To counteract the soporific effects of too large a dose of laudanum, coffee has been much recommended asa diluter, and ipecacuan powder as an emetic ; and when the quantity taken is so great as to render vomiting ne- cessary, the ipecacuan should be administered to the extent of two scruples, with half an ounce of tartarised antimony wine, and a tea-spoonful of the flour of mus- _tard.. The vegetable acids are likewise much, recom- mended as powerful correctors of its narcotic effect, and will prove.a useful auxiliary to the emetic. . Lemon juice and vinegar, for this purpose, are equally effi- cacious, in the quantity of half a wine-glassful. (See _. the Treatment of Vegetable Poisons.) As laudanum is apt to produce costiveness, the state of the bowels should always be attended to during its exhibition. To counteract this effect, the Epsom Salt, No.2, or Laxative Lavement, No.97, is the most effica- cious. In asthma, particularly 1 in elderly or debilitated subjects, laudanum, in full doses, is a dangerous remedy; and, by weakening the respiratory muscles, and power of expectoration, has Gestroyvad dieoss jo ah iter D 3