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:
1828
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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    ef &e. ‘These should accompany the use of the tonic order, in cases occcurring in persons of very languid constitutions, or in elderly subjects, or when*the vital powers are giving way to the disease. 4. The nervous antiseptics; as camphor, compound spirit of ‘sulphuric ether, acetate of morphine, tincture of henbane, &c., which should accompany the use of either of the two first orders, when the nervous system is in a high state of morbid excite- ment, a common attendant on typhus fever. | . All these articles do not prove antiseptic when introduced in the stomach, from any chemical action; but by increasing the vital energy of the system, so as to resist any putrefactive disposi- tion that may exist in the body. The astringents, as the Peruvian bark and the sulphuric acid, may produce the effect by increas- ing the cohesion of the whole body; and the latter may have some chemical effect en the fluids. I have said so much, because I believe there is, in some constitutions, a disposition to putre- faction in some diseases, as sea-scurvy, typhus fever, and malig- nant sore throat; and if the last order cannot be termed an- tiseptic in such cases, the addition of it may prove, in practice, of some utility. ‘The topical antiseptics, in cases of mortifi- coal powder, powdered bark, solution of myrrh, opium, the yest poultice, fomentations, &c. As a proof that no disposition to putrefaction exists, either in the fluids or solids of the living body in cases of typhus fever, sea-scurvy, or the malignant sore throat, it has been said that the bodies of those who die of these diseases keep longer than those that fall a sacrifice to any other disease ; but this assertion I have ascertained from long observation to be erroneous. For the purpose of preventing pu- trefaction ef dead bodies, the pyroligneous acid, the solution of the chloruret of sodium, and nitrate of potass or of soda, are the most. powerful. i cia} ANTISPASMODICS are such remedies which prevent or allay spasms, vulgarly termed cramp. Spasms being generally at- tributed to debility, stimulants are prescribed for its immediate relief, and tonics as a preventive. ‘The phenomena of spasms are interesting, both in a physiological and pathological peint of view. Cullen considered spasms to be a nervous affection. There is a principle inherent in muscles, termed excitability, which is in- dependent of nerves. ‘The contractile power of muscles is de- pendent on this principle, and as spasms are an exeessive action of the muscular fibres, independent of the will, often to an ex- tent as to pinch the nerves of the parts, and occasion very severe pain, it is more likely to be the effect of increased strength than of debility, and the robust are, therefore, as liable to it as the