The practice of medicine on Thomsonian principles : and a materia medica, adapted to the work / by J. W. Comfort, M.D.

  • Comfort, J. W. (John W.)
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The practice of medicine on Thomsonian principles : and a materia medica, adapted to the work / by J. W. Comfort, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    kept constantly evaporating on the stove, to prevent the air from becoming too dry. The Vapour bath proves a powerful auxiliary in the treatment of scarlet fever; and the more frequently and more thoroughly it is administered, the better it will be for the patient. It can never do any harm, except by compelling a patient to set up longer than his strength will bear. If the patient be too weak to set up with- out being over-fatigued, then the patient should be steamed on a mattress or bed, in a horizontal position. Precaution.—More than one patient affected with scarlet fever should never be admitted into the same room, where it can be avoided. This precaution is of the very greatest importance. Treatment of Malignant Scarlet Fever.—Generally, the reaction commences violently, the system being thrown into a state of tu- multuous excitement; but, from the power of the cause of disease,« the vital energies soon become exhausted, and the fever assumes a low malignant or typhoid character. In other instances the vital powers are overwhelmed in the outset of the disease, and are una- ble to bring on reaction. The patient remains cold, and in a state of stupor, or he is thrown into convulsions. In either case, the treatment should be prompt and energetic, consisting of emetics, of eithef the liquid of the third preparation of lobelia, or some other preparation of lobelia, rendered stimulant by the addition of capsicum, or hot drops, and given in the bayberry tea. This, together with stimulating injections, and external warmth, will be the surest means of establishing reaction. To sustain the curative efforts of nature, active stimulants should be employed, as the third preparation of lobelia, in composition, bayberry, or capsicum tea. Wine whey, and carbonate of ammonia, will also be of ad- vantage in the advanced stages of the disease, when the strength of the patient is far exhausted. A tablespoonful of capsicum tea, and as much wine whey, with about five grains of the carbonate of ammonia, forms an excellent stimulant in all low sinking states of the system. If the skin be dry, a moist heat should be kept around the patient, by hot bricks wrapped in damp cloths; but where the skin is cold and clammy, a dry heat will be proper, together with warm frictions and stimulants to the surface. The capsicum, says Dr. Eberle, appears to be a particularly valuable remedy in this variety of the disease. This article was first employed in malignant scarlatina, by Dr. Stephens, in a very fatal epidemic which prevailed at St. Christopher's, (West Indies,) in 1787, and it has since received the decided approbation of many eminent practitioners. The form in which the faculty employ it is similar to Dr. Thompson's pepper sauce—a tablespoonful of cap-