The nursing and care of the nervous and the insane / by Charles K. Mills.

  • Mills, Charles K. (Charles Karsner), 1845-1931.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nursing and care of the nervous and the insane / by Charles K. Mills. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    they are insulted if, in the midst of nervous suffering, they are called hysterical. It is a foolish thing in a nurse who has charge of a patient suffering with hysteria to give way to every whim and fancy of the patient; and yet, on the other hand, she cannot by denunciation or harsh measures get rid of the inconvenience and care which such patients may give her. She should not do too much on her own responsibility in the way of severe treatment. The nurse may be called up three or four times during a night, or in some other way may be sorely tried, but all that she can do is to be watchful and careful, and if she finds that a patient is disposed to make things uncomfortable, by some mild but positive words or measures try to prevent her. She must not, as has been done in some cases, plunge the patient into a cold bath without direc- tions from a physician. The one to use threats and severe measures, if these are resorted to at all, is the physician. It may be a question sometimes whether a patient is suffering from a hysterical or from an epileptic fit, and this doubt is not always easy of solution, although usually the two affections can be separated. Hysterical seizures differ in character. Sometimes they are pur- posive or voluntary,—that is, they are completely under the control of the patient, by whom they are induced or feigned ; at other times they are as completely be- yond the control of the will as are the convulsions of epilepsy. The simulated or foolish fits of hysteria can generally be recognized. The screaming, shouting, and violent movements of the patient, at the same time