Bough

“ An ulcer in an emaciated patient, which secretes blood and pus, and is attended with indigestion, cough, painful respiration and non-relish for food, as well as a case of fractured skull, attended with cough, dyspnoea, secretion of brain-matter, and symptoms peculiar to the concerted action of the three deranged humours of the body, should be given up as past all remedy. ”

“ For lungs and heart can tolerate neither so foul an odour nor the ulcers themselves nor the ichor (puriform, septic matter) coming from them, but cough and difficulty of breathing supervene. Origin of this affection of the throat is the swallowing of cold, pungent, hot, sour, or strongly astringent, substances. ”

“ But when about to let blood it is necessary to ascertain that there be not a great obstruction of fæces in the intestines, and, if there be, the bowels ought first to be evacuated by an emollient clyster, lest the veins of the intestines suck in the putrid matter of the excrements. Those requiring the abstraction of blood from the presence of a disease [317] we may bleed at any season, avoiding only the acme of particular paroxysms in fevers. But if it be a continual fever, the morning is by all means the fittest season for the operation. ”

“ Cough.—For a hard, dry cough, Aconitum napellus is required in the early stage, followed by Bryonia if necessary; for a cough with wheezing, difficulty of expectoration and need of keeping the head high in bed, Antimonium tartaricum; for a dry, spasmodic cough, with sore throat and thirst, Belladonna, or for a nervous cough, Hyoscyamus 3x; for cough with expectoration and pain in the side or in the head, or between the shoulders when coughing, Bryonia; for cough accompanied by constipation and fulness at the pit of the stomach, or for cough worse after meals, Nux vomica ”

“ This affection occurs most frequently in protracted fevers, owing to the patients having been long confined to bed. When, therefore, the part begins to appear red, we make a circular piece of wool, of the proper magnitude, and lay it below the part, and afterwards prepare a rose or myrtle cerate, containing litharge or ceruse, and apply it. When there is inflammation, we may use a cataplasm of bread, with nightshade, or knot-grass, or plantain, or tender cabbage. But if the ulceration be spreading, we are to use a cataplasm of dried lentils, along with the inner rind of the pomegranate. ”

“ Symptoms.—Acrid soapy taste in mouth, burning in throat and gullet, acute pain at pit of stomach, vomiting of bloody or brown mucus, colicky pains, bloody stools, surface cold, pulse weak. These preparations are not volatile, so that there is not much fear of lung trouble. In chronic cases death occurs from stricture of the œsophagus causing starvation.
Post-Mortem Appearances.—Soapy feeling, softening, inflammation, and corrosion of mucous membrane of mouth, pharynx, œsophagus, stomach, and intestines. Inflammation may have extended to larynx. ”

“ Physic has taught me by his dissections that these symptoms may exist without the least inflammation in the stomach, and that they have been absent where the stomach has appeared after death to have been highly inflamed.
“The cure of the fever should not rest upon a single dose of the medicine. ”

“ A boil or an ulcer, which is confined only to the skin, readily yields to medical treatment, while the remaining types, as well as those, which spontaneously suppurate and burst, are hard to cure. A boil or an ulcer usually assumes a shape which is either diffused, rectangular, spheroidal or triangular ”

“ Symptoms.—Intestinal irritation, loss of appetite, sickness, malaise, general weakness of the limbs, and diarrhœa. The eyelids swell as well as the joints, the skin is bathed in cold, clammy sweat, and a low form of fever sets in. Death may be due to peritonitis, paralysis of the muscles—the result of their destruction—or to irritative fever. During the perforation of the coats of the stomach and bowels by the worms, the mucous membrane becomes inflamed, pus is formed on the surface, and the stools become bloody. ”

“ If the Party is much oppress'd at his Stomach, and strains to vomit, or else with vomiting throws up bitter and stinking Matter; let him presently take a large draught of Carduus, or Camomile Posset-Drink, and in it either half a Dram of Salt of Vitriol, or two Ounces of Liquor of Squills, and with his finger or a Feather, fetch up what is contain'd in his Stomach; but take no Antimonial Medicine, that will work beyond the Stomach. ”

“ BUT because many of the Infected have a Loathing at Stomach, and an Inclination to vomit, in the same Manner as an Overload of Eating and Drinking occasions, Medicines in solid Forms suit best with such, as they are not so easily thrown up, and adhere better to the Sides of the Stomach: Of this Kind we have the following Composition, which at taking may be made into Boles of ʒ ij. each adding thereunto Salt of Carduus, or Wormwood ℈ j. or more or less according to the Exigency of Symptoms. ”

“ Third Stage.—Diarrhœa not unusually supervenes; spitting of blood; the person emaciates rapidly; the face changes from a bloated to a cadaverous appearance, with hectic fever; the patient faints easily; debility increases with the cough, or hæmoptosis occurs often, until death finally closes the scene. ”

“ For when the Animal Spirits which are necessary to the natural Fermentation of the Blood are vitiated with unwholesome Particles of a foggy and thick Air, and the Humour which for a long time hath been contained in the Baggs or Cavities of the Lungs is over-heated by some extraordinary Ebullition or Fermentation of the Blood, with a total Suppression of Expectoration, the Cough becomes more violent, the Fever inflammatory, and all parts more tabid. ”

“ The retching and vomiting are very obstinate, and continue for a long time; the matters thrown up are sometimes streaked with blood; there is pain in the abdomen of a colicky character—a pain relieved by pressure. The bowels are, as a rule, constipated, but occasionally relaxed. ”

“ Pleurisy, peripneumony, melancholy, acute fevers, frensy, lethargy, ardent fever attended with hiccough.—When any disease is about to attack the bowels, some of the following symptoms announce its approach: In the first place, the belly is griped and disordered, the food and drink seem bitter, heaviness of the knees, inability to bend the loins, pains over the whole body unexpectedly occurring, numbness of the legs, slight fever; when any of these occur, it will be proper to loosen the belly by a suitable diet without medicine. ”

“ At the times of these inverted efforts of the stomach not only the lymphatics, which open their mouths into the stomach, but those of the skin also, are for a time inverted; for sweats are sometimes pushed out during the efforts of vomiting without an increase of heat. ”

“ BOIL, in medicine, a progressive local inflammation of the skin, taking the form of a hard suppurating tumour, with a core of dead tissue, resulting from infection by a microbe, Staphylococcus pyogenes, and commonly occurring in young persons whose blood is disordered, or as a complication in certain diseases. Treatment proceeds on the lines of bringing the mischief out, assisting the evacuation of the boil by the lancet, and clearing the system. ”

“ Twelve Hours after the Patient has been let Blood, a Vomit may be usefully prescribed, to evacuate the noxious Humours of the Stomach, that may hinder the Operation of Remedies, or by being absorbed by the Blood, may joyn with the Matter of the Disease, and encrease the Putrefaction, as well as to agitate and shake the Frame of the Nerves, and express from the Glands their putrid Contents. ”

“ As the disease advances, other symptoms come on; as rottenness of the teeth, hæmorrhages, or discharges of blood from different parts of the body, foul obstinate ulcers, pains in various parts, especially about the breast, dry scaly eruptions all over the body, &c. At last a wasting or hectic fever comes on, and the miserable patient is often carried off by a dysentery, a diarrhœa, a dropsy, the palsy, fainting fits, or a mortification of some of the bowels. ”

“ But usually the boil increases in size for several days, until it may be as large as a pigeon's egg. It assumes a bright-red sharply defined, rounded shape, with a conical point, and is at first hard and then softens as pus or "matter" forms. There is [Pg 158] severe pain of a throbbing, boring character, which is worse at night, and destroys the patient's sleep and appetite. There may be some fever. The glands in the neighborhood may be enlarged and tender, owing to some of the pus germs' escaping from the boil and lodging in the glands. ”

“ Wir wenden denselben ungekocht an da, wo wir den Bauch erweichen oder Brechen erregen wollen, wie bei verschluckten tödtlichen Giften, indem wir ihn mit Oel geben, gekocht aber bei solchen, die einen kleinen Puls haben, bei schwachen und von Husten belästigten Personen, ferner bei solchen, die an Lungenentzündung und an Schweiss leiden. ”

“ The skin is yellowish, hot and damp; a rash, disappearing on pressure, may occur on the trunk and legs, nausea is always present and thirst is usual. The liver and spleen both enlarge. The number of respirations and pulse-rate become increased. ”

“ These begin with cramp-like pains in the extremities, colicky pains in the abdomen, burning thirst, vomiting and purging. The pulse may be very slow and strong at first, but later becomes rapid, small and feeble. ”

“ Though in man infection through wounds is the readiest way of receiving the disease, the bacillus may also obtain access through the digestive organs, the lungs and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and lips. ”

“ Persons who are benefited by venesection or purging, should be bled or purged in spring.
48. In enlargement of the spleen, it is a good symptom when dysentery comes on.
49. In gouty affections, the inflammation subsides in the course of forty days.
50. When the brain is severely wounded, fever and vomiting of bile necessarily supervene. ”

“ In fevers they encourage their patients to eat, thinking it necessary, where the air is so subtile, to put something into the body for the distemper to feed upon; they bleed often, and in both arms, that the blood may be drawn forth equally ”

“ Broussais, on the contrary, contends that the primary and essential seat of inflammation in fever is the mucous membrane of the stomach, or of the intestines, or both, but especially the former, and that, therefore, the proper designation of it is gastro-enteritis. ”

“ The ulcer, he says, is apt to spread to the tongue, or it passes down the trachea and proves fatal by occasioning suffocation. The disease, he says, is brought on by cold acrid substances, and sympathy with disease of the stomach or lungs. Children are most subject to it. ”

“ If the Seeds of the Fever, which are cast out in part from the Blood, by reason of their crude and indigested State, are uncapable of breathing through the Pores of the Skin, but are caught and entangled in the small Strainers which they are unapt to pass ”

“ The injuries to health arise from the external contact with the skin of the white-lead, whether in the dry or moist condition, and the inhalation of the dust or powder into the lungs, or its being imbibed into the stomach through the mouth. ”

“ Sometimes also fewer signs of a fever appear than the nature of the disease requires, from a translation of the malignant cause, either to the nervous system, or to some other parts of the body, or to some of the juices not contained in the blood ”

“ It sets in with great pain in the bowels, sickness at the stomach, and vomiting of large quantities of dark greenish bitter tasting substance. At first, the vomiting will seem to afford relief, but sooner or later the stomach and bowels cramp, and the cramping may extend to other parts of the body, the feet, hands, calves of the legs, and the arms, cold sweats come on, and death terminates his sufferings. ”

“ Here the absorbed matter is supposed to produce the fever, and the diarrhœa, sweats, or copious muddy urine, to be simply the consequence of increased secretion, and not to consist of the purulent matter, which was supposed to be absorbed from the ulcer. See Sudor calidus, Class I. 1. 2. 3.
The action of the air on ulcers, as we have already shewn, increases the acrimony of the purulent matter, and even converts it into a weaker kind of contagious matter; that is, to a material inducing fever. This was ascribed to the union of the azotic part of the atmosphere with the effused pus in Sect. ”

“ A boil or an ulcer appearing in a patient who is young, muscular (in frame) , strong, or is possessed of an indomitable courage and fortitude, proves readily amenable to healing measures and applications; how much more so when one appears in a patient in whom all these four conditions simultaneously obtain. ”

“ The exciting causes are various—accumulation of blood or viscid mucus in the lungs, noxious vapours, a cold and foggy atmosphere, or a close, hot air, flatulence, accumulated fæces, violent passions, organic diseases in the thoracic viscera, &c. ”

“ I have seen two cases of women, of about forty years of age, both of whom were seized with quick weak pulse, with difficult respiration, and who spit up by coughing much viscid mucus mixed with dark coloured blood. ”

“ Pain of the abdomen upon pressure, and especially upon pressure in the epigastrium, is much less seldom absent than pain of which the patient spontaneously complains.
5. Pain, though it may usher in the abdominal affection, and may even be severe for the first few days, diminishes after a certain time and then ceases altogether, so that it is extremely rare, after the tenth day of fever, for instance, for the patient to complain of pain of the abdomen, even when the abdominal affection is the most intense. ”