Cancer : its nature and treatment, with observations on certain diseases peculiar to women / by John Pattison, M.D.

  • Pattison, John.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cancer : its nature and treatment, with observations on certain diseases peculiar to women / by John Pattison, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    In ordinary circumstances water will answer the purpose, but if there is excessive pain, then other agents must be used. At other times, if the part is perfectly quiet, then a piece of cotton spread with soothing ointment will suffice. In particular, care should be taken, to avoid all applications which may give pain, and all extremes of heat or cold should be specially avoided. Wrappers in winter, and in summer the cool and homely application of a cabbage leaf, will suffice. As regards sedative medicines, where there exists great pain, these may be regarded as indispensable. Codeine is the best form for allaying pain and suffer- ing, but unfortunately it rarely induces sleep. For this purpose Battley's sedative is the best. The use of purgative medicines should be avoided. The mind, on which the nervous energy of the body so much depends, should be kept tranquil, and sup- ported by the intercourse of cheerful society. The chief cause of the disquiet in such afflicted persons is not what they endure, but what they may still have to bear. There are conjured up the most gloomy ideas; the dread of bodily pain, helpless dependance on others, increasing deformity, seclusion from the world, languid prostration, form the pre- disposing causes of despondency. These should be regarded as a trial of strength, and it should be some antidote to these painful anticipa- tions, that what is so much dreaded may never occur. And even if these evils should come, it is an acknowledged truth, that suffering, patiently borne, and in humble submission to the will of God, is sup^