A treatise on the employment of certain methods of friction and inhalation in consumption, asthma and other maladies / by John Pocock Holmes.

  • Holmes, John Pocock.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the employment of certain methods of friction and inhalation in consumption, asthma and other maladies / by John Pocock Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    action of the different cavities is impeded, and irregularity of pulse occurs ; and if this state be suffered to continue long, the heart itself becomes positively diseased. Even in cases where the rheumatic affection is confined to the intercostal muscles, it is not altogether unlikely that its long continuance may bring about morbid depositions in the lungs, by preventing the free play of the chest, and there- fore keeping the contained organs in a state of unnatural contraction. In no cases whatever are the good effects of medicated frictions better seen than in these. Partial relief is frequently the immediate con- sequence, and I have never known their employ- ment for a proper length of time fail to remove all symptoms. Mere counter-irritation is very useful in these attacks, but by combining it with the inunction of colchicum we are enabled to secure the agency of this great specific for rheumatism without subjecting the patient to the disagreeable effects which follow its administration by the mouth. The following letter refers to a case of the above-mentioned kind :— “ My dear Sir,—I have been so much en- gaged since I left England, that I have hitherto been unable to write to you ; but as I am sure