Volume 2

A guide to health : being cautions and directions in the treatment of diseases. Designed chiefly for the use of students / by Joseph Townsend ...

Date:
1795-1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to health : being cautions and directions in the treatment of diseases. Designed chiefly for the use of students / by Joseph Townsend ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    ) 3. To Jheath the irritated portions of the colon with ^ mucilaginous Juhfiances. | 4. To adminijler tonics with ajlringents, in order ? to prevent morbid irritability and the recurrence of the fpajm. I j Such are the indications. And the effeft of medicines, anfwering thefe intentions, confirms our ideas refpedling the proximate caufe of this difeafc. The firft operation of cathartic medicines is to bring away loofe ftools, but no effectual relief is to be expected till the hardened fcybala ap- pear. Thefe being once evacuated, all the fpaf- modic affeftions are fpeedily relieved. To effeauate this purpofe, it is found neceffary to have recourfe to opium,* and modern expe- rience fhews, that calomel, fucceeding the ope- ration of this powerful antifpafmodic, is moft effi- cacious in ckanfing the alimentary canal from Jcy- bala. Sir John Pringle ordered ufually a bolus 'of rhubarb twenty-five grains, with calomel five grains, to be taken in the morning. Whilft I was in Edinburgh I paid particular attention to the praftice of Dr. Whytt in the treatment of this difeafe, becaufe he feldom failed to cure it, although not fo fpeedily as by the mo- dern praaice. He began with a powerful emetic; after which he gave every night a bolus of rhu- barb'half a dram, japonic confeflion two fcruples, liquid I