The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/684 (page 8)
    womb. Their influence is one of a salutary nature, although they may give rise to much suffering. They continue with greater or less severity for a day and a half or two days. With each contraction the amount of discharge generally increases, and there may come away from the womb at such times clots of blood which have accumulated in the interior. Unless these pains are very severe and give rise to much suffering, they do not call for inter- ference. The pains are sometimes aggravated by putting the child to the breast, by taking food, or by the action of the bowels and bladder, but these processes cannot be inter- fered with. A hot poultice or flannel to the lower part of the abdomen may give some relief, but rest for ten or twelve days, or even longer, after labour, is very essen- tial. Then the patient may be per- mitted to sit up in the bed or on a couch for a few hours daily, but she must not leave her room till the end of the third week. AGUE or intermittent fever, is a fever con- sisting of paroxysms or periods of fever, between each of which there is a distinct and perfect intermission from febrile symptoms. There are several kinds or species of ague, but the quotidian, which returns every day ; the tertian, which returns every other day ; and the quartan, occurring on the first and fourth days, are the principal. It is like- wise termed autumnal ague when it happens in autumn, and vernal when in the spring. AGUE, CAUSES OF The chief predisposing cause is debility, however induced ; but the grand exciting cause is marsh miasma, or the effluvia arising from stagnant water, or marshy ground, impregnated with vegetable matter in a state of putrefactive decompo- sition. Dampness and the night air are particularly favourable to the full operation of marsh miasma. Ague does arise, however, from other causes than marsh effluvia ; and it may be produced by sym- pathy or irritation in the stomach and intestines. AGUE, SYMPTOMS OF Every fit of ague consists of three stages : a cold, a hot, and a sweating stage. In the cold stage the face and limbs become pale, the features shrink, the sensibility is greatly impaired, the breathing short and anxious/and a sensation of severe cold is felt over the body, succeeded by shivering and violent shaking. Afterwards, the heat of the body returns, and soon becomes dry, burning, and much above the normal; the countenance is now flushed and tumid ; there is often acute pain in the head, sometimes slight delirium; the pulse is strong, full, and frequent, and the thirst urgent. These symptoms are followed, first, by moisture of the skin, and then by general and equable perspiration, which terminates the fit. The whole paroxysm lasts about eight hours. In the intermission, the countenance is apt to be pale and shrunk, and the constitution may be affected with languor and feebleness. In the beginning of agues, however, the patient is sometimes free from indisposition. Spring agues are, in general, less severe and less obstin- ate, and less liable to be followed by dangerous complications, than the autumnal; they are also less likely to return.