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.

    609/684 (page 559)
    TOBACCO hundreds of these eruptions thus treated no harm has come to the patient. When ringworm affects the body it may be well treated with lini- ment of iodine painted over the spots every morning: where soreness results, the painting may be sus- pended for a day or so. In ring- worm of the scalp the affected part should be shaved, to admit of effec- tual treatment. Crusts that have formed should be softened with bread-and-water poultices and re- moved and the patches of ringworm painted with liniment of iodine. Coster’s paste (iodine and oil of tar) well rubbed over the part with a brush of short hard bristles and salicylic acid lotion (io grains of the acid to one ounce of chloroform or ether), rubbed in well every morning with a piece of linen, are alternative treatments in case of failure with the iodine paint- ing. TOBACCO, USE AND ABUSE OF That a substance possessing such powers for evil should, in spite of them, be so largely used by man, seems to prove that there is in it some peculiar virtue fitting the needs of the race. Tobacco lessens the waste of nervous tissue, en- abling it to perform its labour with less friction, so to speak, than would otherwise be the case. The tobacco habit is in great measure psychical. In the busy mart of the city, in the fatigues and excite- ments of a military campaign, in the exposure of a hunter’s or a sailor's life, the nervous system craves some- thing that, after the day’s worry and battle, shall soothe it into quiet. These speculations serve to indicate the proper use of tobacco by the brainworker, namely, that its em- ployment should be restricted to the hours of rest and calm ; that it should be used to soothe the nervous system and help it to settle into the state of quiet in which it recuperates its powers. The more sedentary and the freer from emotional or other excitement is the life of the brain-worker, the less excuse is there for the use of the narcotic. Moderation in the use of tobacco is almost as necessary to the brain- worker as moderation in the use of alcohol. It is certain that very frequently nervous breakdowns are hurried in their development by the constant employment of the drug. The manifestations of the excessive use of tobacco are not always uni- form, but in the great majority of cases they consist of evidences of excessive nervous irritability espe- cially affecting the heart. Minor ills, such as chronic sore throat, dyspepsia, etc., are not rare, but the serious symptoms which de- mand attention are usually con- nected with the heart. Cardiac dis- tress and palpitations, irregulai intermittent pulse—these, in minoi and major degrees, are nearly al- ways present when tobacco has played an important part in the production of a nervous break- down. It should never be forgotten that the sedentary brain-worker bears tobacco much worse than does he who leads an active outdoor life ; and also that the same person, during his periods of active outdoor exertion, resists the deleterious effects of tobacco much more strongly than he does when a desk- student. More than this, not only do habits of life, but also personal and race peculiarities, affect the tolerance of tobacco. Idiosyn- crasies, that is, personal peculiar- ities, must be studied in the con- crete ; but peculiarities of classes or races of people, that is, tempera- ments, may be studied as general