Sea-sickness and how to prevent it : an explanation of its nature and successful treatment, through the agency of the nervous system, by means of the spinal ice-bag : with an introduction on the general principles of neuro-therapeutics / by John Chapman.

  • Chapman, John, 1821-1894.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sea-sickness and how to prevent it : an explanation of its nature and successful treatment, through the agency of the nervous system, by means of the spinal ice-bag : with an introduction on the general principles of neuro-therapeutics / by John Chapman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    118/120 (page 110)
    there was any motion of the steamer in whieh he erossed he ap- plied the bag as direeted. He sums up his experienee of its effects by saying :—If he puts it on before he feels sick or overcome with languor it keeps him well, and that if vomiting, diarrhoea, and the accompanying prostration have come on before the ice-bag has been applied, he feels almost immediate relief, and that in a short time he is so complete^ recovered as to be able to take food and enjoy it. Each of the following testimonies is based on an experience of numerous cases, and therefore, as evidence of the efficacy of the remedy in question, is far more important than any of the pre- ceding reports. Captain White, commander of one of the Newhaven and Dieppe boats, stated to me in a letter dated November 22, 1864, that though he had some difficulty in persuading passengers to try the remedy, all who did try it were benefited. Mr. S. M. Bradley, while acting as surgeon of one of the steamers of the Cunard service, running between Liverpool and New York, published in the Lancet of December 3, 1864-, a letter from which the following is an extract:— “In severe cases, where other remedies have failed, I have very generally found it (the spinal ice-bag) do great good. I have applied it to young children, delicate women, and old people. In no case does it do harm; but in the great majority of instances it soothes the nervous irritability which so commonly accompanies sea-sickness, induces sleep, and so enables the stomach to receive light food, and consequently relieves exhaustion I order it to be kept on a couple of hours; though, if the patient sleeps, as is often the case, I never remove it until after waking.^^ One of my patients informed me in August, 1868, that Dr. Thompson, medical officer of the steamer City of Cork, one of the Inman line of Atlantic steamers, uses the spinal ice-bag in treating his sea-sick patients, and that according to his own state- ment he finds it a thoroughly efficacious remedy. It will be observed on glancing through the foregoing evidence that eight members of the medical profession have recommended or made use of the spinal ice-bag for stopping sea-sickness; as jet, however, I know of only two instances in which the medical