Diseases of the nervous system / by J.A. Ormerod.

  • Ormerod, J. A. (Joseph Arderne), 1848-1925.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the nervous system / by J.A. Ormerod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    has been bred and fostered, and from friends whose attentions may be injudicious, or who may have lost control over her. She should be placed with some nurse or companion whom she can like and respect, and who must be firm yet kind and pleasant in her dealings with her. Every opportunity must be seized of suggesting* and demonstrating to her the fact that she can and will get well. Employment and interests should be found for her as soon as she is capable of them. And, not least, states of mal-nutrition or of anaemia must be rectified, the bowels and catamenia regulated, and any real bodily disease or source of irritation treated as efficiently and quickly as may be. The plan of treatment advocated by Weir-Mitchell and Playfair is in accordance with these principles. It is most useful in cases of hysterical paralysis, and in women who by inaction and loss of appetite have become actually weak and emaciated. The patient is removed from home and friends, and placed in isola- tion under the charge of a suitable nurse. She is confined to bed, and at first her food consists solely of three or four ounces of milk every three hours. Then a course of massage is gradually begun, and with it the milk is increased in amount and solid food given, till within a fortnight or so she is taking three full meals daily, besides one or two quarts of milk and strong soup. The muscles are usually exercised by faradism as well as massage ; and as she regains power and nutrition she is encouraged to use her limbs, and gradually to pass from invalidism to active habits. Isolation from her friends appears to be an essential to this treatment, and also the services of a competent nurse, and a masseuse who can properly exercise the muscles. Without proper massage, tissue change fails, and the overfeeding, the object of which is renova- tion of the tissues, cannot be carried on. Other modes of treatment are often extremely useful * We do not enter here into the recently revived question of treatment by hypnotic suggestion.