A dictionary of medicine, designed for popular use / [Alexander Macaulay].

  • Macaulay, Alexander, 1783-1868.
Date:
[1840?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of medicine, designed for popular use / [Alexander Macaulay]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    matter is, to be sure that the pains com¬ plained of are after-pains, and not the effect of some more serious disease, as inflammation. After-pains are distin¬ guished by being alternated with inter¬ vals of ease, and by being generally at¬ tended with the discharge of some coagu- lated blood from the womb; pain is not excited by pressure on the belly. Other symptoms, along with the pains, indicate the existence of some other disease. Af¬ ter-pains are alleviated by giving an opiate shortly after delivery, and repeating the medicine in smaller doses every six or eight hours, taking care not to injure the nervous system by too much opium, nor to bring on constipation of the bowels. Warm flannels may be applied to the low¬ er part of the belly, and in some cases an opiate clyster may be required. AGARIC. A spungy substance ob¬ tained by drying certain excrescences which grow on oak stumps; sometimes it has been used to stop bleeding. AGGLUTINATION. The sticking together of substances or of parts of the body. AGRIMONY, Agrimonia Eupatoria. A plant, believed to be slightly astringent, but in this country little used. AGUE. The popular English name for Intermittent Fever. Ague is principal¬ ly applied to the cold stage. The whole disease is vulgarly called Fever and Ague. Symptoms. This fever consists of va¬ rious fits or paroxysms, each of which is made up of three stages or successions of symptoms. These stages are the cold, the hot, and the sweating stages. When the sweating stage is finished, the patient is free of complaint, or the disease inter¬ mits till a future period, when the same stages as before succeed each other. The time during which the patient is free of the disease varies in different kinds of intermit¬ tent fever, and gives its nameand character to the disease. If the stages run through their course every day, it is called a quo¬ tidian ague; if they begin again every third day, a tertian; if every fourth day, a quartan. Several minuter varieties oc¬ cur, with which it is unnecessary to trouble the general reader. The following is a description of the paroxysm of an ague. Cold Stage. The person is affected first, with a languor, or sense of weak¬ ness and faintiskness, is unwilling to make any exertion, feels uneasiness in doing so, and frequently yawns and stretches him¬ self. At the same time, the face and other parts of the body become pale, the features shrink, and the skin appears as if cold had been applied to it. At the coming on of these symptoms, some cold¬ ness of the hands and feet, though little taken notice of by the patient, may be perceived by another person. At length the patient himself feels a sensation of cold, commonly first in his back, but pass¬ ing thence over the whole body; and now his skin feels warm to another person The patient’s sense of cold increasing, a tremor occurs in all his limbs, with fre¬ quent shiverings of the trunk of the body. When this sense of cold and its effects have continued for some time, they be¬ come less violent, and are alternated with warm flushings. Vomiting sometimes occurs in the cold stage. Hot Stage. By degrees the cold goes off entirely, and a heat greater than na¬ tural prevails, and continues over the whole body. With this heat, the colour of the skin returns, and a preternatural redness appears, especially in the face. Whilst the heat and redness come on, the skin is relaxed and smooth, but for some time continues dry. The features of the face, and other parts of the body recover their usual size, and become even some¬ what swollen. In this state, it is not un¬ usual for delirium and other affections of the intellectual functions to come on. Sweating Stage. When the heat, red¬ ness, and fulness have increased and con¬ tinued for some time, a moisture appears upon the forehead, which gradually be¬ comes copious, and extends over the whole body. As the sw'eat flow's, the heat of the body abates; the sweat,after continu¬ ing some time, gradually ceases; the body