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3 Treatment Of Torpid Forms Of Scarlatina Difference In The

Categories: TREATMENT OF SCARLET-FEVER.
Sources: Hydriatic Treatment Of Scarlet Fever In Its Different Forms

TREATMENT POINTED OUT.



When the _reaction_ is _torpid_, the pulse small, weak, quick, the skin

dry, the rash slow to appear, and when it appears in small, pale, livid

spots, instead of bright scarlet patches (16-25); the treatment ought to

be calculated to produce a short, but powerful, stimulus upon the

surface of the body, after which a long pack should assist the organism

in producing a slow, continuou
and increasing reaction. If in violent

reaction a repetition of short packs and long cooling baths is

indicated,--in torpid reaction, cold and short tonic baths or affusions

and long packs are required, in proportion to the degree of the reactive

power of the patient. Therefore the packing sheet should be very cold,

but thin and well wrung out, so as to make a strong, but transitory,

impression, soon overcome by the reaction it calls forth, upon which all

our success depends. The patient stays in the pack till he becomes quite

warm and tired. Perspiration is seldom produced; if it is, it may be

considered a favorable symptom. I have had patients stay in the pack for

four, five, six and seven hours, and almost always, when I took them

out, their skin was covered with eruption. The only phenomenon, which

should induce the physician to relieve the patient of the pack before he

becomes perfectly warm, is increased delirium, which in torpid reaction,

indicates a tendency to a typhoid character of the disease, when the

warm and moist atmosphere of the long pack would be more favorable to

the disease than to the patient, by weakening the nerves still more. In

that case, a long half-or sitz-bath is required, the former, under

constant rubbing, from 15 to 20 minutes, the latter from 30 to 40

minutes; the temperature of either from 65 deg. to 70 deg..



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