Ice-water And Snow-bath In Malignant Cases
Categories:
TREATMENT OF SCARLET-FEVER.
Sources:
Hydriatic Treatment Of Scarlet Fever In Its Different Forms
If no rash appear during the first pack, which will scarcely fail, the
proceeding should be repeated, and the patient stay longer in the pack
than the first time. In very bad cases, when the patient fails at once
under the action of the poison (malignant scarlet-fever) iced water or
snow may be resorted too. I know several instances of patients, having
been given up by their physicians, reviving again under the influence of
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a snow-bath, which produced a healthy reaction, when nothing else was of
avail. I have never had occasion myself to resort to such extremes, cold
water having always answered my purposes; but I would not hesitate a
minute to use snow and ice in a case where I could think it useful and
necessary. Such proceedings _look_ cruel; but it _is_ decidedly more
cruel to let the patient's life be destroyed from want of timely
assistance. I distinctly remember a case, which occurred in Cassel, when
the physician objected to "tormenting the poor boy," and wanted the
father to "let him die in peace." But the father, who had some
knowledge of, and a great deal of confidence in hydriatics, put the
little patient, a boy of 8 or 9 years, into a bathing-tub filled for the
greater part with snow, covered him over with the cold material, and
left him there till he became conscious; then he was rubbed all over,
placed in a dry pack (without a sheet), and left to perspire, which
ensued and brought out the rash. The patient was out of danger in four
hours' time, and Dr. S., on calling again in the evening, was quite
astounded at seeing him alive, out of bed, and covered with a tolerably
bright eruption.