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Hydriatic Treatment Of Scarlet F
3 Treatment Of Torpid Forms Of Scarlatina Difference In The
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 calcu...
Ablutions And Rubbing With Iced Water Or Snow
In a few very obstinate cases, when no rash would appear after two or three long packs, I have succeeded by washing the patient with ice-water or snow, rubbing him dry with my bare hands, and then packing him in a dry blanket. After staying there fo...
Acetic Acid
Brown recommends diluted _Acetic Acid_ as a specific against all forms of scarlatina. Experience, however, has not supported his confidence in the infallibility of his remedy. ...
Action Of The Pack And Bath Rationale
The action of the wet-sheet pack is thus easily accounted for: According to a well-known physical law, any cold body, whether dead or alive, placed in close contact with a warm body, will abstract from the latter as much heat as necessary to equal...
Action Of The Sitz-bath Explained
The _sitz-bath_ acts in a direct manner upon the abdominal organs and the spine, and through the latter on the brain. Indirectly, it helps in removing the inflammatory and congestive symptoms in the throat and head, by cooling the blood, which circu...
Additional Rules For The Treatment Of Eruptive Diseases
In all these eruptive diseases, especially small-pox, all I have said, in speaking of scarlatina, about ventilation, air, diet, &c., ought to be duly observed. In small-pox, a constant renovation of the air is indispensable, as the morbid exhalation...
Affection Of The Brain
When the _brain_ is affected, the patient suddenly complains of violent headache, vomits repeatedly, loses his eye-sight, has furious delirium, or coma (a state of sleep from which it is difficult to rouse the patient); his pupils dilate; the pulse ...
Affection Of The Cerebellum And Spine
In affections of the _cerebellum_ and _spinal marrow_, the patient complains of violent pain in the back of the head and neck, in the spine, and frequently in the whole body. These also frequently terminate with the destruction of life. During ...
Before Perspiration Comes On There Is A Little More Excitement For
a few minutes (41), which must not induce the friends of the patient to take him out of the pack; only when it continues to increase, instead of the perspiration breaking out and relieving the patient, it will be necessary to change the sheet, another...
Belladonna
The remedy which has attracted and still attracts in a very high degree the attention of physicians and parents, is _Belladonna_. This remedy was first introduced as a specific and prophylactic by Hahnemann, and soon recommended not only by his own ...
Cases
During an epidemic of scarlatina in 1836 two of my children were attacked by the disease, a boy of about eight, and another of five years, the younger one two days after the older one. I ordered them to be packed, and all seemed to go well, when, du...
Caution
After the bath, the patient is rubbed dry, and either taken to his bed, or, if he feels well enough, dressed and induced to walk about the room, or placed in a snug corner (not near the fire, however), till he feels tired and wishes to go to bed. Du...
Chloride Of Lime
About the same opinion may be given on _Chloride of Lime_. As a gargle, and taken internally, the aqua-chlorina has done good service in malignant scarlatina, especially in putrid cases. ...
Cold Affusions And Rubbing
After the pack, the patient is placed in an empty bathing or wash-tub, and cold water (of 65 deg.-60 deg. Fahr., only with very young and delicate children a little higher, with adults rather lower) is thrown over him in quick succession by means of...
Conclusion: Help Yourselves If Your Physicians Will Not Help You!
And I am none of your water-enthusiasts, who pretend to cure everything and any thing with water. My confidence in the hydriatic treatment of eruptive fevers, however, is almost unlimited, because it is founded on an experience of many years of happ...
Conclusive Remarks Obstacles
Before concluding my article, I shall attempt to remove a few objections and obstacles, which are usually raised against the practice of the hydriatic system in families. ...
Condition Of The Throat And Other Internal Organs
The condition of the _throat_ requires the most constant attention. From a highly inflamed state, it often passes into a foul and sloughy condition; the breath of the patient becomes extremely fetid; the nostrils, the parotid and submaxillary glands...
Continuation Of Packs Convalescence
Whether the eruption appear or not, the packs should be continued during the whole course of the disorder, and as long as the throat continues troublesome; and one pack and bath a day should be given during some ten or twelve days, after every sympt...
Destruction Of The Organ Of Hearing
When the glands pass into a sloughing state, the parts connected with them are frequently damaged. Thus the ulceration of the parotid gland often causes deafness, by the gangrenous matter communicating to the eustachian tube and the inner ear, where...
Diagnosis
After what has been said about the symptoms of scarlatina, it cannot be difficult to distinguish it from similar eruptive diseases. However, as there is much resemblance between _scarlatina_ and _measles_, at least in the milder form of the former, ...
Diagnosis From Measles
In scarlatina the heat is much greater, and the pulse is much quicker than in measles.--In scarlatina the throat is inflamed, usually the brain affected, and the patient smells like salt-fish, old cheese or the cages of a menagerie; in measles, the ...
Diet
I have little to say with regard to _diet_, at least to physicians. During great heat and high fever, the patient should eat little or nothing; but he should drink a good deal. Substantial food must be avoided entirely. When the fever abates, he can...
Division Of The Process Of The Disease Into Periods
Its course is commonly divided into four distinct periods, viz.: the period of incubation, the period of eruption, the period of efflorescence, and the period of desquamation; to which may be added: the period of convalescence. ...
Dripping Sheet Substitute For The Half-bath
To apply the _dripping sheet_, a tin bathing hat or a large wash-tub is placed near the patient's bed, and a pail of water on the brim of the hat, or close by the tub. Dip a linen sheet into it, and leave it there till you wish to take the patient o...
During And After Desquamation The Treatment Should Be Continued As
indicated in milder cases, except the throat continue troublesome, when more packs should be used. If the throat is well, the patient may leave his room by the sixteenth day, under the precautions given above. ...
Erysipelas
_Erysipelas_ being commonly the reflexion of an internal disease with a peculiar tendency towards the skin, should not be treated locally alone, but with due regard for the original disease. If possible, the patient should perspire freely in long pa...
Erythema
_Erythema_ may be considered an exceedingly mild form of erysipelas, and yields to gentle treatment, as it is given in measles. ...
Facts
In 1845-46 there was an epidemic in Dresden, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, where I then resided. Its ravages in the city and the densely peopled country around it, were dreadful. We had excellent physicians of different schools, who exerted themsel...
Favorable Symptoms
are the following: Absence of internal inflammation; a bright florid rash; a regular, steady appearance, standing out, and disappearance of the latter; a regular and complete pealing off of the cuticle; a decrease of the pulse after the eruption of ...
Frictions With Lard
were used already by Caelius Aurelianus, and recently re-introduced into practice, by Drs. Daene and Schneemann, in Germany, and by Dr. Lindsley, in America. Even hydriatic physicians have tried them with some success. However, notwithstanding the s...
Highly Inflamed Throat Croup
If the _throat_ is in a highly inflamed condition, repeated packing is the surest means of allaying the inflammation and preventing _croup_. Although I have had very bad cases under my hands, I never saw a case of scarlet-croup under water-treatment...
Ice-water And Snow-bath In Malignant Cases
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 (mali...
Illustrations
I shall give a couple of illustrations: In the winter of 1845-46, during an epidemic, which ravaged the city of Dresden and the neighboring villages, I was called to see a child, belonging to a tradesman, blessed with a large family, but without ...
Impossibility Of Answering For The Issue Of Every Typhoid Case
Although a _typhoid character_ of scarlatina will rarely set in, when the patient has been subject to the packs from the beginning of the disease, there will be cases when water-treatment can neither prevent such an event or even save the life of th...
In Excessive Heat And Continuous Delirium A Half-bath May Be Given
also, every time the packing sheet is changed. The rule is that _we_ ought not to yield, but the _symptoms must_; and they will, if the treatment is persevered in. Only go at it with courage and confidence. There is nothing to be apprehended from the ...
Length Of Bath
Although the temperature, in sthenic cases, should be a little lower than in erethic cases, it is not advisable to use the water very cold, as this would cause too strong a reaction, and consequently new excitement. The safer way is to let the tempe...
Length Of Pack
Usually it is time for the patient to come out from his pack, when the pulse becomes fuller and stronger, the face begins to flush and the head to be affected. Frequently he sleeps till awakened by the increasing heat. A drink of cold water will qui...
Length Of Pack Perspiration
To make quite sure of the reaction, the single sheet may be tried first, except in exceedingly violent cases, and the double sheet may be resorted to, if the single sheet prove inefficient. Or, should there be any doubt, the double sheet may be dipp...
Measles
_Measles_, which may be easily distinguished from scarlatina, by the symptoms I have given under 29, are to be treated like the mildest forms of scarlet-fever, and, in most cases, require no treatment at all. Nervous affections are treated like thos...
Mild Reaction Erethic
If the poison is not virulent, and the body of the patient in a favorable condition, the _reaction_ is _mild_, and the poison is eliminated without any violent efforts on the part of the organism. This is the case in scarlatina simplex, and in mild ...
Mineral Acids In Case Of Severe Sore-throat
In case the throat be very troublesome, there cannot be any objection to using the mineral acid, as I have indicated above (35), except homoeopathic remedies should be thought preferable and found to afford sufficient relief. Some good may, and no h...
Mineral Acids Muriatic Acid Prescriptions
have also been used with good effect in some epidemics. _Muriatic acid_ I have frequently used myself for inflammation of the throat, in connection with hydriatic treatment, and it has almost always contributed to relieve the symptoms materially. ...
More Facts!
I have been treating several hundred cases of eruptive fevers during twenty-one years, and except the one mentioned above (111.) never lost a patient. I have known similar results, in the practice of other hydriatic physicians who employed a similar...
Necessity Of Allaying The Heat
The packs and baths should be continued, even when the patient cannot be prevailed upon to stay long enough in the packs to perspire. The heat of the skin and the general inflammatory condition of the whole organism _must_ be allayed, especially, wh...
Necessity Of Ventilation Means Of Heating The Sick-room Relative Merits Of Open Fires Stoves And Furnaces
Next to its intrinsic value, our method gives the patient the great advantage of enjoying _pure fresh air_, either in or out of bed, as it keeps the skin and the whole system in such order as to resist the effects of atmospheric influences better th...
No Cutting Short Of The Process Of Scarlatina The Morbid Poison Must Be Drawn To The Skin As Soon As Possible
Scarlet-fever is a disease, which cannot be cut short. Any attempt to stop the process of incubation, after the contagion has once been received within the body, or to prevent its being thrown out upon the surface, would destroy the patient's life: ...
Other Bad Symptoms
These symptoms may present themselves with the rash standing out; but most frequently they occur when there is little or no eruption, or when it fades, becomes livid, or disappears altogether. A sudden disappearance of the rash, before the sixth day...
Other Sequels Dropsy &c
Beside the ulceration of glands and deafness, some of the sequels of scarlatina are white swelling of one or more of the joints, usually the knee, chronic inflammation of the eyes and eyelids, and partial paralysis. These chiefly occur in scrofulous...
Period Of Desquamation Or Peeling-off
About the sixth or seventh day, the epidermis, or cuticle of the skin begins to peal off, commencing in those places which first became the seat of the rash, and gradually continuing all over the body. In such parts as are covered with a thin delica...
Period Of Efflorescence Or Standing Out Of The Rash
During the first day or two of the period of efflorescence, which lasts three or four days, the above symptoms usually continue to increase. Sometimes, however, the patient is alleviated at once on the rash being formed. This alleviation always take...
Period Of Eruption Or Appearing Of The Rash
Commonly, on the second day, towards evening, sometimes on the third, and only in very bad cases later, the rash begins to make its appearance, under an increase of the above symptoms, especially of the fever and delirium, and continues to come out ...
Period Of Incubation Or Hatching
The time which passes between the reception of the contagious poison into the system and the appearance of the rash, is called the period of incubation; incubation or incubus meaning, properly, the sitting of birds on their nests, and figuratively, ...
Prejudice Of Physicians Against The Water-cure
The greatest, and the most serious, difficulty lies in the prejudice of physicians against the Water-Cure. This prejudice, although in the treatment of the diseases before us, it is founded on no other reasons but ignorance, lack of courage and the ...
Priessnitz's Method The Wet-sheet-pack
a remedy which, alone, is worth the whole antiphlogistic, diaphoretic, and, indeed, the whole curative apparatus of the profession, in ancient and modern times, for any kind of fevers, and especially for eruptive diseases. Nor did the physicians bef...
Putrid Symptoms
Next to those most dangerous forms--most dangerous, because the organic power (the _vis medicatrix naturae_), from which the restoration of health must be expected, and without which no physician can remove the slightest symptom of disease, becomes ...
Putrid Symptoms Gargle Solution Of Chloride Of Soda Drink: Chlorate Of Potass Liquor Calcii-chloridi
Should _putrid symptoms_ make their appearance (21), I would strongly advise the acid in full and repeated doses, as well as the frequent repetition of the packs. In putrid cases, not only the syrup, but also the gargle will do good service. Garglin...
Rebellion!
_This is preaching rebellion!_ I know it is, and it is with great reluctance that I preach it, as I am by no means in favor of taking medical matters out of the hands where they belong, to place them into the hands of such as have had no medical ...
Relaxation Of Treatment Towards The End Of The Third Period Continuation Of Packs During And After Desquamation
When the patient is through the first part of the period of efflorescence the symptoms decrease, and he will be easier. Under the treatment prescribed, the time when the excitement is highest, is much abridged, and usually the treatment can be relax...
Rubbing Sheet Substitute For The Half-bath
It cannot be difficult to procure a wash-tub. Should you be so situated, however, as not to be able to procure even this, you will be compelled to make shift with a _rubbing sheet_. For that purpose, a sheet and a pail of water are all you need. The...
Rules For The Application Of Water In Typhoid Cases
As a general rule, in typhoid cases, bathing should form one of the principal features of the treatment; i. e. the patient should have more baths than packs in proportion to the treatment of other cases. The temperature of the baths should be in...
Scarlatina Anginosa Or Sore-throat Scarlet-fever
Wherever the _throat_ is affected, which is almost always the case, the disease is called _scarlatina anginosa_, or _sore-throat scarlet-fever_. This is the form described at the commencement of this article. There are several varieties, however, of...
Scarlatina Miliaris
Sometimes the red patches of the rash are covered with small vesicles of the size of mustard-seed, which either dry up or discharge a watery liquid, leaving thin white scurfs, that come away with the cuticle during desquamation. Although this form, ...
Scarlatina Simplex Or Simple Scarlet-fever
In the _mildest form_ of the disease, called _scarlatina simplex_, or _simple scarlet-fever_, there is no inflammation of the throat, the fever is moderate, and the patient suffers very little. Unfortunately this form is so rare, that many experienc...
Scarlatina Sine Exanthemate
There are also mild cases of scarlet-fever, when little or no rash appears, and the throat is very little affected. These are the result of a particularly mild character of the epidemy, together with a peculiar condition of the skin, the desquamatio...
Scarlet-fever Or Scarlatina
is an eruptive fever, produced by a peculiar contagious poison, and distinguished by extreme heat, a rapid pulse, a severe affection of the mucous membranes, especially those of the mouth and throat, and by a burning scarlet eruption on the skin. ...
Sitz-bath Anchor Of Safety
If there be much delirium, the sitz-bath may be required longer, and the pack shorter, as indicated above (81). In all such cases the packs and sitz-baths, alternately, ought to be continued, till the nervous symptoms disappear altogether, and shoul...
Small-pox
_Small-pox_, by far the most dangerous of them, has found a barrier in its destructive progress in Dr. Jenner's discovery. Vaccination is an almost sure prophylactic against it; but, notwithstanding, many, with whom the preservative was neglected or...
Sudden Invasion Of The Nervous Centres
Of the different forms of scarlatina maligna the most dangerous is the sudden invasion of the nervous system, particularly the _brain_, the _cerebellum_ and the _spine_, by which the patient's life is sometimes extinguished in a few hours. In other ...
Technicalities Of The Pack And Bath
Let me give you its technicalities, and the rationale of its action: A linen sheet, (linen is a better conductor than cotton,) large enough to wrap the whole person of the patient in it (not too large, however; if there is no sheet of proper size,...
Temperature Of The Sick-room
The _temperature of the sick-room_ should not be much above 65 deg. Fahrenheit; in no case should it rise above 70, whilst I do not see the necessity of keeping it below 60, as some hydriatic physicians advise. The patient, in the heat of fever, wil...
Temperature Of The Water Double Sheet Changing Sheet
The water for the wet-sheet pack, in this violent form, ought to be cold; in summer it should be iced down to 46-48 deg. Fahr. The sheet ought to be coarse or doubled, in order that it should retain more water, and it should not be wrung out very ti...
The Ammonium Carbonicum
recommended by Peart, has been considered by many as a specific capable of neutralizing the scarlatinous poison, whilst others have used it only as a powerful tonic in torpid cases. Experience has shown that it is not a specific, and that its use as...
The Anti-gastric Method
consisting in the free use of emetics or purgatives, has been recommended by some eminent practitioners. Withering, Tissot, Kennedy and others are in favor of the former, and find fault with the latter, whilst Hamilton, Willard, Abernethy, Gregory, ...
The Contagion Of Scarlatina Very Active
The _contagion_ of scarlatina is very active, and adheres for a long time to the sick-room, bedding, clothes and furniture. The best means to destroy it, is plenty of air. It is difficult to say when the contagion is over, as much depends on the sea...
The Expletive Method Blood-letting
has been advocated by some of the best authorities, and there cannot be a doubt but that it must have rendered good service in cases of violent reaction, or else men like de Haen, Wendt, Willan, Morton, Alcock, Dewees, Dawson, Dewar, Hammond, &c., w...
The Half-bath The Sitz- Or Hip-bath
Should the half-bath or shallow-bath (which are technical terms for the bath described above), not be sufficient to relieve the head, the patient must be placed in a _sitz-_ or _hip-bath_ of 65 deg. to 70 deg. and stay there, with his body covered b...
The Malignant Forms Of Scarlet-fever
are caused by the character of the epidemy, but, perhaps, more frequently by the weak and sickly constitution of the patient and the external circumstances affecting it. Thus, persons of scrofulous habit, being naturally of a low organization, witho...
The Period Of Convalescence
under the usual drug-treatment, is, however, usually protracted to twice or thrice the duration of the disease, the patient being compelled to keep the house for five or six weeks, especially from fear of _anasarca_, or dropsy of the skin, frequentl...
The Prognosis
under a well conducted course of hydriatic treatment is, in general, favorable. Much depends, however, on the season of the year (in damp and cold weather--partly owing to a lack of pure air in the sick-room--the disease is more dangerous than in su...
The Sitz-bath May Be Taken In A Small Wash-tub If There Is No
proper sitz-bath-tub at hand. It should be large enough to allow the water to come up to the navel of the patient, and to permit rubbing. Too large a tub would not allow the patient to sit in it comfortably. If there is no tub to fit, a common bathing...
The Temperature Of The Room However Should Be A Few Degrees
higher than in scarlatina, as none of these other eruptive diseases shows the same degree of fever and heat. This is particularly advisable in the treatment of measles, when exposure is very apt to cause the rash to disappear, an occurrence which is d...
The Throat Should Be Covered With A Wet Compress I E A Piece Of
linen four to eightfold, according to its original thickness, dipped in cold water (60 deg.-50 deg.), well wrung out and changed as often as it grows hot. It should be well covered to exclude the air. This compress should be large enough to cover the ...
The Wet Compress
In bed, a wet compress is put on the throat, and another on the stomach, which, beside the direct influence it has on that organ, acts as a derivative upon the throat and head, and as a diaphoretic upon the skin, assisting in allaying the fever and ...
There Is Neither A Specific Nor A Prophylactic To Be Relied On
All these different methods and remedies, and many others, have been and are still used with more or less effect. But where there are three physicians to recommend one of them, there will always be four to contradict them. They may all do some good ...
Torpid Reaction Asthenic
The more violent the contagious poison, and the weaker the organic power, the less decidedly and the less successfully will the organism combat against the poison, and the more inroad will the latter make upon the system, affecting vital organs and ...
Towards The End Of The Period Of Efflorescence When The Rash
declines, fades, disappears, and the skin begins to peal off, an ablution in the morning of cool water, with which some vinegar _may_ be mixed, and a pack and bath in the afternoon, are quite sufficient, except the throat continue troublesome, when a ...
Treatment Of Affections Of The Nervous Centres
In affections of the nervous centres, the _brain_, the _cerebellum_, and the _spine_ (see 17-19), the danger which threatens the patient's life is principally averted by the sitz-bath. The nervous system needs support, and the circulation must be re...
Treatment Of Other Eruptive Fevers
The treatment as prescribed for scarlatina in this pamphlet, is applicable also for other eruptive fevers, such as small-pox, varioloids, chicken-pocks, measles, miliaria, urticaria, zoster, rubeola, erysipelas, erythema, &c., its principal feature ...
Treatment Of Scarlatina Anginosa Or Sore-throat Scarlet-fever
In _scarlatina anginosa_, or _sore-throat scarlet-fever_, which is the most common form of the disease (1-7) we have to discriminate, whether 1) the _reaction is mild_, the heat of the body not being much above 100 deg. Fahr. and the pulse full, b...
Treatment Of Scarlatina Simplex Or Simple Scarlet-fever
_Scarlatina simplex_, or _simple scarlet-fever_ (9), without inflammation of the throat, is generally so mild in its course, that it requires little or no treatment. However, I would not have parents look upon it as "scarcely a disease," as neglect ...
Treatment Of The Mild Or Erethic Form Of Scarlatina Anginosa
The _mild_ or _erethic form_ of scarlatina anginosa requires about the same treatment as scarlatina simplex. I would, however, for the sake of safety, advise a pack and bath per day, through the whole course of the disease, in the afternoon, when th...
Treatment Of The Violent Or Sthenic Form Of Scarlatina Anginosa
The _violent_, or _sthenic form_ of scarlatina anginosa becomes dangerous only through the excess of reaction, when the heat is extreme (upwards of 105 deg. Fahrenheit, sometimes 112 to 114), the pulse can scarcely be counted, as it hammers away ful...
Unfavorable Symptoms
are: A fetid breath, with ulceration and sloughing of the throat and glands; a smarting and weakening diarrhoea; involuntary evacuations of the bowels; dizziness, deafness, coma, grinding of the teeth; retention of urine; petechiae; a rapid decline ...
Urticaria Zoster Rubeola
_Urticaria_, _Zoster_ and _Rubeola_, are treated in the same manner as measles: the main feature, however, is the pack. ...
Varieties Of Forms Of Scarlatina
The above is the description of scarlet-fever, as it most frequently occurs. But far from taking always that regular course, the constitution of the patient, the intensity of the epidemy and the virulence of the poison, the treatment and other circu...
Varioloids And Chicken-pocks
_Varioloids_ and _Chicken-pocks_, are treated in the same manner, but require less treatment. If well attended to, neither _small-pox_, nor _varioloids_ or _chicken-pocks_, will leave any marks. ...
Ventilation All-important
If the circulation of air is necessary in any other form of scarlet-fever, it is all-important in torpid reaction, especially when it inclines to a typhoid type. We should never forget that it is the oxygen of the air that nourishes the process of c...
Violent Reaction Sthenic
If both, the contagious poison and the organism, are very strong, a _violent reaction_ will take place, and the safety of the patient will be endangered by the very violence of the struggle, by which internal organs may be more or less affected. ...
Want Of Water
One of the obstacles is the _want of a sufficient quantity of water_ in some houses, and the difficulty of procuring it. This obstacle is easily removed. If you cannot procure water enough for a half-bath--for there cannot be a difficulty in pr...
Water-drinking
As the patient should have a constant supply of pure air for his lungs, so he should also have _plenty of pure cold water_ for his stomach, to allay his thirst and assist in diminishing the heat of fever, and in eliminating the morbid poison from hi...