OCR Text |
Show 'i'cmpr‘miwr offlze body. paces distant, plunges in up to his shoulders, re- way, the patient on the 22d was thrown into a cold bath, and kept there for an from and a. ho! , the bladder still on his head-he had actually ‘3 11‘. mains for a quarter of an hour, and then escapes across the fields. Here M. Goirand met him, when he attempted to fly, but in a moment dropped down like a corpse-conveyed home (during which the bowels were much purged) icy-cold, and without any sign of life but resPiration barely sensible. Jaw fast locked-hot things applied externallyugradual recovery-next day, tranqttil~pnlse pretty good-slight delirium in the night-progressive amendment. In the numerous relations of this kind one cannot help being struck by the propensity of the sick to -‘. l1 gr, . i ,‘.‘..‘~ l initial an ,. . 'l~7" ' plunge into water. Art has already availed itself in some rare instances of these lessons from accident. A stout Dutch sea captain, in travelling from Holland to hiarscilles, drankinnnoderately ofwine and spirits. Nov. 4, 1761, had burning heat, violent headache, unextinguishable thirst, strong throbbing eta broken the chill of the water, and afterwards shin vered in bed for half an hour, then grew warm, fell asleep, which he had not done for eightdays-- his sleep lasted thirteen hours, with profuse sweating-he took broth, slept again for ten hours, sweating still more profusely, and awoke free from pain, delirium, or convulsion, in ten days he took the command of his vessel, {Vandermonde xiv.) Treatment like this recedes as far from our prevailing practices, as the drawing of fifty ounces of blood and upwards at one time. But the case recedes, perhaps, as far from our habitual experience. We have accumulated evidence of the good effects of cold immersion for a quarter of an hour, or twice as long, late in fever. An accidental instance occurred to myself. Nor is any one bound to keep a patient at the temples, pulse like a cord, convuls ions, in cold water, if he put him into it, till he is hiccup, bilious vomiting. 18th, convuls ions, r6quiring {our sailors to hold him in bed-pulse likely to shiver for half an hour on coming out. The facts altogether shew that in the strongly very tense: he howled aloud but amid his de- irritated state of fever, we may make very free lirium answered rationally, complaining of sharp pain in the centre of his head. Dr. Debaux, now called in, ordered bleeding from thejugular to ll;iss., eig- ht elysters of cold water in 51in cession, and a bladder with cold water to his with cold. heath-Some relief, but the symptoms not giving way The two French cases are the more encouraging to a circumspect adoption of the principle, inasmuch as the effect was carried too far with ultimate impunity. I would, however, guard against untoward consequences by enuveloping the extremities in flannel, ftcling the pulse and taking the heat of the body, ‘ 'Ihe |