A SIMPLE OPERATION FOR THE RADICAL TREATMENT OF HEMORRHOIDS
J. RAWSON PENNINGTON
1901
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
thenics, and should be carefully considered. Milk and eggs, where they are digested, will be found of special value. If milk does not agree with the patient, uusually mixtures of cream and water, or cream, water and milk, will be easily digested. As a rule, neurasthenics take too little water, so that they should be directed to take a glass of water at certain hours in the day; this will tend to relieve constipation. It is a singular thing that most neurasthenics have no proper sense of thirst.
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... Drugs, as a rule, are of little value in the treatment of neurasthenia. The judicious administration of strychnia is of some value. The patient feels the stimulating effect of the treatment, which produces a sense of well-being, and this produces a favorable mental state, so that its liberal administration in the first few weeks of the treatment is often useful. If it is given, it should be employed in large doses; a twentieth, or fifteenth, or even a twelfth of a grain is well borne by many of these patients. A few of them, however, can not take strychnia at all. Cannabis indica is a drug which is also of some value in producing a sense of comfort and wellbeing in the patient. It should not be continued for any length of time, and it, like strychnia, is probably dependent for its good action upon the effect which it has upon the mind of the patient. In cases of extreme agitation and failure to sleep, a few large doses of the bromids may be useful at the outset of the treatment. Hydrotherapy in some form is exceedingly valuable, the most important being the application of a sheet wrung out of cold water each morning as the patient gets out of bed. If this is done promptly, and the patient vigorously rubbed after the application, producing a quick reaction, the benefit is very marked. In two of my patients, during the past winter, I have had them exposed to an outdoor temperature for several hours at a time, following, in this, somewhat the plan that is now employed in the outdoor treatment of tuberculosis. In one case this was a modification introduced in the course of an ordinary rest cure, and I was astonished at the beneficial results. There was an immediate improvement in the appetite, the patient slept better, and the general effect on the nutrition was very pronounced. This exposure to cold was brought about by raising the windows, turning all the heat off in the room and carefully protecting the patient by heavy blankets and hot water bags in the bed. Another patient spent most of her time in the house and was under a modified rest cure. This patient was put on an open veranda, carefully protected from the weather. On several days the thermometer registered near the zero mark. The colder the days the greater was the benefit. This innovation in the ordinary rest cure treatment I believe to be of great value, but, of course, it is only applicable during the winter season. Treatment of Sinusitis by Hydrotherapy.-Zangger states in a communication to the Corr. Matt, of August 15, that acute catarrh of the frontal sinus, rebellious to medicinal measures, has been invariably relieved and cured in his experience by an energetic sweat bath. The profuse perspiration induced is followed by increased absorption on the part of the tissues and the catarrhal condition in the sinus is improved. He thinks that the same measure might be applicable in case of suppuration, and would apply it before resorting to surgical intervention. The sweat bath is repeated every other day for two to five times, as indicated by the symptoms. He has also obtained excellent results from it in pleuritis and tubercular adenitis.
doi:10.1001/jama.1901.62470510014001d
fatcat:qzw7h3j7y5e4fhcxzmxxxadwuq