The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 258 of 653play, especially if the formation of an abscess threatens. Not onof these remedies, however, is a guarantee of success, and we, thfore, again call attention to the use of compressed air. We havewitnessed most strikingly favorable results from the use of compressed air within the space of four weeks, results that wouldastonish any body who witnesses them. A similarly favorable effecis produced in chronic pneumonia by a sojourn on high mountains.In conclusion we have to devote a few words to diet for the purpose of scattering the prejudices which still prevail in referencthis subject both among physicians and laymen, although, not byany means to the same extent as formerly.Pneumonia being very generally regarded as the result of a cold,the fear of increasing this supposed cold is so great that at theoutset of the attack the windows are hermetically closed, and thepatients are not only covered warm, but are kept in an artificialtemperature of 65° to 75° Fahr. This shows to what erroneousmeasures a wrong and arbitrary hypothesis may lead, and howthese measures in their turn afford sustenance to the hypothesis.The absurd method of keeping the skin too warm, makes it sosensitive to the least exposure that every draught of air must neessarily cause aggravations in the patient's condition. "We cannowarn with sufiicient urgency against such management. Let thetemperature of the room be kept at an uniform point of 50° to 55°Fahr., rather less than more, and, if this degree of heat has toreached by keeping a fire in a stove, let a vessel with water bekept on the stove in order that the dryness of the heat may bemodified by the vapors ascending from the water. The patientshould, moreover, be lightly covered with woollen blankets. Thiscoarse will render the burning fever-heat more tolerable ; at anyrate, we enjoy the comforting assurance that the heat has not beeunnecessarily increased. A copious perspiration during the courseof pneumonia is never an agreeable circumstance. No lees censur802 Diseases of the Lungs.able is the dread that some people have of washing the skin for tpurpose of keeping it clean. Any one who, during an attack of fevhas enjoyed the luxury of a rapid cold ablution of the face, neckarms, will not hesitate to vouchsafe this blessing to a distressemonic patient. A main point is the quality of the air in a sick rNo physician, not even a reasonable layman, will want to administer spoiled food to a deranged stomach ; yet people have a dreaof conveying pure and fresh nourishment to the lungs. Opening awindow in the room where the pneumonic patient is confined, isregarded as a crime; yet it is absolutely necessary that fresh aishould be admitted to the sick room, for the air is vitiated notby the respiratory efforts of the patient and his attendants, butlikewise by the cutaneous exhalations and the odor of excrementitious matter. Why should these odors be less pernicious in pneumonia than they are now universally admitted to^ be in typhus ?The patient's own feelings may be taken as an evidence that freshair is indispensable, for a larger number of persons in the roomalways unpleasant to him and augment the difficulty of breathing,which can easily be accounted for upon physiological principles.While the inflammation lasts, the patient will scarcely ever wanthttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt