The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 449 of 653there is nothing abnormal in the course of the disease, the bathsablutions which we have- recommended for measles, are sufficient;but if oedema has set in, these means are not sufficient, for thehas to be kept very active. In the case of little children .who oto being packed, we sometimes accomplish our purpose by placingthem every day in a warm bath of at least 92° F., leaving them ineach bath for 15 or 20 minutes, after which we have the littlepatients carefully dried and wrapt in a woollen blanket for halfhour. Most generally, however, the wet pack is indispensable ; ofcourse it ought not to be used to excess and after each pack thepatient ought to be rubbed down very thoroughly. In a few daysalready* perspiration begins to set in, when the patient may be582 Acute and Chronic Contagious Diseases.considered safe. Under this management we bave not yet had todeplore a single loss from post-scarlatinal dropsy.8. Tariola.SmcUl-Poz.It is with a certain timidity that we enter upon a discussion ofthis subject, because we are aware that our views in this respectdiiFer greatly from the views ordinarily entertained by physiciannevertheless space is wanting to enable us to substantiate our viby corresponding arguments. We shall have this privilege in duetime, in a more appropriate place.Small-pox is chiefly the result of infection. The contagium undoubtedly resides in the contents of the variolar-pustules, probaalso in the exhalations and in the secretions of the mucous membrane. Although it has been proven beyond a doubt that thecontents of the pustules retain their infectious principle for atime, provided it is kept from great heat and is not exposed to taction of atmospheric air, yet we cannot subscribe to the doctrinthat the exhalations adhering to the patient's clothing retain folong time the power of transmitting the disease ; hence we believin a spontaneous origin of variola as well as of scarlatina. Thecircumstance that small-pox at times only appears sporadically,and at other times breaks out epidemically, likewise speaks in faof our views. The contagium is not very volatile. It is simple inits nature, that is to say, the same in each of the three speciesthe small-pox disease, so that varicella may cause variola in oneand varioloid in another. Hence these distinctions do not resultfrom so many distinct contagia, but from the different susceptibiities of the infected individuals, as is likewise the case with mand scarlatina. For similar reasons we do not attribute the malignant character of one small-pox epidemic and the mild type ofanother to differences in the nature of the contagium, but to different degrees of susceptibility in the individuals, a«other circumstances of a general or local character, upon which tmalignant nature of the epidemic depends ; precisely aa we knowsimilar results to take place during epidemic scarlatina. There inot an individual living of whom we can positively assert that beis inaccessible to the small-pox contagium; it is true, however,at times the susceptibility seems to be considerably greater, andthat it is unquestionably most intense in childhood and up to thehttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt