The Home Medical Library, Volume 2 (of 6)

Volume Ii

THE EYE AND EAR THE NOSE, THROAT AND LUNGS SKIN DISEASES TUMORS :: RHEUMATISM HEADACHE :: SEXUAL HYGIENE

By KENELM WINSLOW, B.A.S., M.D. (Harv.)

Formerly Assistant Professor Comparative Therapeutics, Harvard University; Late Surgeon to the Newton Hospital; Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, etc.

INSANITY

By ALBERT WARREN FERRIS, A.M., M.D.

Former Assistant in Neurology, Columbia University; former Chairman, Section on Neurology and Psychiatry, New York Academy of Medicine; Assistant in Medicine, University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College; Medical Editor, "New International Encyclopedia"

NEW YORK

The Review of Reviews Company

1907

Copyright, 1907, by

THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY

THE TROW PRESS, NEW YORK

Contents

PART I

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE EYE AND EAR 13

Foreign Bodies in the Eye--Black Eye--Twitching of the Eyelids--Wounds and Burns--Congestion-- Conjunctivitis--"Pink Eye"--Strain--Astigmatism-- Deafness--Foreign Bodies in the Ear--Earache--Simple Remedies.

II. THE NOSE AND THROAT 51

Nosebleed--Foreign Bodies in the Nose--Cold in the Head--Toothache--Mouth-Breathing--Sore Mouth-- Pharyngitis--How to Treat Tonsilitis--Quinsy-- Diphtheria--Croup--Laryngitis.

III. THE LUNGS AND BRONCHIAL TUBES 87

Acute and Chronic Bronchitis--Coughs in Children-- Liniments and Poultices--Cough Mixtures--Treatment of Pneumonia--Consumption--Asthma--Influenza, its Symptoms and Cure.

IV. HEADACHES 113

Causes of Sick Headache--Symptoms and Treatment-- Headaches Caused by Indigestion--Organic Disease a Frequent Source--Nervous and Neuralgic Headaches-- Effect of Poison--Heat-Stroke.

PART II

I. GROWTHS AND ENLARGEMENTS 123

Cancers--Fatty Tumors--Use of Patent Preparations Dangerous--Symptoms and Cure of Rupture--The Best Kind of Truss--Varicose Veins--Varicocele--External and Internal Piles--Operations the Most Certain Cure.

II. SKIN DISEASES AND RELATED DISORDERS 139

Itching, Chafing, and Chapping--Treatment of Hives--Nettlerash--Pimples--Fever Blisters--Prickly Heat--Cause of Ringworm--Freckles and Other Skin Discolorations--Ivy Poison--Warts and Corns-- Boils--Carbuncles.

III. RHEUMATISM AND KINDRED DISEASES 169

Inflammatory Rheumatism--Symptoms and Treatment-- Muscular Rheumatism--Lumbago--Stiff Neck--Rheumatism of the Chest--Chronic Rheumatism--Rheumatic Gout-- Scurvy in Adults and Infants--Gout, its Causes and Remedies.

PART III

I. HEALTH AND PURITY 191

Duties of Parents--Sexual Abuse--Dangers to Health--Physical Examination of Infants--Necessary Knowledge of Sex Functions Natural--The Critical Age of Puberty--Marriage Relations.

II. GENITO-URINARY DISEASES 199

Gonorrhea in Men and Women--Dangers of Infection-- Syphilis, its Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment-- Incontinence and Suppression of Urine--Bed-wetting-- Inflammation of the Bladder--Acute and Chronic Bright's Disease.

PART IV

I. INSANITY 229

Mental Disorder Not Insanity--Illusions of the Insane--Hallucinations and Delusions--Signs and Causes of Insanity--Paranoia--How the Physician Should Be Aided--The Best Preventive.

Appendix. PATENT MEDICINES 245

Advice Regarding the Use of Patent Medicines--Laws Regulating the Sale of Drugs--Proprietary Medicines--Good Remedies--Dangers of So-called "Cures"--Headache Powders--The Great American Fraud.

Part I. The Eye and Ear, the Nose

THE EYE AND EAR, THE NOSE AND THROAT, THE LUNGS AND BRONCHIAL TUBES, HEADACHES

KENELM WINSLOW

CHAPTER I

=The Eye and Ear=

Injuries to the Eye--Inflammatory Conditions--"Pink Eye"--Nearsightedness and Farsightedness--Deafness--Remedies for Earache.

=CINDERS AND OTHER FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EYE.=--Foreign bodies are most frequently lodged on the under surface of the upper lid, although the surface of the eyeball and the inner aspect of the lower lid should also be carefully inspected. A drop of a two-per-cent solution of cocaine will render painless the manipulations. The patient should be directed to continue looking downward, and the lashes and edge of the lid are grasped by the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, while a very small pencil is gently pressed against the upper part of the lid, and the lower part is lifted outward and upward against the pencil so that it is turned inside out. The lid may be kept in this position by a little pressure on the lashes, while the cinder, or whatever foreign body it may be, is removed by gently sweeping it off the mucous membrane with a fold of a soft, clean handkerchief.

Hot cinders and pieces of metal may become so deeply lodged in the surface of the eye that it is necessary to dig them out with a needle (which has been passed through a flame to kill the germs on it) after cocaine solution has been dropped into the eye twice at a minute interval. Such a procedure is, of course, appropriate for an oculist, but when it is impossible to secure medical aid for days it can be attempted without much fear, if done carefully, as more harm will result if the offending body is left in place. It is surprising to see what a hole in the surface of the eye will fill up in a few days. If the foreign body has caused a good deal of irritation before its removal, it is best to drop into the eye a solution of boric acid (ten grains to the ounce of water) four times daily.

"=BLACK EYE.="--To relieve this condition it is first necessary to reduce the swelling. This can be done by applying to the closed lids, every three minutes, little squares of white cotton or linen, four fold and about as large as a silver dollar, which have laid on a cake of ice until thoroughly cold. This treatment is most effective when pursued almost continuously for twenty-four hours. The cold compresses should not be permitted to overlap the nose, or a violent cold in the head may ensue. The swelling having subsided, the discoloration next occupies our attention. This may be removed speedily by applying, more or less constantly below the lower lid, little pieces of flannel dipped in water as hot as can be borne. The cloths must be changed as often as they cool. Repeat this treatment for a half hour every two hours or so during the day.

=STYE.=--A stye is a boil on the eyelid; it begins at the root of a hair as a hard swelling which may extend to the whole lid. The tip of the swelling takes on a yellowish color, breaks down and discharges "matter" or pus. There are pain and a feeling of tension in the lid, and, very rarely, some fever. When one stye follows another it is well to have the eyes examined by an oculist, as eye-strain is often an inviting cause of the trouble, and this can be corrected by the use of glasses. Otherwise the patient is probably "run down" from chronic constipation and anaemia (poverty of the blood) and other causes, and needs a change of air, tonics, and exercise out of doors. In a depreciated condition, rubbing the lids causes introduction of disease germs.

The immediate treatment, which may cut short the trouble, consists in bathing the eyelid for fifteen minutes at a time, every hour, with a hot solution of boric acid (half a teaspoonful to the cup of water). Then at night the swelling should be painted with collodion, several coats, being careful not to get it in the eye, as it would cause much smarting. If the stye persists in progressing, bathing it in hot water will cause it to discharge pus and terminate much sooner.

=TWITCHING OF THE EYELIDS.=--This condition may be due to eye-strain, and can be relieved if the eyes are fitted to glasses by an oculist (not an optician). It is frequently an accompaniment of inflammation of the eyes, and when this is cured the twitching of the lids disappears. When the eyes are otherwise normal the twitching is frequently one of the signs of nerve fag and overwork.

=WOUNDS AND BURNS ABOUT THE EYES.=--Slight wounds of the inner surface of the eyelids close readily without stitching if the boric-acid solution (ten grains to the ounce of water) is dropped into the eye four times daily. Burns of the inner surface of the lids follow the entrance of hot water, hot ashes, lime, acids, and molten metals. Burns produced by lime are treated by dropping a solution of vinegar (one part of vinegar to four of water) into the eye, while those caused by acids are relieved by similar treatment with limewater or solution of baking soda (half a teaspoonful to the glass of water). If these remedies are not at hand, the essential object is attained by washing the eye with a strong current of water, as from a hose or faucet. If there is much swelling of the lids, and inflammation after the accident, drop boric-acid solution into the eye four times daily. Treatment by cold compresses, as recommended for "black eye," will do much also to quiet the irritation, and the patient should wear dark glasses.

=SORE EYES; CONJUNCTIVITIS.=--The mucous membrane lining the inner surface of the eyelids also covers the front of the eyeball, although so transparent here that it is not apparent to the observer. Inflammation of this membrane is more commonly limited to that portion covering the inner surfaces of the lids, but may extend to the eyeball when the eye becomes "bloodshot" and the condition more serious. For the sake of convenience we may speak of a mild form of sore eye, as congestion of the eyelids, and the more severe type, as true conjunctivitis (see p. 18).

=CONGESTION OF THE EYELIDS.=--This may be caused by smoke or dust in the atmosphere, by other foreign bodies in the eye; frequently by eye-strain, due to far- or near-sightedness, astigmatism, or muscular weakness, which may be corrected by an oculist's (never an optician's) prescription for glasses. Exposure to an excessive glare of light, as in the case of firemen, or, on the other hand, reading constantly and often in a poor light, will induce irritation of the lids. The germs which cause "cold in the head" often find their way into the eyes through the tear ducts, which connect the inner corner of the eyes with the nose, and thus may set up similar trouble in the eyes.

Continue reading The Home Medical Library, Volume 2 (of 6) free in the Wunder reader →