When there is a wound and much bleeding, see Section on “Wounds.”
When the patient has been placed on a firm bed or mattress, and the injured part examined, the surgeon will bring the broken ends of the bone into close apposition, and in their natural form, and having done this, maintain them so, and at rest, till firm union has taken place. To maintain the proper shape and length of the limb, bandages, splints, and other apparatus are required. Little can be done, however, beyond a merely temporary arrangement, until the surgeon arrives, as these cases can only be properly treated by a professional man.
244. Exhaustion of the Muscles Fatigue Over-Exertion.
DEFINITION- A condition of the muscular system induced by an undue drain on its strength.
TREATMENT- If the feet be swollen or blistered, or the ankles ache after walking, a warm foot-bath may be used, to which a teaspoonful of the strong tincture of Arnica has been added; the relief afforded is often immediate and permanent. If the hands or wrists ache from excessive or unaccustomed exertion, they may be bathed in about a pint of water, to which twenty or thirty drops of Arnica have been added. If necessary, in one or two hours the application may be repeated. In muscular fatigue from long- continued or severe exertion, affecting the hips, thighs, etc., a hip-bath, to which a drachm of the strong tincture of Arnica has been added, is an excellent remedy. The patient should remain in the bath about five minutes. Whatever kind of bath is used, and to whatever part applied, it should be warm if used in the evening or soon after exertion, but cold or tepid in the morning.
Arnica should be administered whenever there is muscular fatigue, from whatever cause. Its power to aid the restoration of exhausted muscle is truly wonderful.
ACCESSORY MEASURES- When suffering from fatigue a light repast only should be taken; a full heavy meal might occasion serious embarrassment to the digestive organs, as they equally suffer from the general weariness.
245. Poisons.
When it is known that a deleterious substance has been swallowed, as Arsenic, and other mineral poisons, Opium, poisonous fish, alcohol, etc. vomiting should be immediately excited, by tickling the back of the throat with a feather or the finger; or if this fail, by the administration of an emetic.
EMETIC- The following is a convenient emetic: for a child, a teaspoonful of mustard in a teacupful of warm water; for an adult a dessertspoonful in a breakfast cupful of water. This may be repeated as often as necessary, and followed by copious draughts of warm water, so as to empty the stomach as completely as possible. But if Arsenic, or Tartar Emetic, be the poison, no warm fluids should be used, as they tend to increase the activity of the drug.
The treatment of cases of poisoning must be considerably modified according to the nature of the poison, and a medical man should be summoned immediately, while the temporary measures just suggested may be resorted to until he arrives.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."