A Treatise on the Theory and Management of Ulcers; With a Dissertation on White Swellings of the Joints. to Which Is Prefixed, an Essay on the Chirurgical Treatment of Inflammation and Its Consequences. by Benjamin Bell (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1789. Excerpt: ... serviceable to the patient; whereas in the other, viz. in the scrophulous, it is not probable that art will ever be able to afford much assistance. SECTION II. Of the Treatment of White Swellings i. Of the Effects of an Antiphlogistic Course in, the Rheumatic Species ef White Swelling. IN the rheumatic white swelling, as it is always at first evidently of an inflammatory nature, considerable advantages are commonly obtained by a due attention to a proper antiphlogistic course. The first remedy which, with this view, should be employed, is blopd-letting; but, instead of general evacuations from the arm or elsewhere, it proves always more effectual effectual to take the blood immediately from the part affected. Cupping and scarifying is here a principal remedy. The instrument mould be applied to each side of the diseased joint; on each side of the rotula, for instance, when the knee is the part affected; at least eight or ten ounces of blood should be discharged; and this should be repeated at proper intervals, once, twice, or oftener, according to the violence of the symptoms and state of the patient's strength at the time. In the ordinary way of discharging only an ounce or two of blood by this operation, it has in general, very little or no influence; but in the quantities mentioned, which, by those accustomed to the practice, are commonly easily obtained, it is most frequently attended with very considerable effects. It must here, be observed, that cupping is in these cases much superior to the application of leeches; which is not only a more tedious method of procuring the fame quantity of blood, but the swelling occasioned by the application of any considerable able number of them proves frequently very troublesome; and, what is often of worse ...