We would recommend Dr. GRANVILLE'S Catechism of Health, as containing
an immense quantity of useful information, in a compact form, and conveyed in a popular manner. By way of question and answer, he has discussed all those problems which occur in the general consideration of the great subject of the pre- servation of health and the duration of life. It would be difficult
to say which of the great points in Hygieia he has not very satis-
factorily touched upon ' • and as it is now deemed that any treatise of health which omits Cholera is like omitting Hamlet in his own
tragedy, there are several sections of the book dedicated to that subject. As the views of the Doctor respecting its treatment are somewhat peculiar, and appear rational, it may be well worth while to quote a passage which contains the marrow of his opi- nions.
" Q. Now, setting aside altogether this view Of the disease, what is the treatment which your reading and experience have suggested to you, as the most effectual and likely to be successful ? " A. I shall limit my answer to that question, to the suggestion of such measures as may and ought to be quickly adopted by the patient himself
or his friends before a medical man can be procured. To do more, in a work of this kind, would lead to error. I premise my suggestion by stating that I place not the slightest faith in your Cajeput oil, camphor, oil of peppermint, or cinnamon—your pure stimulants, and all the cho- lera drugs which the late Board of Health have spddenly raised into no- toriety by their recommendation, and through notoriety into a high price, which has proved the means of making the fortunes of some score of druggists. That which I recommend is simple, cheap, and I trust will be found intelligible as well as easy of execution. On its being ascer- tained, from the symptoms detailed in this work, that an individual has been attacked by cholera, let a wine-glassful of hot water, with twenty of the stimulating alkaline drops' of which I have left the prescrip- tion with a highly respectable chemist in London, and thirty drops of laudanum, be given. This is to be repeated every twenty minutes, until some relief or the cessation of vomiting takes place. In the inter- vals, if great thirst exist, and prostration of strength, with very cold skin and clamminess, large draughts of water, as warm as can be swal- lowed, with one-fifth part of brandy, should be drunk. This will be found to quench thirst sooner than cold water, and will assist materially in producing a warm perspiration. But as the latter is the next impor- tant object to be obtained, and should be secured to the patient without any loss of time, reliance must not be placed alone on the hot brandy and water drunk, nor on the 'stimulating alkaline drops' taken along with it ; although they are also a powerful sudorific, at the same time that they safely stimulate the system, and neutralize any acid present in the stomach, with a rapidity scarcely to be believed by those who have not witnessed its effects. Other means must therefore be adopted to produce perspiration at all events, and that quickly too; and as in the choice of these we are much limited by the necessity of keeping the patient quist in the horizontal position, our endeavours should be directed to the ap- plication of heat with a little moisture to the body. For this purpose, I recommend a couple of bushels of bran, boiled rapidly in very little wa- ter, in a copper or large saucepan or earthen vessel, over a brisk fire, drained through a flannel, and very thickly scattered all over the chest and belly of the patient, sides and all. This is to be retained in its place by bringing the two sides of a blanket, on which I suppose the patient to be lying, over the belly, and fastening them tight in that position. This process will produce, in a very few minutes, the inost copious and warm perspiration. The refuse grains of malt or oats, similarly boiled, will answer the same purpose where bran is not at hand. I have no faith in the portable vapour-baths, the steam of water thrown up under the bed- clothes, or the lighting of a spirit-lamp, placed similarly, which have been recommended. I have often and long ago tried all these means, in cases of puerperal fever and acute rheumatism, and in one remarkable in- stance of the latter disease, in my own case, but found them totally ina- dequate to the object in view, and many of them quite inefficient. Let not the public, therefore, be misled on this point. As for sand-bags and bags of salt, as mentioned in the circular of the former Board, they are perfectly inactive, besides being troublesome, because of the great number that is required of them and the time lost in preparing them. "Q. It is well you mention these facts, else some severe disappoint- ments might ensue when the disorder is amongst us. Happily, your mode of fomenting and producing perspiration is much handier than any vapour-baths, and must be more comfortable to the patient. Is there any other step which ought to be taken at this important conjuncture ? " A. Yes. While the warm applications are proceeding and the in- ternal medicines given, a degree of revulsion should be produced by ra- pidly promoted counter-irritation on the skin. This will be found to give impetus to the circulation, and thereby to ease the tumult existing in the centre of the body. The counter-irritation should be applied to the thighs and to the upper part, not to the soles, as recommended, of the feet. There are a great many counter-irritants, or agents, which produce
irritation on the surface of the body, that have been recommended In this disease (for the principle is generally adopted by all of us) ; but some are objectionable, and most of them too slow in their operation; and here we have no time to lose. A common blister is too slow ; a mustard poultice, besides being slow, is inefficient. Tartarized antimony oint- ment is out of the question. Nitric acid, and even a liniment with vi- triolic acid, have been recommended and employed ; but these char the skin, and form eschars, which are, so far, a check, rather than an encou- ragement, to rapid counter-irritation. Some practitioners, fully aware of the great importance of raising a blister on the surface of the body quickly, have actually poured boiling water on the belly in the treatment of cho- lera; but this is a cruel method and liable to much consequent mischief. As to camphor and turpentine liniments, we might as well amuse our- selves in blowing cold air on the limbs of the patient. The effect to be produced must be rapid, permanent, available, and general in its infla-
ence on the constitution. I have been fortunate enough to devise an embrocation or lotion, consisting of three stimulating ingredients, of
which I have now had an experience of three years, and which answers to all the above requisites ; for besides relieving muscular and nervous pain in five minutes,it will produce an active degree of inflammation of the skin in half that time, and a blister, fit to be pierced and dressed in the usual manner after theevacuation of the fluid, in little more than eight or ten mi- nutes. This lotion, then, is to be applied by means of compresses of linen, or two or three folds of old flannel, to the inside of the thighs and the upper part of the feet, retaining the said compresses in their places by means of a dry towel pressed down firmly by the hand during the whole
time of their application, when the desired effect will certainly be pro- duced. If, after reaction has begun in the system, pain or tenderness exist in the abdomen, an application of the same lotion to produce either simple counter-irritation, or a blister, will forward the recovery. The • same lotion will be found additionally beneficial should the patient be in a state of great languor, heaviness, or stupor, which are symptoms often occurring in the first attack of cholera ; for, by its almost painful impression on the parts to which it is applied, the system is roused to a
wonderful degree of action. I have seen a child two years old which had been labouring under pressure in the head in a case of brain fever for two days, roused and benefited in less than a few minutes by the appli- cation of this lotion to the nape of the neck, where in that short period it caused a blister, which healed most kindly—as such blisters do on all occasions.
"Q. Do you not recommend bleeding in the early stages?
" A. I do; but the point is one of nice discrimination. If, while the measures which I have proposed are in progress, the pulse becomes per- ceptible and gradually fuller ; if the hot bran has succeeded in bringing on an excited state of the skin and a warm perspiration, showing that an improved state of the circulation has taken place; if the counter-irrita- tion of the limbs has been successfully applied, and local inflammation established as a revulsive against the inward disorder; if, in one word, there has been what is called a reaction in the system—then I would use the lancet to secure the recovery. Besides the more ordinary modes of taking blood from the patient labouring under cholera, in which the large blood-vessels of the abdomen are distended with half-congealed or treacle 'like blood, I recommend the trial of leeches to the hemorrhoidal vessels in pretty large numbers, and bleeding from some of the larger veins in the lower or middle part of the thighs. But this point, as well as the propriety and choice of purgative medicines to be given when the vomiting and the spasms have greatly diminished, and lastly all other means that may be required in the progress of the disease, I must leave to the medical attendant to determine. My task, in a work of this kind, ends where that of the medical man begins. It was my object to enable p Ople to help themselves, while those who are afterwards to help them are sent for ; and to tell them in plain language and by means easily at- tainable-, how to profit of the time which must elapse before any assist- ance can be procured,—a time, alas too precious to be lost—as it fre- quently happens in the epidemic cholera that the loss of the first hour or two, without doing any thing, has been fatal to the patient. Bran- laudanum—brandy—a bottle of the alkaline drops, and another of the counter-irritating lotion, are not cumbersome nor difficult to be pro- cured, and may be supposed to be constantly ready at hand on such an eventful occasion."
A few shillings cannot be better employed than in the purchase of this plump little volume.
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