Page:A dissertation on the puerperal fever (1789).djvu/14

 emollient injections, and, if the abatement of pain is not soon procured, he recommends sal catharticus amarus, oleum ricini, and, in the intermediate spaces, the saline draughts of Riverius. The complication of inflammatory and putrid symptoms often puzzles the practitioner, who hesitates in doubt, whether he should bleed or not; nay more, whether he should adopt an antiphlogistic course of remedies, or give the bark.

The equivocal appearances of the vomiting and purging, whether they be symptomatical or critical, is another cause of perplexity in the physician; for what are the salutary efforts of nature, and what the ragings of a destructive disorder, he is unable to determine; and this disease is too acute to allow him time to hesitate long.

As many women who die of a puerperal fever are afflicted with a diarrhœa, some have supposed this symptom as the most alarming, and have accordingly bent all their attention to restrain it; and yet the experienced physician knows that numbers of women have recovered, apparently, through the intervention of this symptom. Some instances have occurred of hæmorrage carrying off the disease, and this has been thought sufficient to justify venesection; but Dr. Denman thinks we are warranted, by experience, to reject the practice as very hazardous, if not fatal; and when we consider the situation of child-bed women, we should be apt, reasoning a priori, to conclude, that venesection was unnecessary.

Whether there may not occur cases in the coldest seasons, in such a climate as Canada, where bleeding would be beneficial, future experience must determine.

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