Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1016

 L I P

L I P

St. The tail has much the appearance of that of an eel. The whole fifh, head as well as body is very foft and unctu- ous, and eafily melts into a fort of oily liquor. It is caught principally at the mouths of great rivers where they open into the lea. Ray's Ichthyogr. Append, p. 17. LIPOTHYMIA, [Cycl.) in medicine, the name of a difeafe ufually confounded with the fyncope, but really different from it in many particulars.

The lipothymia is a very confiderable abolition of the Vital and animal faculties, at leaft to appearance : and the fyncope is a plenary or total abolition of them, as far as appears to us at the time. It is eafy to fee, how- ever, that thefe are only two different ftages of the fame diftempcrature. The lipothymy is fometimes an idiopa- thic, fometimes a fymptomatic difeafe, and moft frequently attends the fcurvy, malignant fevers, and other diforders : the fyncope is idiopathic, and attacks perfons in health as •well as thofe that are difeafed. The lipothymy is always eafily diftinguilhed from a convulfed ftate of the body, by this, that the limbs are all flaccid in it. The fyncope differs from death only in degree ; and the body being flaccid in this, and growing rigid under the laft convulfions in death, is the only diftinction of them in extreme cafes.

Signs of it. The lipothymia is ufually preceded by a re- markable anxiety about the heart, and this is fucceeded by an immediate lois of life and motion for a time : the fenfes, the animal motions, and even the pulfe, feeming all to be loft for a time ; and the heart flutters weakly, or trembles, and refpiration is fcarce fenfible. In the fyncope, the re- fpiration as well as the pulfe feem wholly impeded, and the patient appears wholly dead ; the face looks as pale as in a corpfe, and the limbs are wholly flaccid, and without mo- tion. The extremities grow cold, and the eyes are either ihut, or turgid, and inflamed ; the mouth is fometimes fhut, but not clenched firmly together as in convulfions, and fometimes it continues frightfully open ; and as foon as the patient comes to himfelf he ufually fighs feveral times, and refpiration feems very much laboured.

Perfons fubjecl to it. The idiopathic lipothymy is a very un- common complaint, and the perfons fubject to it are thofe of a tender and fenfible difpofition, who arc eafily affected by the feveral paffions, and particularly by fear, or fucfa as have been before frequently fubject to it in difeafes, or are of a melancholic habit. People who ufe inceflant ftudy for a long time on many occafions, alfo fometimes fall into it, women with child are alfo fubjecl: to it from the preflure of the brcaftfrom the abdomen ; and unmarried women, when they faint at meals, give too much caufe to fufpect this to be the cafe with them. Some people who are paflionate, and fupprefs violent fits of it while at their meals, fall into faint- ings alfo.

The fymptomatic lipothymy is a very common diforder, and arifes from a great number of different caufes. Women who have fuppreflions of the menfes are very frequently fub- ject to it. People fatigued with violent emetics alfo often fall into it, as do alfo perfons exhaufted by violent haemorrhages, by profufe fweats, diarrhoeas, violent pains of any kind, and by want of food. People, on the contrary, who are very voracious, and load the ftomach with great quantities of food as often fall into it ; and women after hard child birth, or too great a flux of the lochia are very fubjecl: to it. People who have taken poifons, and fuch as have taken violently cool- ing medicines alfo fometimes are fubjet£t to it ; and thofe, who in fevers, fuddenly cool themfelves, and check their fweats, or who once load the ftomach with great quantities of food immediately after recovering from illncfles. The approach of epidemical malignant fevers is often prefaged by faintings ; and finally, people are fometimes fubjedt to them from omit- ting any cufiornary evacuations.

Prognoftics in it. An idiopathic lipothymy^ which happens in healthy, but very tender and fenfible, or melancholic per- fons, and has had a fright, or fome other paflion for its ori- gin, is a thing of no great confequence for the prefent ; but it is apt to grow upon people if not taken care of, and they will be perhaps always fubjecl: to it afterwards. Lipotbymies> when fymptomatic, are of much more confequence. In chronic difeafes they are lefs dangerous fymptoms than in acute ones if attended with faintings in the beginning; for thefe often prove dangerous. In other ftages of acute difeafes, faint- ings are always bad fymptoms ; but when they are owing to the fuppreftion of fome habitual excretion, during the courfe of the difeafe, they are of lefs danger than when they appear without fuch caufes. All faintings that attend other difeafes are however to be regarded only as fymptoms, not treated difiinctly ; and when the diftemper which occafioned them goes off, they naturally follow it. Syncopes that often re- turn upon a perfon, and continue for along time, frequently leave fevers behind them. Syncopes from hxmorfhages are often dangerous, elpecially in perfons not accuftomed to them, and to fuch as are of a timid difpofition ; whence wo- men in childbed, who are fubject to faint, are to be carefully watched, for they fometimes die in thefe fits.

Method of cure. \\\ idiopathic lipothymies flimulating glyfters, the fprinklmg of cold water upon the face, and Ihe pene-

trating fmclls, fuch as thofe of the volatile fairs, (njrtt of hartfhorn and Hungary water, all tend to recover the loft motion. To thefe are to be added undrefling, or loofenih°- the clothes, lying down in a warm bed, frictions, fternuta- tory powders, and the laying a little pepper, or a fmall morfel of fome pungent volatile fait upon the tongue. After the patient is, by this means, brought to himfelf, a glafs of warm wine, with fome tincture of faffron, is very proper to recruit the ftrength ; and if there be danger of a fever coming on, that is to be guarded againft, by giving pow- ders of nitre, crabs eyes, diaphoretic antimony, and°a little cinnabar. In cafes where faintings happen from an over repletion of the ftomach, or from a weaknefs of the prima; via;, with crudities lodged there, and attended with eruc- tations, the ufe of digeftive medicines is proper; and vomits mould be now and then given with them. When the faintings happen from the violence of emetic medicines, burnt wine, with the fpices, is to be taken occafionally in the day time, and a moderate dofe of the theriaca at night. When faintings have been brought on by violent paflions, a vomit fhould always be given ; and when the operation of that is over, the nitrous and abforbent medicines fhould he given for a day or two, to prevent a fever, which often attends faintings from fuch caufes. When they happen to people exhaufted by repeated hemorrhages, or by diarrhoeas, profufe fweats, or other evacuations, the analeptics are the proper medicines to carry them off, and reftorative electu- aries, with coral and the like, are to be given ; and the fre- quent eating of jellies, and other rich foods of that kind, recommended by way of prevention. The crudities of the prima; via; muft be cleared off by digeftives and purging medicines ; the mind muft be unbent from ftudy, and kept free from the violence of all paffions ; the neceflary and ha- bitual excretions muft be, by all means promoted ; and the patients fhould always have falts, and volatile fpirits about them, to ufe on occafion of being threatened with a fit. Finally, moderate exercife is always to be advifed. In the time of the fits ftimulating glyfters are never to be given, before it has continued a quarter of an hour; and in general, where there remains any fign of life, they are not neceflary j and during the time of the fit, an internal medicine muft be given with the greateft caution ; for they are apt to pafs into the afpera arteria. People, juft recovered out of a fainting fit, are not to be fuffered to fleep, if they ever fa much defire it ; and after the paroxyfm is thoroughly over, a chearfulnefs of temper will do more towards a thorough cure, and the prevention of returns,- than all the medicines in the world. If a fever comes on immediately after the fainting, then the ufe of a glafs of wine, fo beneficial on all other occafions of this kind, is not to be allowed, but fecourfe is immediately to be had to antifebrific medicines. Vomits are very proper in faintings occafioned by paflion or terror, in the time of eating a hearty meal, or immediately after it ; for it is much better that the food fhould be thrown up undigefted, than remain fo in the ftomach. Many people are fubjecl: to faintings after bleeding ; in this ' cafe the arm fhould be but gently tied up, and they fhould never be blooded after a full meal, nor get up immediately after the bleeding is over.

It is very obfervable, that in faintings arifing from a prefent caufe, as in the juft mentioned article of bleeding, the pa- tient has at firft fome power of motion, though on a con- fufed principle, and will often, before he faints, violently attempt to prevent the furgeon from tying up the arm ; bux in thofe faintings, which are prefages of future mifchief, the patient always falls down at once to the ground, and has no power of motion, or fenfe of it, in its approach. Junker's Confp. Med. p. 673, feq.

LIPPIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are thefe. The perianthium is roundifh, flatted, and perpendicular, and on each fide is enlarged by a fmall margin, its tranfverfe diameter being greater than its length. This cup remains till the feed is ripened. The flower confifts of one petal, and is open and bellied, and its edge is divided into four fegments, which are rounded at the ends, .and the upper and lower ones larger than the fide ones; the upper fegment alfo bends back. The (lamina are four filaments, two of which are longer than the others', but they are all fhorter than the flower. The anthera; are fimple. The germen of the piftil is of an oval figure. The ftyle is of the fame length with the ftamina, and ftands in the fame direction. The ftigma is marginated. The fruit is a bivalve capfule of a compreffed figure, and the feeds are contained two in its fingle cell : thefe ufually alfo grow to- gether. Many of the fructifications of this plant are ufu- ally collected into a head. Limiai Gen. PI. p. 299.

LIPTOTES, in rhetoric, a figure, wherein, by denying the contrary of what we intend, more is fignified'than we would feem to exprefs ; thus in the following verfe of Virgil,

Shiid prodejf, quod me ipfe ariuno non Jpernis, Amynta ? SeeFofs, Rhet. 1. 4. p- 183.

LIPYRIA, a name given by fome medical writers to a dan- gerous fpecies of fever, in which the outfide of the flefh is cold, while the infide is very hot.

1 LIQUA-