Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/125

 [Footnote: abstain from eating garlic, pork, mutton, and beef, and not to call loudly or to get excited while she was engaged in work.

VII.—7. The wife of Polycrates became feverish during the summer season, and about the time of the dog star. In the morning her breathing was somewhat embarrassed, but after mid-day it became more difficult and at the same time more rapid. From the very beginning of the illness she had a cough and expectorated purulent masses. In the throat and along the course of the trachea one could hear a hoarse whistling sound. The patient's face had a healthy color, and over the two halves of the jaw there was some redness, not of a deep hue but rather fresh and bright. A little later her voice also became hoarse, she began to show some emaciation, raw spots developed over the fleshy parts of her hips, and the surface of the body grew more moist than it had been before. On the seventieth day the outward evidences of fever became much less noticeable, but the respiration grew more rapid; and from that day to the time of her death, five or six days later, she was obliged to remain in a sitting posture. Toward the end the tracheal râle grew louder, and dangerous sweats occurred, but the patient never lost her expression of intelligence.

Fractures.—II.—9. In the human body the foot, like the hand, is composed of a number of small bones. As they are not easily broken it may safely be assumed, when such a case of fracture comes under observation, that some pointed or unusually heavy object had caused the lesion, and that the surrounding soft parts must necessarily have been injured at the same time. (Injuries of this nature will be discussed in a later section.) But if any part of this bony framework is pushed out of its natural position—whether this take place in one of the toes, or in one of the tarsal bones, it makes no difference—the dislocated part should be forced back into position in the manner recommended in section XXIV. In its essential features the treatment consists in the employment of wax plaster, compresses, and bandages, exactly the same as is done in the treatment of fractures of the long bones, but without splints. The same rules hold good with regard to the degree of pressure to be applied, and every third day the dressings should be renewed. On each occasion of such renewal the patient should be questioned with regard to the sensations which he feels after the bandages have been applied, and if necessary they should be readjusted in accordance with the nature of the answers which he gives. The great majority of these injuries heal completely in twenty days. The exceptional cases are those in which the fracture]