MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10629, 18 December 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

TREATMENT OP TYPHOID. Writing on this subject Dr. Andrew Wilson says:—There is a first point in the care of a typhoid fever case which all people should know and appreciate. This is, the fact that the sooner a patient takes to his bed and undergoes careful treatment and 'nursing the better will ib be for his chances of recovery.'- lb is the proverbial "stitch in time" saving us from grave chances of death, that is represented by the early seeking of rest and treatment. Whenever the presence of this fever is suspected, the rule should be for the patient to go to bed at once, and to come under treatment earfy. The fatigue of work and exercise will act very powerfully against his chances of recovery by drawing on the small store of strength he has left. The food in this fever is another point of much importance. Milk is the sheet anchor of the diet here. No solid food is to be given to the patient, for the best of all reasons— that the fever attacks that part of the digestive system where the work of digestion is chiefly carried on. To give solid food would entail a danger of killing the patient. Patients will complain of being hungry and unsatisfied with their milk diet),- especially when they are getting better, and when the healing process in the bowel has actually begun. Then the friends think they may as well indulge the patients' appetite, and solid food is smuggled in to thorn, with the result that the patient so treated falls into a state of colipse, and may die. . There is every necessity for keeping a typhoid patient in a state of. perfect.rest of body and mind. The room in which he lies is to be kept at about a temperature of 62 or 64 degrees, and no draughts are to be allowed. ■ The patient will not be allowed to move in bed to any extent, and the nurse will prohibit any sudden sitting-up movement. Of supreme importance is the disinfection of the bowel discharges, since, as we have seen, it is in these matters that the germs'are contained. All typhoid matter must be at once .disinfected before it .is allowed to a pass into drains, or before it is otherwise disposed of. One plan is that of placing in the bed pan,' before Y: use, ■ ft layer ! of • sulphate of iron crystals or - powder, and, after use, of pouring hydrochloric acid . (strong) over the discharges. The matter thus. disinfected, may be poured into drains, and the acid used additionally as a closet disinfectant; or, if the disinfected discharges be buried in the earth, care will, of course, be taken in seeing that the place - of burial . is far removed from any source of water supply, in >i tha shape - of: .a well, • for example. Another plan is to use a solution of corrosive, sublimate (a poison), which is placed in the bed pan. V: This disinfectant, in the strength of one to a.thousand, is the most powerful known. A little more,than a drachm in a gallon of water makes a powerful solution, and a little bine may be added to it to colour it,,and jto prevent it being mistaken for water or other fluid. If carbolic acid be employed it ' should .be used strong and undiluted. , .-..,.-