Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James, 1794-1885.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    from escaping by tying these endings upon the limb. The proper temperature was preserved in the way which has been described, by a current of water passing constantly into and from the case through flexible tubes connected with it. Great advantage was declared to be obtained from this expe- dient. The wounds healed more rapidly, and the mortality was lessened. Unfortunately, however, the pressure from the tyings impeded the circulation, and a well-marked fatal result from this cause in one of the hospitals of Paris, ap- pears to have brought the plan into complete disrepute. If there were an advantage from having the water in immediate contact with the wound, the objection from the ligatures might be removed by enclosing the limb in a case or deep ring of gutta percha, which could be softened by heat and made to adhere firmly to the skin without pressing upon it. An essay on Cold recently published by another German, Professor Esmarch, and already referred to, is interesting, not from any novelty in the proceedings he adopts, but as an illustration of the singular fact that even now, after all that has been said by previous writers on the subject, it is necessary to bring forward new proofs (and several of his cases arc very strong ones) of the safety and efficacy of con- tinued cold. The same observation is applicable to a case of severe dislocation of the knee in which similar treatment was employed, related in Mr. Hilton's recent work on one of nature's most powerful remedies, rest. The doubt expressed by Dr. Watson,* whether the appa- ratus I have described can be easily managed, has occurred to others, and this idea of difficulty has impeded the general adoption of an expedient which was very much wanted. It is true that it is not so simple a mode of refri- gerating as the application of a rag dipped in cold water— * Lectures on the Practice of Physic, fourth ed., vol. i, p. 398.