Practical observations on distortions of the spine, chest, and limbs : together with remarks on paralytic and other diseases connected with impaired or defective motion / by William Tilleard Ward.

  • Ward, William Tilleard.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on distortions of the spine, chest, and limbs : together with remarks on paralytic and other diseases connected with impaired or defective motion / by William Tilleard Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    congestion, which is commonly the forerunner of this malady, has been subdued, and till some time has been given to allow of the restoration of the defective portions of the brain to their respective functions; and any success I may have had, is probably somewhat attributable to having been consulted after other means had been tried unavail- ingly, by which a considerable lapse of time had occurred. It here becomes necessary also to advert to a part of the general method of cure, without atten- tion to which all our efforts will prove abortive, viz. regimen. The diet of the patient should con- sist of the plainest and most simple kind; animal food, as a general rule, should not be eaten oftener than every other day, and that sparingly; if it be eaten every day, it should form only part of a meal — pudding, or fish without high seasoned sauces, making up the remainder. As a general rule, also, the patient should finish his meal before the appetite is fully satiated; this should be most rigidly enforced, for otherwise when the paralytic limbs have recovered their powers, a renewal of the malady may take place in the brain, and either carry off the patient, or render it necessary to com- mence the treatment de novo. It should be most carefully impressed on the minds of patients who have suffered attacks of paralysis, more particu- larly at a late period of life, that no exemption from a relapse can be insured to them, unless a strict