Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/235

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ALCOHOL AS A MEDICINE.
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frequent use of enemas, by proper feeding and the careful attention of a good nurse to the patient and his surroundings—the duration of the fever may be shortened and the severity of the disease lessened; heart failure, and other complications will seldom occur, and the patient will in nearly every instance make a good recovery. The best method to pursue to prevent heart failure is to keep the poisons which are generated in the bowels and absorbed into the body, and which are the direct cause of the heart failure, eliminated from the body. Should the heart become weak, it may be effectually stimulated by giving hot water to drink, applying heat to the heart in the form of a fomentation, and the application of fomentations to the upper spine.

"In the treatment of a large number of cases of typhoid fever, extending over several years' practice, the writer has never made use of alcohol internally to support the action of the heart, or for any other purpose.

"The number of cases of death from typhoid fever coming under the writer's observation, where the method of treatment pursued has been similar to that briefly indicated above, have been very few, a much smaller per cent, than in practice where alcohol has been used as a 'cardiac stimulant.' I believe that the use of alcohol in the treatment of typhoid fever is not only useless, but absolutely harmful."

Dr. Kate Lindsay, of Battle Creek Sanitarium and Hospital, contributed an article upon Typhoid Fever to the Bulletin of the A. M. T. A. for January, 1896, from which a few notes are here taken:—

"The chief toxic centre is evidently the intestinal tract, especially the termination of the ileum. The ulcerations, necroses, perforations and hemorrhages are most frequently found in the last twelve inches of the small intestine, and may extend into the large intestine. The ulcerated surface and open vessels increase the facility with which the poison finds