Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-07-04
SmEtstrOsxe.
ms SYMPTOMS AND REMEDIES.

smnstroIxe.
IFS SYMPTOMS AND REMEDIES.
The season of sunstrokes has begun,
and local cases are reported from time
to time. Measures preventive of attacks
Of this perilous sort viii readily occur
such as the advance Of exposure, exces-
sive exertion, aud imprudence of what
ever kind When the evil is actually
accomplished in the prostration of the
patient, the situation becomes more diff
cult. The following from an article in
Lippjacott's Magazine will prove inter-
esting and valuable in describing sylnp-
toms and suggesting remedies:
The symptoms of sunstroke are at
once uniform and diverse uniform in
their general outline and diverse in
their special DETAILS. In the ordinary
form-that which may be spoken of as
the cerebro spinal variety after more or
less distinct warning, in the shape Of
such prcmonitorY symptoms as
HEADACHE, DIsoRDERED VISION,
intense WEAKNESS, etc, the subject be-
comes unconscious, sometimes suddenly,
sometimes more gradually. The labOTer
will fall senseless in the street, in the
hospital the comrades of sick man will
have their attention attracted by MS
heavy breathing, only to find that natir-
al sleep has passed by insensible degrees
into fatal coma or stupor. With this in
sensibility there is always associated in
tense heat of the skim To the hand the
surface feels intensely hot nor is the
sensation deceptive one-the heat of
the body exceeds that attained in almost
any other affection. A. Thermometer
placed in the armpit, instead of indicat-
ing So degrees Fahrenheit, the tempera-
ture of health, rises generally to 100 de-
grees, in some cases even to 113 de-
grees. From the peculiar pungency of
! this heat, the technical term Gator NOR
da1, or biting heat has been applied to it..
| The surface may or may not be pale !;
very often it is duslly, with a
LIvID, BLUSH, PURPLE HUE.
The ewes are sometimes dull, with the
leaden hue Of approaching death. The
pupils at first are generally contracted !;
| in the latter stages they are often wide
| lv dilated. With these symptoms of
! intense fever are others betokening ner-
| vOus disturbance. In some cases these
are of the nature of paralysis, the pa
tient lying in apparently the deepest
| sleep, not a muscle moving, not q limb
raised, not an eyelid quivering. In 9TH
/ er cases this peaceful though deadly calm
! is replaced by wild tempest-yaging
! deierium, wild screams, as though Of in
| tensest agony or uncomfortable passion,
| furious commissions, following one an
other like the rapid discharges of a gal
yanic battery, throwing the body in all
! directions, twisting it into every con
! ceiyablC shape, the Countenance mock
ing the
DERIsIvE LAUGHING OF THE MANIAC,
or knotted into an expression Of agony.
In another and perhaps more common
class of cases the unconscious patient is
simply restless, muttering incoherent
words, tossing about on the bed, show
inc, perhaps, also signs of local paraly-
sis. There appears to be a curious con-
! nection between this variety of symp-
| toms and the variety of races. The
| AnglO-Saxon rarely becomes wildly de
| lirious, while this is the most common
symptom among the Latin nations.
! Frenchmen thus attacked often become
melancholic; aud also develop an ire
sistible tendency TO suicide, so that sol
diers on the march viii suddenly shoot
| themselves.
Whatever be the form of the attack,
/ generally as the minutes pass the symp-
/ toms are intensified, the quick pulse OF
the first onset become more and more
feeble, the labored
BREATHING NOISY AND sTENToEIoUs,
! the surface darker as respiration fails,
and death ut last is brought about by
axphyxia. Or sometimes by the almost
consentaneous fading away of respira-
/ ton and circulation.
The one great symptom center
of ths group i'm al forms of the disease
is the hjgh temperature. If the skin
/ be cool the case is not sunstroke At
ter death the high temperature continues,
and is said sometimes even to rise higher.
Decomposition follows with exceeding
rapidity On post mortem examination
the only appearance Of striking lmpor.
lance are a condition Of blood similar tc
that seen in low fevers. a rigid, contract
.
/ like wood, and a great tendency toward
the rapid but transient development OF
that peculiar stiffening which at short
time after death takes possession of the
muscular tissues.
Now that the true nature of the dis
ease is known, the method of treatment
becomes most Obvious, and we learn not
merely what to do, but also what not to
do. As heat IS the cause Of the symD-
TOMS common sense points to
TIE ABSTRACTION or TIE HEAT
in some. way as the mode Of cure. AID
here again yivisection comes into play.
have taken an animal. comatoSe, par
alyzed by heat, apparently dying, and
! plunged it into a bucket of cold water.
/ The temperature of the sufferer at once
rapidly fell until it reached the normal
point, and just in proportion that in the
bucket rose. AS the animal cooled its
| respirations became more regular; the
unsteady whirr of the heart was stilled,
! by and by the eyelids were lifted, and
| out from the CLASSY eye came the beams
of new life. If the period of uncon-
/ sciousness had been short, the animal
was in a few hours apparentlyas well as
ever; If long, the animal would recover
sufficiently to recognize the surround
ings and to struggle for release, but
when allowed to escape the paralyZed
limbs and the slow imperfect progress
sion Indicated the profound injury the
nervous system had received, and in a
few hours the animal would be dead
The lessons of these experiments are
too plain to be overlooked. Whatever
is done in this disease must be done
quickly. Clinical Is well as experiment
tai observations enforces the doctrine.
There should in such cases be
no WAITING FOR THE DOCTOR.