The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1918-11-07
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What To Do In Influenza.
By DR.. Taylor

Therapeutics, Temple University,
Philadelphia Medical Depart
ment.
Certain simple measures have
proved so helpful in relieving the
distress and contributing to cure,
which may be called accessory
or supplemental. that they seem
Co me worth putting in the
papers. have been employ
ing them since the epidemic of
1886 with good effect, Many
physicians adopt similar ones.
but some rely mainly on medi-
cine. What ever assists the
particular medication employed
deserves consideration.
In this epidemic certain fea-
lures are more prominent than
in others, tho they usually occur.
They are chills, pains in tn
head, in the back a sense of
breaking bones" also now a
pain in the right side, low down,
which is ascribed to the liver,
or, as it seems to me, more often
an involvement of the diaphragm
and attachments and the pleura.
The temperature runs higher
now, even when there is no
pneumonia. In most of the
cases meet, the fever su b.
sides on the third or fourth day,
unless broncho-pneumonia fol-
lows.
My routine i s to use a hot foot
bath for ten minutes as often as
the headache and back pains in
crease, the legs hanging over
the side of the bed, the body ly-
ing flat all the time; next an
enema of warm water, one quart,
salt and bicarbonate of soda,
each tablespoonful. run slowly
in from a height of three or four
feet, stopping when a pain in
the stomach occurs, then con-
tinuing. Use a bedpan if the
bowels move, but the object is
to retain the saline solution for
absorption and to wash out the
blood vessels. If the tempera-
ture be very high, this can be
used cool; if low, it can be used
hot, 80 as to equalize the tenn
perature in the abdominal ves-
sells.
After that let the patient lie
on the breast, apply a damp blan-
ket or piece of woolen cloth to the
whole back and pass flatiron up
and down for five minutes. lifting
away if it burns, and then drop
again and proceed. This rela-
tives the back and side pain and
headache, and can be repeated
with great satisfaction whenever
it relatives; it also induces COM
Portable sweating.
Whenever the temperature
rises above l03 degrees it is well
to sponge with tepid water, as in
typhoid or other fever. This in
duces sleep and allays restless
ness. In pneumonia these COM
bined measures seem to reduce the
cough, too.
1t is well to use no foods what
soever for three days, except
fruit juice, orange juice or lemon
Juice. To all drinking water add
a teaspoonful of salt to the pint.
so as to supply the immense loss
Of sodium chloride which occurs
and to encourage the drinking of
water thus fortified by the salt.
To this may be added fruit juice
or grape juice, or other Agreeable
fluid. After the third day, and
not before, some food may be
taken, preferably buttermilk, but
not meat soups, because animal
broths contain much that the
body is already striving to get rid
of. This starvation seems to
help the liver to empty out its
contents, and to give it and the
whole group of digestive organs
a rest.
1t is we'll to repeat the saline
enema every day for four or five
days. OF course, absolute rest,
fiat on the back or side, must be
enforced; no sitting up in bed.
even for examination of chest or
back. During convalescence this
rest is also imperative. Fatal
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