Milford chronicle., 1920-03-05
WHAT TO DO IN GRIP
By ]. Madison Taylor, A. B., NJ. D.
Professor of Applied Therapeutics
Temple University, Medical
Department

Certain simple measures have prov
ed so helpful in relieving the. distress
es and contributing to cure, which
may be called accessory or supple
mental. that they seem to me worth
putting in the papers. have Deen
employing them since the epidemic OF
1889 with good effect. Many physl-
clans adopt similar ones, but some
RELY mainly on medicine. Whatever
assists the particular medication EN-
ployed deserves consideration.
In this epidemic certain features
are more prominent than in others
though they usually occur. They are
chills, pains in the head, in the back.
a sense of breaking bones also a
pain in the right side, low down,
which is ascribed to the liver, or, as
it seems to me, more often an involve
ment of the diaphragm and attach
ments and the pleura. The tempera-
ture runs higher now, even when
there is-no pneumonia. In most of the
cases L meet the fever subsidies on the
third or fourth day, unless broncho-
pneumonia follows.
My routine is to use hot foot
bath for ten minutes as often as the
headache and back pains increase, the
legs hanging over the side Of the bed,
the body lying fiat all the time; next
an enema of warm water, one quart,
salt and bicarbonate of soda, each a
tablespoonful, run slowly in from a
height of three or four feet, stopping
when a pain in the stomach occurs,
then continuing. Use a bedpan if the
bowels move, but the object is to re-
tain the saline absorption and to wash
out the blood vessels. If the temper
ature be very high, this can be used
cool; if low, it can be used hot, so as
q; aamaiiZa the Temperature in the ah-
dominal vessels.
After that let the patient lie on the
breast. apply damp blanket or piece
of wooden cloth to the whole back and
pass a warm fiatirOn up and down for
five minutes, lifting away if it burns,
and then drop again and proceed. This
relieves the back and side pain and
headache, and can be repeated with
great satisfaction whenever it re-
lieves; it also induces comfortable
sweating.
Whenever the temperature rises
above 1O3 degrees it is also well to
sponge with tepid water. as in ty-
phoid or other fever. This induces
sleep and allays restlessness. In
pneumonia these combined measures
seem to reduce the cough, too.
It is well to use no foods whatsoev-
er 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
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 be-
fore, some food may be taken, pre-
ferably buttermilk, but not meat
soups, because animal broths contain
much that the body is already striv-
ingfi TO get rid Of This starvation
seems to help the liver to empty out |
It's 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 |
)r side, must be. enforced; no sitting
lp in bed, even for examination of
hest or back. During coRyalescence
his rest is als6 imperative Fatalities
'ccur in Proportion as exertion is
made or failure to relieve the dis
resses, suci as the cough and dyspno-
"a.