Nose Bleed

1895

What Causes It In Youth and Later In Life and What to Do.

Bleeding from the nose is caused by the congestion of the lining membrane of the nose.

This congestion may be the result of catarrh, or, more properly, of the diseased condition of the nasal membranes which is due to catarrh, or it may accompany congestion of some organ of the body, as the liver. It may also result from heart disease or even from dyspepsia.

Nose bleed in children is commonly supposed to indicate nothing more than that the child tires easily or is overactive. Yet even these terms express more than is obvious upon a casual reading of the words.

If a child tires easily, or, in other words, if the least overexertion at play or study results in a more or less severe attack of nose bleed, the child must be in a weakened state, while, on the other hand, if he is accustomed to allow his play or his studies so to absorb his interest as to make him forget his fatigue, he is placing an injudicious strain upon his constitution.

In either case he will be benefited by a curtailment of work and an increase in the amount of time allotted for rest until his body is more fully developed. No child's mind can be developed faster than the body except at the expense of health.

Nose bleed occurring in middle life and old age is a more serious thing, as it indicates a graver condition of affairs. It is usually coincident with disease of the liver, heart or kidneys. Its cure is of course dependent upon the restoration of the organs to a normal condition. In elderly persons the disorder sometimes appears to result from weakness, which, in turn, it aggravates.

It is a common saying that, in full blooded persons, an occasional nose bleed is beneficial, and this may in a certain sense be true, inasmuch as the nasal membranes are thus relieved of congestion. But it is safe to say that bleeding from the nose is never anything but a sign of weakness.

The treatment of an attack of nose bleed consists in absolute rest and cool applications to the head. The extremities should be warm. The head should not be held down over a basin, as this favors the flow of blood. One of the simplest and most effectual methods of stopping an ordinary attack is for the person to stand erect, with the head in the usual upright position and the hands extended at length directly over the head. — Youth's Companion.

The History of Quinine

1895
How the Use of the Drug Supplanted the Practice of Bleeding Patients.
In 1830, when the French were conducting a campaign of conquest in Algeria, the mortality among the troops and colonists there was frightful. France was being continually called upon for fresh levies of men and youths to supply this terrible loss, chiefly through fever incidental to the climate and the life the French in Algeria were leading. At that time the practice of bleeding still prevailed. "Bleed them until they are white," was the injunction which Broussais, the medical master of the French, gave to his followers when the condition of the soldiers was reported to him. At Bona in one year, out of an effective force of 5,500 men, 1,100 died of illness in the hospital.

At that time the effects of a sulphate of quinine were known, but few physicians ventured to employ it. Maillot had interested himself in the new remedy, and going to Bona in the medical service of the government he resolved to see if it would not reduce the frightful mortality, which was 1 to every 3-1/2 men who entered the hospital. At first he employed the quinine merely as an adjunct to the bleeding. He soon found that bleeding was killing the men, and that quinine was saving them. Little by little he left off bleeding, to the great scandal of the medical profession. Exactly in proportion as the bleeding ceased the deaths in the hospital decreased. In two years the deaths fell off from 1 in 3-1/2 of all who entered the hospital to 1 in 26 and finally to 1 in 46.

Maillot quite naturally enough grew to be the opponent of bleeding, but he was so ceaselessly vilified by members of the medical profession that he became imbittered toward his colleagues. Nearly 30 years passed before Maillot saw the complete triumph of his ideas. Doctors continued to bleed their patients heartily for all manner of ills. But in 1860 Maillot was made commander of the Legion of Honor and chief of the medical staff of the French army, and his influence with others in bringing about a virtual revolution in the practice of medicine was fully recognized. — Pearson's Weekly.

Comment: Ask your doctor if bleeding is right for you!

Doctor Sews Up Gash In Heart

Printed Jan. 1908

Negro Injured During Brawl, Subject of Remarkable Operation

New York. — A few days ago the remarkable feat of sewing up a cut in a man's heart was successfully performed by two surgeons, Drs. Blake and Dwight, at Roosevelt hospital. The patient, William Johnson, a negro about 35 years old, is still in the hospital, ill with pneumonia, but, so far as his heart is concerned, he is all right. It has healed completely.

Johnson was stabbed in the course of a saloon row with a long thin knife, which severed the fourth rib two inches to the left of the mid line, and entered the heart. He left the scene of the stabbing without telling anyone of it, and strolled about the streets for three quarters of an hour. The wound appeared to be a slight one, and, as it was not bleeding, externally at least, Johnson did not worry about it.

By and by, however, he began to feel drowsy, and sat down on the curb and put his head in his hands. Here an acquaintance found him, drew from him the fact that he had been stabbed, and telephoned for an ambulance, which carried him to Roosevelt hospital.

Dr. Dwight, the house surgeon, diagnosed the case, and at once telephoned Dr. Joseph A. Blake. Within an hour and a half after the stabbing Johnson was on the operating table. Dr. Blake performed the operation with Dr. Dwight assisting.

First the surgeons made an incision along the upper border of the third rib, cutting from the sternum outward to the nipple line, thence down to the lower border of the fifth rib, thence inward to the sternum again, along the lower border of that rib.

This cut was deepened to the ribs, and then the third and fifth ribs were severed at the nipple line, the fourth having been cut through by the weapon that caused the wound. The operation to this point had resulted in the cutting of a sort of a trap door, which was easily raised, and turned back over the sternum with the costal cartilage as a hinge.

When the trap door was lifted and the pleura exposed, the left lung collapsed, and a pint of blood was found in the pleural cavity. It was found that the lung itself was not injured, but a small wound was discovered in the pericardium, or shell which incases the heart, from which the blood was running. The pericardium was then opened, and the heart itself exposed. This exposure of the heart showed the exact nature of the wound.

In the right ventricle, close to the anterior coronary artery, there was a wound in the heart about one half an inch in length, from which, at every contraction or beat of the heart, a little stream of blood spurted to a height of four inches. Examination showed that the wound extended to the central cavity of the heart.

The heart was grasped in the hand to steady it, just as one would clasp a fluttering bird in order to examine a wound. Four stitches with silk thread were then taken in the heart, it being necessary to sew entirely through the wall of the heart for that purpose. The wound was then drawn together and the flow of blood entirely checked.

Since that time, over a week ago, there has been no further bleeding from the wound in the heart, which is apparently entirely healed. Nor has there been any sign of blood poisoning. On the morning after the operation, however, the patient had a high temperature, and signs of pneumonia appeared in the lower lungs.

Traces of this pneumonia still persist, and it is this, and not the condition of the man's heart, that is causing the attending surgeons anxiety. The difficult and rarely attempted operation of sewing up the heart has apparently been performed with complete success.