parts affected with rheumatism, is in a state of morbid sensibility; this state of sensibility arising from a preternatural distension of its vessels. Bandages and pressure, by affording support, take off tension, and facilitate motion, which in its turn promotes circulation. The vessels being in this way unloaded, morbid sensibility is diminished; and if the bandages or pressure be often enough applied, or for a sufficient length of time, the vessels and membrane recover their tone. It is evident, therefore, that in proportion as these effects are produced, the motion of a part formerly rigid, will not only become free, but remain so. On this principle it was, that the motion of the patient's arm remained free after the removal of the pressure; on this principle is explained the good effects of friction, &c. in rheumatism. If a person could always move a limb affected with this disease, tittle more would be necessary to the cure of it. But as that is, in many instances, impossible, and in all, attended with difficulty, in a greater or less degree, bandages or pressure, according to circumstances, by facilitating motion, become, if not of themselves a complete cure, at least most powerful auxiliaries; of which, whoever once makes trial, will, when circumstances require, ever after avail themselves. I did not see this woman again till the 10th of December, (the distance of near a month from the time she called upon me,—a month too of the most horrible weather that can well be conceived,) when I called at her house to ascertain if the cure was permanent. She told me, she allowed the bandage which I applied, to remain till quite dirty, and that when she removed it to have it washed, she found she could do perfectly well without it, and in my presence performed, with the utmost facility, all the motions of which the arm in its soundest state is capable. In one word, this woman's case is an instance of a severe rheumatic affection, of many weeks' standing, being im mediately, completely, and permanently cured, by pressure alone. On the 21st of October last, I was called to a girl of fourteen years of age, whom I found sitting in a warm room, before a large fire. Her skin was hot, face flushed, and pulse at ninety; all which I was disposed to attribute to the warm regimen she had been so carefully observing. I desired her to remove to a weather, with a firmer step than she had done for eight years before, is a thing that speaks for itself. On the 10th of December I again met this lady on the street, when she accosted me in these words: "I am not near so lame now." This was a piece of information that, I confess, I did not expect. I would have been quite satisfied with being told that she had experienced considerable benefit from the bandage, in the way of preventing pain. The ten days, it is material to observe, that had elapsed since she first applied the bandage, consisted of weather the most inconstant and severe. I therefore now put it seriously to this lady, if she was convinced that the application of the bandage had warded off the pains with which she was threatened on the 1st of December? If she believed the strength her leg had recovered was to be ascribed to the bandage? If, from what she had experienced, she believed that bandages would be found a powerful remedy for rheumatism? All these questions she answered most decidedly in the affirmative. On the 15th December, William Graham, aged 32, a private in the Cumberland militia, complained of violent lumbago, which rendered him unable to mount guard, and he was unwilling to be sent to the hospital. On examining the part affected, found he wore a broad bandage round his body. This he had been accustomed to do, but said he experienced from it no benefit to his back. I asked his pocket-handkerchief, which I formed into a compress, and laid it on the part affected, applying the bandage over it as tight as he could bear it. On enquiring how he felt, he replied, “Perfectly at ease. I feel a want supplied, and I can turn myself any way I please with perfect freedom." He went to bed quite well, but in the morning found himself much worse. I saw him again on the 16th, about three o'clock afternoon, when I asked him if he had laid aside the compress that his pains had returned? He said he still wore the compress, and experienced from it so much benefit, that without it he could not walk at all. On the 13th I omitted to examine his pulse, which I now found a 100. I therefore immediately took twenty ou from his arm. This took off the phlogistic diat tem, and the compress, which, as the pain had extended, I ordered to be enlarged, completed the cure. In the first week of January, Mrs. M. a lady about 36 years of age, complained of severe pain in the left lumbar region, for which she had been advised to have blood let. On applying to me, I recommended a trial of a compress and bandage. Having never heard of such a mode of cure, she appeared at a loss whether to take my advice as a joke or not. On assuring her I was serious, she promised compliance as soon as she got home. I insisted on the trial being made immediately; and as I had been setting a fractured arm just before she came in, there was a piece of flannel lying in the room, of which I made a compress, directing her to lay it on the part affected, and to make use of her handkerchief for a bandage. When I returned to the room I purposely introduced another subject of conversation, that what observations she might make on the mode of cure we had adopted should come spontaneously from herself. Accordingly, I soon observed her moving the trunk of her body, without having received any directions from me to that effect, backwards, forwards, and sideways. I asked her what she meant by so doing. She said the pain was gone, which yet she could scarcely believe, and that to ascertain the fact, she was practising those motions which she dared not attempt before the compress and bandage were applied, but which she could now do with ease. Next day the pain struck her in the right lumbar region, from which also it immediately removed, on application to the part of the compress and bandage. When I relate such instances of the immediate and great good effects of compression in lumbago, candour and truth demand the acknowledgment, that I have met with several cases. in which that mode of treatment completely failed of success. The superficial observer, alone, however, will from hence conclude against the utility of the practice; for the muscles of the loins are not all situated on a plane. Some of them are superficial, others deep seated. Compression may affect the former; it cannot the latter. To deny, therefore, the utility of bandages in the cure of rheumatism, because cases occur which admit not of compression, would be as unscientific as to say, that, be"ause blood-vessels are sometimes ruptured or wounded, weather, with a firmer step than she had done for eight years before, is a thing that speaks for itself. On the 10th of December I again met this lady on the street, when she accosted me in these words: "I am not near so lame now." This was a piece of information that, I confess, I did not expect. I would have been quite satisfied with being told. that she had experienced considerable benefit from the bandage, in the way of preventing pain. The ten days, it is material to observe, that had elapsed since she first applied the bandage, consisted of weather the most inconstant and severe. I therefore now put it seriously to this lady, if she was convinced that the application of the bandage had warded off the pains with which she was threatened on the 1st of December? If she believed the strength her leg had recovered was to be ascribed to the bandage? If, from what she had experienced, she believed that bandages would be found a powerful remedy for rheumatism? All these questions she answered most decidedly in the affirmative. On the 15th December, William Graham, aged 32, a private in the Cumberland militia, complained of violent lumbago, which rendered him unable to mount guard, and he was unwilling to be sent to the hospital. On examining the part affected, found he wore a broad bandage round his body. This he had been accustomed to do, but said he experienced from it no benefit to his back. I asked his pocket-handkerchief, which I formed into a compress, and laid it on the part affected, applying the bandage over it as tight as he could bear it. On enquiring how he felt, he replied, "Perfectly at ease. I feel a want supplied, and I can turn myself any way I please with perfect freedom." He went to bed quite well, but in the morning found himself much worse. I saw him again on the 16th, about three o'clock afternoon, when I asked him if he had laid aside the compress that his pains had returned? He said he still wore the compress, and experienced from it so much benefit, that without it he could not walk at all. On the 15th I omitted to examine his pulse, which I now found at 100. I therefore immediately took twenty ounces of blood from his arm. This took off the phlogistic diathesis of the sys tem, and the compress, which, as the pain had extended, I ordered to be enlarged, completed the cure. In the first week of January, Mrs. M. a lady about 36 years of age, complained of severe pain in the left lumbar region, for which she had been advised to have blood let. On applying to me, I recommended a trial of a compress and bandage. Having never heard of such a mode of cure, she appeared at a loss whether to take my advice as a joke or not. On assuring her I was serious, she promised compliance as soon as she got home. I insisted on the trial being made immediately; and as I had been setting a fractured arm just before she came in, there was a piece of flannel lying in the room, of which I made a compress, directing her to lay it on the part affected, and to make use of her handkerchief for a bandage. When I returned to the room I purposely introduced another subject of conversation, that what observations she might make on the mode of cure we had adopted should come spontaneously from herself. Accordingly, I soon observed her moving the trunk of her body, without having received any directions from me to that effect, backwards, forwards, and sideways. I asked her what she meant by so doing. She said the pain was gone, which yet she could scarcely believe, and that to ascertain the fact, she was practising those motions which she dared not attempt before the compress and bandage were applied, but which she could now do with ease. Next day the pain struck her in the right lumbar region, from which also it immediately removed, on application to the part of the compress and bandage. When I relate such instances of the immediate and great good effects of compression in lumbago, candour and truth demand the acknowledgment, that I have met with several cases in which that mode of treatment completely failed of success. The superficial observer, alone, however, will from hence conclude against the utility of the practice; for the muscles of the loins are not all situated on a plane. Some of them are superficial, others deep seated. Compression may affect the former; it cannot the latter. To deny, therefore, the utility of bandages in the cure of rheumatism, because cases occur which admit not of compression, would be as unscientific as to say, that, because blood-vessels are sometimes ruptured or wounded, |
