Mother's Remedies Part 173

The course of study required is of three years duration, of nine months each, and the degree of D. O. (Doctor of Osteopathy) is given to the graduates.

OPERATIONS.

There has been a great change in regard to operations among the laity of late years. There is much less opposition and prejudice. The people are being educated to the necessity for operating in many diseases. A great deal of the opposition was due to the doctors themselves. There have been doctors who would operate at every opportunity. Some doctors could not treat a woman for diseases of the womb and ovaries without suggesting that an operation was necessary. There have been a great many healthy organs removed, or at least organs that could have been saved by proper treatment. Fortunately such doctors are becoming less in number and there is more discrimination being used. On the other hand there has also been too much conservatism. Many persons have spent years in suffering who could have been relieved by an operation. Years ago a person suffering from terrific attacks of gall stone colic continued to suffer all their natural life. Now an operation is performed and relief is obtained at very little risk to life. The same is true of cancers, tumors, etc. These, if taken early, can be removed safely and successfully in very many cases and lives saved and suffering relieved.

If an operation is needed the family should go to their family physician, in whom they have confidence. He can do the operation or direct the family as to what surgeon to choose. Bad results of operations are, sometimes, due to the operator. It is the duty of the family to choose a competent and honest surgeon. There are plenty of them all over the world,--and very few competent surgeons operate simply for the money they receive. As a rule they earn all and more than they are paid. There are more surgeons today than ever and they are also more competent, for our medical schools prepare them in the hospitals for that kind of work.

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The surgeons connected with our hospitals, public and private, are doing a great work in relieving the ills of humanity, others in private practice are doing great work. Here and there one is found who operates only for the money, but persons who employ such a doctor are usually ent.i.tled to the results they receive. Your family physician, even if he is not a surgeon, is the best person to consult when an operation may be necessary.

He will send you to some honest and competent man. Operations usually should be performed as early as possible. In malignant disease the operation must be done early. This applies to cancers of the lip, face, tongue, breast, womb, ovaries, stomach and the abdominal cavity.

Then again, operations are far less dangerous now than before the days of aseptic and antiseptic surgery. Cleanliness on the part of the surgeon, nurses and patient is the first law of success in all operations. Any case that becomes infected through fault of the surgeon or attendants is no longer looked upon as a thoroughly successful operation, even though the patient recovers.

As in other branches of medicine, there are now many specialists in surgery. In the major operations it is best to employ a specialist, but in the minor cases the "family doctor" should be competent. If he does not care to perform the operation himself he can advise and direct you in selecting a competent surgeon. Always seek his advice early; do not wait until the patient is weak or dying before you decide to allow the operation, as then the chances are it cannot help. If you are in doubt as to the necessity of the operation consult more than one surgeon. There is a possibility of a wrong diagnosis in some cases.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS.

ADENOIDS.--Should be removed early when they obstruct the breathing. In another part of the book the reasons are given. The same advice is given for tumors and malformations in the nose pa.s.sages. Such conditions should not be allowed to go on until the parts are permanently deformed or diseased. These operations are done very frequently and successfully now, and many people are saved years of worry and suffering. For more extended account see department of nose and throat.

APPENDICITIS.--There has been a great deal of discussion about this disease. It is no doubt true that many healthy appendices have been removed, but it is also true that many lives have been saved by operation.

There is more discrimination now than formerly in this disease. Blood tests, etc., aid in telling when an operation is necessary in acute cases.

There is very little danger in a chronic case if the operation is done during the interval of the attacks.

CATARACT.--The operation for this trouble is gloriously successful and the blind are daily recovering their sight through this operation.

MASTOID.--Operations on the Mastoid cells are frequently performed now and save many lives. When there is swelling behind the ear or there is much pain there a careful examination should be made. Chronic cases of Mastoid disease usually demand this operation.

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OVARIES, TUMORS OF THE.--The operation for tumors is very successful. If the ovary is simply enlarged by congestion, medicine will frequently reduce it; but when the enlargement is due to a tumor, it should be removed if it continues to enlarge. Sometimes there is cancer of the ovary. If so, it should be operated upon early. Tumors of the womb, such as fibroids, are often observed. They sometimes require removal if they grow large. The symptoms will indicate when an operation is needed. These tumors often grow so large as to necessitate the removal of the womb.

PERINEUM AND CERVIX.--The perineum and cervix are sometimes torn during labor and should be immediately repaired. The perineum is the support for the organs of generation and if it is not solid the ovaries, tubes, womb and v.a.g.i.n.a will sag and fall. Neglect of this simple operation at the proper time results in backaches, headaches, etc. Many women have suffered for years and doctored for other complaints when proper attention to the real trouble would have saved all that expense and pain. Your physician should be requested, in advance, to attend before he leaves to any laceration that may occur during labor. At this time it causes little or no pain. If postponed until next day or later it would be painful and require an anesthetic. Many cases of cancer are caused by neglected lacerations.

PILES.--It is often necessary to operate both for external and internal piles. The result is usually complete relief and cure.

CANCERS.--Cancers should be operated on early. A sore on the womb, lip or tongue, or lump on the breast that continues for a little time without getting better, is dangerous. It may soon spread in the surrounding tissue and general system. Operations on the womb and breast, performed in time, are very successful. Such tumors or sores should not be neglected. A lump in the breast should be examined early. The womb should be examined if there is a discharge from the v.a.g.i.n.a that continues. In such a case the family doctor can determine what should be done. A sore on the lip, tongue, face, etc., that continues and refuses to heal should cause suspicion and be shown to a physician.

PLEURISY.--"Water in the chest" sometimes follows pleurisy. This, if not absorbed, must be drawn off and is quite easily done. After some cases of pneumonia the lung does not clear up properly and pus forms in it. An operation is sometimes necessary to evacuate it. This should be performed before the patient becomes very much exhausted. Some people allow it to continue too long and thus lessen the chances of recovery when an operation is at last performed.

SQUINT.--There is no need for any person being cross-eyed if attention is early given to the trouble. Sometimes properly fitted gla.s.ses will correct this trouble, but an operation is often necessary and is very successful and not serious or painful.

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TRACHEOTOMY AND INTUBATION.--The operation of tracheotomy, opening of the wind-pipe, is performed where there is choking from a foreign body in the wind-pipe or when it has become suddenly closed in diseases such as croup and diphtheria. It is always an emergency operation and is only resorted to when it is evident that unless severe measures are taken the patient will choke to death. Intubation is more frequently practised in disease when the breathing has become difficult owing to the growth of membrane in the larynx. A tube of the proper size is placed in the wind-pipe and allowed to remain there until the disease has lost its force and the membrane no longer obstructs the air pa.s.sage. This tube allows the patient to breathe freely as it furnishes an opening for the air and an attendant notices the change immediately. Intubation should be performed before the patient has become weak.

TONSILS.--A person who is subject to enlarged tonsils should watch them carefully. If they contain pus for any length of time they should be removed, for they not only obstruct the breathing, but are a menace to the health. Enucleation is usually the best method of removal. Enucleation means the operation of extracting a tumor in entirety after opening its sac, but without further cutting. Removal of the tonsils is a simple operation, usually not requiring the use of anesthetics and most physicians advise the removal of an enlarged or troublesome tonsil.

CALCULI OR STONES.--Calculi or stones are removed from the gall bladder, gall ducts, kidneys, ureter and bladder by operations, when it has been ascertained that the patient cannot "pa.s.s them." Many physicians prefer to locate the calculus by use of the X-rays before deciding to operate, and there can be no doubt as to the wisdom of this. In these, as in all operations, success depends largely upon the general condition of the patient. They are not considered dangerous operations, but the final decision as to their necessity should rest, in each case, with a competent physician or surgeon.

KIDNEYS, STOMACH, PROSTATE, ETC.--Little can be said in this brief paragraph concerning the many operations that are now performed upon the different organs. What applies to one applies, in general, to all.

Operations are now performed, and successfully, for pus in the kidney, floating kidney, etc. Ulcers and cancers are removed from the stomach and reproductive organs. In some cases it has been necessary to remove the organs in their entirety. Pieces of the intestines have been removed with gratifying results in cases of ulcers and injuries. Enlarged prostate nearly always necessitates an operation before relief can be expected. It is impossible here to say much concerning the chances for recovery in each individual case, since they are decided by the strength and temperament of the patient, the care and skill of the surgeon and nurses, and whether the patient has submitted to the operation soon enough in the course of the disease. Let it suffice here to say that the majority of the above-mentioned operations are successful and result in the relief and often the complete recovery of the patient.

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THE HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS.

Government Owners.h.i.+p.--The owners.h.i.+p and control of the Hot Springs of Arkansas by the United States Government is absolute, and its endors.e.m.e.nt of them for the treatment of certain ailments is unequivocal. After due investigation, congress took possession of the springs in the year 1832, and it retained around them a reservation ample to protect them from all encroachments, It was the first National park reservation of the country.

They are set apart by this act as "A National Sanitarium for all time,"

and "dedicated to the people of the United States to be forever free from sale or alienation."

The Army and Navy Hospital at Hot Springs.--In the year 1883 the United States Government built a hospital known as the army and navy hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on the Southwestern slope, near the base of Hot Springs mountain, since which time the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy have been sent there for treatment for such ailments as the waters may reasonably be expected to cure, or relieve. In his circular for the guidance of the officers of the army in sending the sick there, the surgeon-general of the United States enumerates the ailments for which the sick should be sent to the army and navy hospital at the Hot Springs. It says, "Relief may be reasonably expected at the Hot Springs in the following conditions: In the various forms of gout and rheumatism after the acute or inflammatory stage; neuralgia, especially when depending upon gout; rheumatism, metallic, or malarial poisonings, paralysis, not of organic origin; the earlier stages of locomotor ataxia; chronic Bright's disease (early stages only), and other diseases of the urinary organs; functional diseases of the liver; gastric dyspepsia, not of the organic origin; chronic diarrhea; catarrhal affections of the digestive and respiratory tracts; chronic skin diseases, especially the squamous varieties, and chronic conditions due to malarial infection."

Approved, GEO. H. TORNEY, Surgeon-General U. S. Army.

J.M. d.i.c.kERSON, Secretary of War.

Privileges of Ex-Soldiers of the Civil and Spanish-American Wars.--Honorably discharged soldiers of thc Civil war, and the Spanish-American war, can obtain admission to the army and navy hospital at Hot Springs in the following manner, and under certain conditions:

First.--Write to the Surgeon-General, United States Army, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.

c., for blank applications and instructions.

Second.--Upon receiving the blank application, fill it out properly, and return it to the Surgeon-General, when, if there is room in the hospital, he will forward to the applicant papers ent.i.tling him to admission to the hospital. The conditions are that such ex-soldier shall pay forty cents per day during the period he remains at the hospital. Such payment ent.i.tles him to board, lodging, baths, medical treatment and medicine.

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Free Baths for the Indigent People of the United States.--By act of congress approved December 16th, 1878, the government maintains a free bath house for the indigent people of the United States of both s.e.xes. No baths will be supplied except on written applications made on blanks furnished at the office of the bath house, making full answer to the questions therein propounded: then if the applicant is found to be indigent, in accordance with the common acceptations of the word, the manager will issue a ticket good for twenty-one baths, which may be reissued on the same application if necessary. The daily average of baths given at the free bath house for the year 1909 was more than six hundred.

The government is very broad and liberal in construing the meaning of the word indigent; and the fact that the applicant for free baths has some property, seems not to act as a bar to the privilege of free baths. Ninety per cent of the patients admitted to the Army and Navy Hospital are either cured or relieved. Taking into consideration the large number of old civil war veterans treated at the hospital, whose ailments have become chronic, this is a very remarkable showing.

Physicians' and Medical Regulations.--The United States Government, through the interior department, regulates and controls the practice of medicine in connection with the hot waters. A local federal medical board pa.s.ses on the applications of physicians who wish to prescribe the hot waters. All who meet the requirements of the board are placed on the accredited list. Copies of this list are hung in all the bath houses and only those whose names appear thereon are permitted to prescribe the hot waters. For the benefit of visitors these lists are also kept at the office of the superintendent of the reservation near the Army and Navy Hospital. These regulations apply only to those who take medical treatment. Others get the baths without formalities of any kind. In addition to the Army and Navy hospital and the government free bath house, there are twenty-five bath houses operated by private parties, eleven of which are situated along the western base of Hot Springs mountains on the government reservation, and fourteen are on private property at various other points throughout the city. The relations of all the bath houses to the government are the same. They each pay the water rental to the Interior Department of the United States. The government's interests are looked after by a superintendent of the reservation, who is appointed by the President of the United States. He has charge of all improvements going on, on the reservation and enforces all government rules and regulations concerning the bath houses.

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Cost of Living at Hot Springs.--Hot Springs is not located in a good agricultural section, and it is not a manufacturing city; therefore, the boarding and lodging of visitors is their only source of income. Upon nearly every house in the city is displayed the notice that board is furnished, or furnished rooms are for rent, with or without light housekeeping. A few places furnish board and lodging for $4.50 per week; the most general charge, however, is from $5.00 to $6.00 per week. Renting rooms, arranged for light housekeeping, is the cheapest method of living at Hot Springs. The above prices are intended to show the minimum cost of living.

Where to obtain additional reliable information relating to baths, board, etc., at Hot Springs, Arkansas.--First. Apply to the superintendent of the United States reservation, corner of Central and Reserve Avenues, Hot Springs.