CONSTITUTION BALLS, Vegetable (A. H. Bôldt). Two parallelopiped hard brown balls, each of which weighs 58 grammes, and is made by melting together 2 parts of aloes and 1 part coarsely powdered gentian. (Hager).
CONSUMP′TION. See Phthisis.
CONTA′GION. By ‘contagion’ is usually meant the communication of disease by means either of actual contact or through a medium, such as the air. By some a contagious disease is regarded as one arising from direct contact only, in contradistinction to an infectious one, which is believed to act at a distance. See Disinfectant.
CONTU′SION. A hurt, or injury to the flesh, such as might be caused by a blunt instrument or by a fall, without breach or apparent wound. For treatment, see Bruise.
CONVALESCENCE. Convalescence may be described as the period between the cessation of an attack of serious illness and the restoration, if not to a perfect, to an accustomed state of health. Convalescent patients should particularly guard against excess in eating or drinking, or unnecessary and imprudent exposure to cold or damp weather, during this interval, as well as against premature exertion of the limbs or voice; such and all of which are acts of imprudence that may give rise to a return of the disease. In order to avoid this latter risk, as well as to aid in complete recovery, repose both of body and mind are generally needed, more particularly in the earlier stages of convalescence.
It should be borne in mind that convalescents from many infectious diseases, such as measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, &c., are much more likely to propagate these diseases than when they are labouring under them in the acute form. During the period of their recovery the skin and other organs are throwing off the poison in large quantities, and thus exposing those in contact with, or in the near neighbourhood of the convalescent, to the great and imminent risk of contagion. Even if not contagious himself, the convalescent’s clothes, if they be the same as those worn by him during his illness, may also convey the disease.
CONVULSIONS. Spasmodic contractions of the muscles producing motions of the limbs, generally accompanied with unconsciousness. Convulsions occur at all periods of life, but in adults they are only symptoms of other diseases. In children they are very common. They are of frequent occurrence in teething; and a swollen and inflamed state of the gums is said to excite them. Dr Gardner, in his very useful work, ‘Household Medicine,’ says they may be brought on by “improper food, e.g. the milk of a nurse suffering from some violent emotion. At the siege of Berlin nearly all the suckling children died of convulsions.” They may also be induced by feverish attacks, hooping-cough, strong purgatives, or suppressed eruptions. In the case
of a dangerous attack of convulsion no time should be lost in sending for a medical practitioner. Pending his arrival, the patient should be placed as promptly as possible in a hot-water bath. A better plan is to loosen all the dress, to place the child across the arms, and sway it up and down gently, and to allow cool air to play on the face and chest; give an enema of soap and water, and apply mustard plasters for a few seconds only to the pit of the stomach. If these fail to give relief, apply leeches (number according to the age) to the temples, and cold to the head. Lance the gums if inflamed. When the fit is over keep the head cool. If there have been white stools, give a grain or two of calomel, and repeat it every three or four hours for three or four times until the stools become green or dark. Keep the bowels open by castor oil, and let the patient be put on a milk diet. The latter part of the above treatment is inserted for the benefit of the emigrant or other individual having no means of obtaining proper medical aid.
COPAHINE. Copaiba balsam made into a mass with wax and powdered cubebs, divided into hard egg-shaped pills weighing 5 decigrammes each and sugar coated.
COPAHINE MEGE DE JOZEAU. A fixed quantity of copaiba balsam is mixed with concentrated nitric acid, and constantly stirred as long as effervescence continues. The oxidised balsam is then washed, first with warm then with cold water, till the washings cease to have an acid reaction. From one part of this balsamum copaivæ acido nitrico correctum with 1⁄10 part powdered cubebs, 1⁄10 part bicarbonate of soda, 1⁄16 part calcined magnesia, with some mucilage, a mass is prepared and divided into oval pills, which are afterwards coated with sugar, mixed with gum and carmine.