Inflammation is another dangerous disease of the bladder, calling for the prompt summoning of the medical practitioner wherever possible.
The following particulars as to its symptoms and treatment are offered for adoption to emigrants and others so placed as to be beyond the means of medical succour.
Inflammation of the bladder commences with pain in the region of that organ, the pain becoming continuous and increasing in violence, and being accompanied with a sense of burning heat and of tenderness on pressure. The urine is frequently voided. The inflammation is sometimes so acute as to give rise to suppuration and the consequent discharge of pus with the urine. Sometimes the disease assumes a chronic character.
In the acute form of the disease recourse should be had to leeches, hot fomentations, and warm baths; a dose of calomel, to be
followed by a brisk dose of castor oil, should likewise be administered. Alcoholic drinks of any kind must be carefully avoided, the patient being allowed to drink only cool demulcent beverages. With these should be combined effervescing draughts, frequently repeated, and small doses of Dover’s powder. Great relief will also be derived from the use of enemas of gruel containing laudanum. Where inflammation of the bladder arises from gout or rheumatism, it must be treated as for these diseases. A suppository, consisting of two grains of opium, combined with twenty grains of soap, is frequently of great benefit.
Should the disease become chronic, the best method of treatment will be the repeated use of mild aperients, the combined employment of uva ursi in infusion or powder, with either tincture of perchloride of iron, or the mineral acids. Spirituous liquors of any kind must be avoided. Demulcent drinks form the best beverage, and a farinaceous or milk diet the most desirable food.
Neuralgia of the Bladder. The pain which attends this disease is unaccompanied either by inflammation or irritation, and is recurrent in character. It may generally be arrested by tincture of perchloride of iron, or of iron and quinine, administered three times a day.
Irritation of the Bladder. The patient affected with this disorder gratifies the frequent desire he has to pass his urine, the operation being accompanied with pain and forcing, the most severe pain being experienced after the excretion has taken place. The tincture of perchloride of iron will also be found the best remedy for this disorder. It should be given in conjunction with the infusions of uva ursi, Pareira brava, or buchu.
Mucilaginous drinks should also be had recourse to.
Catarrh of the Bladder. The symptoms of this disease are irritation, and the presence of much mucus in the urine. The same treatment may be adopted as recommended for irritation of the bladder. If there be an absence of pain, spirits of nitre and copaiba balsam in moderate doses frequently afford relief.