Pleurisy sometimes accompanies pneumonia or inflammation of the substance of the lungs. If allowed to run on, the disease produces effusion of serum or of lymph into the cavity of the chest, in either case giving rise to adhesions, which cause embarrassment of breathing. On the contrary, it may terminate by resolution or complete recovery.
Pleurisy generally arises from exposure to the cold. A blow or a wound will also cause it, and a not uncommon origin is the splintered end of a broken rib. In every case the advice of the medical practitioner should be sought upon the first indications of the disease. The following treatment is suggested for adoption only by emigrants, or others unable to procure the services of the medical man in cases of urgency:—
Under these circumstances the patient, sitting in an upright posture, should be bled until he is able to breathe without feeling pain. If after bleeding the pain should return, leeches, if obtainable, should be applied to the painful part, and a large blister should be placed near the affected spot. After being
bled the patient should have a hot bath. Should the pain not subside, leeching must be had free recourse to, or blood be drawn by cupping. A brisk purgative should be given at the commencement of the disease, and after this has ceased acting the patient should take two grains of calomel and a quarter of a grain of opium every four hours, but this treatment must not be continued longer than is necessary. The patient should remain in bed in a room which has a uniform temperature of 60° F., and adopt a low diet.
In Horses.—Symptoms. Fever, indicated by shivering, indisposition to move or turn, quick pulse, painful cough, and hurried respiration.
“Place the animal without delay in a cool, airy, loose box, and bleed to the extent of seven or eight quarts, or until the pulse falters. Bleeding is never justifiable after the third day, when the pulse reaches 70. Three or four drachms of aloes in solution will suffice for the horse, and clysters must also be given. Until the physic operates sedatives must be used with great caution. Twenty minims of Flemming’s tincture of aconite should be given every three hours.
“Towards the close of the second day the aconite may be discontinued, and a scruple of calomel and a drachm of opium given in a bolus, and repeated every four hours until four or five doses have been given. Apply liniment of ammonia or mustard to the sides. If the animal be thirsty give water in which nitre has been dissolved. Keep the animal perfectly quiet, and let it have soft laxative food.” (Finlay Dun.)
PLUG′GING. The introduction of a mass of lint, sponge, or other suitable material, into a wound or cavity, with the intention of arresting hæmorrhage. It is now seldom adopted, except in cases of bleeding from the nose, and that only after more approved methods have failed.
PLUM. A name applied to several varieties of the Prunus domesticus (Linn.), or wild plum. Among the cultivated varieties, the damson, greengage, French plum, magnum bonum or Mogul p., mirabelle p., Orleans p., and prune, are those best known. Grocers’ ‘plums’ are raisins, or dried grapes.
In the following table will be found the composition of the principal varieties of plum.