Inunctions of oil are of undoubted value. Absolute moral and physical rest frequently exercises a favorable influence. Seyfert advised his patients to go home on a visit to their mothers, and return to the conditions to which they were accustomed prior to marriage. Coitus may be a disturbing factor. Rest in the horizontal decubitus exercises as favorable an influence as in sea-sickness.
Medical.—There are few drugs in the Pharmacopoeia which have not been vaunted as specifics by some and found utterly worthless by others. This fact indicates, as remarked by Schroeder, that all remedies are unreliable, and that spontaneous cures frequently occur. Various effervescent liquids, as dry champagne, carbonic-acid water containing one drachm of potassium bromide to the siphon, are sometimes grateful. Subnitrate of bismuth and the antacids are of great value in cases of excessive gastric acidity. Oxalate of cerium, a much-vaunted remedy, is of very little value. Small doses of the tincture of nux vomica are useful in cases of gastric catarrh. The various local anæsthetics are of great importance. Small doses of creasote, carbolic acid, tincture of aconite-root, hydrocyanic acid, and the volatile oils have been used with varying degrees of success. Of this class of remedies cocaine hydrochlorate deserves especial attention. On a priori grounds there is much in its favor. Clinical experience with the drug is not such as to warrant very positive deductions. W. Otto12 has employed cocaine in sea-sickness, especially in pregnant women, with favorable results. Manassein13 reports several cases of hyperemesis of pregnancy cured by its exhibition. The subject is certainly worthy of thorough investigation. G. Gaertner of Vienna states that 0.1 cocainum muriaticum has no toxic effect upon adults. Doses of 0.015-0.02 of the solution (cocain. muriat. sol. Merck, 1.0; aq. destill. 9.0) may be given to an adult three times daily without fear of toxæmia. Goodell recommends drop doses of wine of ipecacuanha and tincture of belladonna, repeated every fifteen minutes.
12 Berl. klin. Woch., 1885, No. 43.
13 Ibid., 1885, No. 35.
Of all medical agents, however, opium, the bromides, and chloral are the most reliable. A clyster containing thirty or forty drops of the deodorized tincture, or a half-grain suppository of the aqueous extract of opium, sometimes produces a happy effect. Hypodermatic injections of morphine will frequently allay the distressing symptoms after the failure of other measures. In the German hospitals large doses of the bromides and chloral are exhibited per rectum with gratifying success in many cases.
Flying blisters, the ether spray, and the faradic current applied to the pit of the stomach may give relief in the milder forms of the disorder.
Gynæcological.—Under the gynæcological treatment of hyperemesis quite a number of important operative procedures are included: 1. If bimanual examination reveals a displacement of the uterus capable of producing symptoms, the organ must be replaced if possible, and retained in position by a properly fitting pessary. 2. Henry Bennet suggested the cauterization of the cervix in all cases, basing his therapy upon his peculiar views of the pathology of the condition. Welponer, Sims, and Jones recommend the application of a 10 per cent. solution of argentic nitrate to the vaginal portion of the cervix in all cases, irrespective of the condition of the cervical tissues, when other means have proved useless. Carl Braun14 bears testimony as to the value of this procedure. 3. As an ultimate resource before artificially interrupting gestation, the plan of dilating the os externum and cervix uteri with the index finger should be tried. Copeman15 of Norwich, England, desirous of inducing abortion in the case of a patient afflicted with hyperemesis, pushed his finger through the cervical canal to the membranes and attempted to puncture the amnion with a sound. Failing to accomplish his purpose, he went home for assistance, and returned at the expiration of two hours. To his surprise, the uncontrollable vomiting had ceased. Since 1875, when he published the results of this experience, cases have accumulated proving the great value of this method. W. Gill Wylie16 of New York has devised a steel dilator to substitute the finger. When the os externum is at all patulous, the index finger is the safest and most efficient dilator. The method is a purely empirical one, does not always secure the desired result, and frequently causes abortion or premature labor. Still, as the ultimate gynæcological resort it has important functions.
14 Lehrb. d. g. Gynaekoloqie, 1881, p. 841.
15 Brit. Med. Journal, 1875, 1879.
16 N. Y. Med. Record, Dec. 6, 1884.