2. A hot bath followed by the hot blanket pack (See [Appendix]).
3. One drop of croton oil on a bit of sugar may be placed on the back of the tongue.
4. Chloroform may be administered, provided a competent nurse or other medical person is present.
The appearance of convulsions which have been preceded by one or more of the symptoms noted under the head of "toxemia," indicates that the patient has become so profoundly intoxicated and poisoned by the accumulating toxins, that the lives of both mother and child are jeopardized by threatened eclampsia. At such a time, the attending physician will immediately set about to bring on labor, and thus seek to empty the uterus at the earliest possible moment.
CARDINAL SYMPTOMS OF TOXICITY
Since toxemia (eclampsia) is one of the complications of pregnancy most to be dreaded, it is fortunate that it almost invariably exhibits early danger signals which, if recognized and heeded, would enable the patient and physician to initiate proper measures to avert danger and escape the threatened disaster. The presence of this toxic danger is indicated by the persistent presence of the following three symptoms:
- Persistent, dull headache.
- Presence of casts in the urine.
- Persistent high blood-pressure, with tendency to increase.
Fig. 4. Taking the Blood Pressure.