The Modern Family Physician

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II The Nose and Throat CtU in the Head?Mouth-Breathing?Toothache?Sort Month ?Treatment of Tonsilitis?Quituj?Diphtheria. NOSEBLEED?Nosebleed is caused by blows or falls, or more frequently by picking and violently blowing the nose. The cartilage of the nasal septum, or partition which divides the two nostrils, very often becomes sore in spots, owing to irritation of dust-laden air, and these crust over and lead to itching. Then picking the nose removes the crusts, and frequent nosebleed results. Nosebleed also is common in both full-blooded and anaemic persons; in the former because of the high pressure within the blood vessels, in the latter owing to the thin walls of the arteries and capillaries which readily rupture. Nosebleed is again an accompaniment of certain general disorders, as heart disease and typhoid fever. The bleeding comes usually from one nostril only, and is a general oozing from the mucous membrane, or more commonly flows from one spot on the septum near the nostril, the cause of which we have just noted. The blood may spout forth in a stream, as after a blow, or trickle away drop by drop, but is rarely dangerousexcept in infants and aged persons with weak blood vessels. In the case of the latter the occurrence of bleeding from the nose is thought to indicate brittle vessels and a tendency to apoplexy, which may be averted by the nosebleed. This is uncertain. If nosebleed comes on at night during sleep, the blood may flow into the stomach without the patient's knowledge, and on being vomited may suggest bleeding from the stomach. Treatment?The avoidance of excitement and of blowing the nose, hawking, and coughing will assist recovery. The patient should sit quietly with head erect, unless there is pallor and faintness, when he may lie dow...