Haemospasis. Haemospastic Medication. Dry Cupping.

This is a powerful revulsive treatment. Anything which draws the blood to a part may be said to act haemospastically. Dry cupping does so ; it not only draws the blood from internal parts to the surface, but likewise attracts morbid action, and thus affords relief. Common half-pint tumblers will answer for adults very well, in place of ordinary cupping-glasses. A piece of paper or cotton, rolled up and fired, and dropped into the tumbler, and allowed to burn a minute or two, fits the tumbler for application to the spot. One, two, or more may be applied, and repeated as often as may be desirable ; they should remain until ready to fall off. Intermittent fever has been invariably cured by M. Condret, by applying eight or ten middle-sized cupping-glasses, on each side of the spinal column, from the neck downward, and allowing them to remain for about thirty or forty minutes. To be applied at the commencement of the cold stage. One to four applications effects the cure. Also useful in cases of difficult respiration from congestion of the lungs or mucous membrane of the bronchii, etc.

Haemastasis is a term applied to the retention of venous blood in the extremities by ligature. Tie a handkerchief, or any suitable cord around the upper part of the arms, and the thighs, and then, by means of a piece of wood, twist or turn the cord sufficiently tight to check the circulation of the venous blood, but not the arterial, which may be known by the action of the pulse. In a short time the arms and legs will be much distended, and an amount of blood removed from the trunk and retained in the limbs, which the most heroic practitioner dare not remove by the lancet. If the subject faint, promptly loosen or remove the ligatures ; if he be plethoric and of firm, vigorous constitution, he must be reduced by cathartics, diuretics, sudorifics, and be under the influence of gentle nauseants, at the time of the operation. This is found very useful in uterine hemorrhage, hemoptysis, and other hemorrhages, inflammations of the brain, lungs, bowels, etc., congestions, puerperal convulsions, and wherever it is deemed advisable to lessen the amount of blood in the head and trunk, without injuring the system.

The American Eclectic Dispensatory, 1854, was written by John King, M. D.