Part 29

Sec. 283. People who are liable to frequent Returns of an Erisipelas, should very carefully avoid using Milk, Cream, and all fat and viscid, or clammy Food, Pies, brown Meat, Spices, thick and heady Liquors, a sedentary Life, the more active Passions, especially Rage, and, if possible, all Chagrin too. Their Food should chiefly consist of Herbage, Fruits, of Substances inclining to Acidity, and which tend to keep the Body open; they should drink Water, and some of the light white Wines; by no Means omitting the frequent Use of Cream of Tartar. A careful Conformity to these Regulations is of real Importance, as, besides the Danger of the frequent Visitations of this Disease, they denote some slight Indispositions of the Liver and the Gall-bladder; which, if too little attended to, might in Time prove very troublesome and pernicious.

Such mineral Waters as are gently opening are very proper for these Constitutions, as well as the Juice of Succory, and clarified Whey, of which they should take about three Pints every Morning, during the five or six Summer Months. This becomes still more efficacious, if a little Cream of Tartar and Honey be added to it.

Of the Stings, or little Wounds, by Animals.

Sec. 284. The Stings or little Bites of Animals, frequently producing a kind of Erisipelas, I shall add a very few Words concerning them in this Place.

Of the Serpents in this Country none but the Vipers are poisonous; and none of these are found except at Baume, where there is a Viperary, if we may be allowed that Word. We have no Scorpions, which are somewhat poisonous; our Toads are not in the least so: whence the only Stings we are exposed to, are those of Bees, Wasps, Hornets, Muskitos or Gnats, and Dragon Flies: all of which are sometimes attended with severe Pain, a Swelling, and a very considerable erisipelatous Redness; which, if it happens in the Face, sometimes entirely closes the Eyes up; occasioning also a Fever, Pains of the Head, Restlessness, and Sickness at Heart; and, when the Pains are in a violent Degree, Faintings and Convulsions, though always without any mortal Consequence. These Symptoms go off naturally within a few Days, without any Assistance: Nevertheless they may either be prevented, diminished in Degree, or shortned in Duration.

These, in some Parts of America, are called Muskito Hawks; but we do not recollect their biting there. K.

1, By extracting the Sting of the Animal, if it is left behind.

2, By a continual Application of one of the Remedies directed Sec. 281, Article 1 and 2, particularly the Infusion of Elder-flowers, to which a little Venice Treacle is added; or by covering the Part affected with a Pultice, made of Crum of Bread, Milk, Honey, and a little Venice Treacle.

Pounded Parsley is one of the most availing Applications in such Accidents. E.L.

3, By bathing the Legs of the Person stung repeatedly in warm Water.

4, By retrenching a little of their customary Food, especially at Night, and by making them drink an Infusion of Elder-flowers, with the Addition of a little Nitre. Oil, if applied very quickly after the Sting, sometimes prevents the Appearance of any Swelling, and from thence the Pains that attend it.

_Chapter XX._

Of spurious, or false Inflammations of the Breast, and of spurious, bilious, Pleurisies.

_Sect._ 285.

The Inflammation of the Breast and that Pleurisy, which is called bilious, are the same Disease. It is properly a putrid Fever, attended with an Infarction or Stuffing of the Lungs, though without Pain; in which Circumstance it is called a putrid or bilious Peripneumony: but when attended with a Pain of the Side, a Stitch, it is called a spurious or bastard Pleurisy.

Sec. 286. The Signs which distinguish these Diseases from the inflammatory ones of the same Name, described Chap. IV and V, are a less hard and less strong, but a quicker Pulse, though unaccompanied with the same Symptoms which constitute the inflammatory ones (See Sec. 47 and 90). The Mouth is foul, and has a Sensation of Bitterness; the Patient is infested with a sharp and dry Heat; he has a Feeling of Heaviness and Anxiety all about his Stomach, with Loathings: he is less flushed and red in these, than in the inflammatory Diseases, but rather a little yellow. He has a dejected wan Look; his Urine resembles that in putrid Fevers, and not that of inflammatory ones; and he has very often a small bilious Looseness, which is extremely offensive. The Skin is commonly very dry in this Disease; the Humour spit up is less thick, less reddish, and rather more yellow than in the inflammatory Diseases of the same Names.

Sec. 287. They must be treated after the manner of putrid Fevers, as in Sec. 241. Supposing some little Degree of Inflammation to be combined with the Disease, it may be removed by a single Bleeding. After this the Patient is to drink Barley Water No. 3, to make Use of Glysters; and as soon as all Symptoms of any Inflammation wholly disappear, he is to take the vomiting and purging Draught No. 34. But the utmost Caution must be taken not to give it, before every Appearance of any Inflammation is totally removed; as giving it sooner would be certain Death to the Sick: and it is dreadful but to think of agitating, by a Vomit, Lungs that are inflamed, and overloaded with Blood, whose Vessels burst and discharge themselves, only from the Force of Expectoration. After an Interval of some Days, he may be purged again with the Medicine No. 23. The Prescription No. 25 succeeds also very well as a Vomit. If the Fever is violent, he must drink plentifully of the Potion No. 10.

Blisters to the Legs are very serviceable, when the Load and Oppression are not considerably abated after general Evacuations.

Sec. 288. The false Inflammation of the Breast is an Overfulness or Obstruction in the Lungs, accompanied with a Fever; and it is caused by extremely thick and tenacious Humours; and not by a really inflammatory Blood, or by any putrid or bilious Humour.

Sec. 289. This Distemper happens more frequently in the Spring, than in any other Season. Old Men, puny, ill-constitutioned Children, languid Women, feeble young Men, and particularly such as have worn their Constitutions out by drinking, are the Subjects most frequently attacked by it; especially if they have used but little Exercise throughout the Winter: if they have fed on viscid, mealy and fat Aliments, as Pastry, Chesnuts, thick Milk or Pap, and Cheese. All their Humours have contracted a thick glutinous Quality; they are circulated with Difficulty, and when Heat or Exercise in the Spring increases their Motion at once, the Humours, already stuffing up the Lungs, still more augment that Plenitude, whence these vital Organs are fatally extended, and the Patient dies.

Sec. 290. This Distemper is known to exist,

1, By the previous Existence of the Causes already mentioned.

2, By the Symptoms which precede and usher it in. For Example, the Patient many Days before-hand has a slight Cough; a small Oppression when he moves about; a little Restlessness, and is sometimes a little choleric or fretful. His Countenance is higher coloured than in Health; he has a Propensity to sleep, but attended with Confusion and without Refreshment, and has sometimes an extraordinary Appetite.

3, When this State has continued for some Days, there comes on a cold Shivering, though more considerable for its Duration than its Violence; it is succeeded by a moderate Degree of Heat, but that attended with much Inquietude and Oppression. The sick Person cannot confine himself to the Bed; but walks to and fro in his Chamber, and is greatly dejected. The Pulse is weak and pretty quick; the Urine is sometimes but little changed from that in Health; at other Times it is discharged but in a small Quantity, and is higher coloured: he coughs but moderately, and does not expectorate, or cough up, but with Difficulty. The Visage becomes very red, and even almost livid; he can neither keep awake, nor sleep well; he raves for some Moments, and then his Head grows clear again. Sometimes it happens, especially to Persons of advanced Age, that this State suddenly terminates in a mortal Swoon or Fainting: at other Times and in other Cases, the Oppression and Anguish increase; the Patient cannot breathe but when sitting up, and that with great Difficulty and Agony: the Brain is utterly disturbed and embarrassed; this State lasts for some Hours, and then terminates of a sudden.

Sec. 291. This is a very dangerous Distemper; because, in the first Place, it chiefly attacks those Persons whose Temperament and Constitution are deprived of the ordinary Resources for Health and Recovery: in the second Place, because it is of a precipitate Nature, the Patient sometimes dying on the third Day, and but seldom surviving the seventh; while the Cause of it requires a more considerable Term for its Removal or Mitigation. Besides which, if some Indications present for the Employment of a Remedy, there are frequently others which forbid it; and all that seems to be done is, as follows;

1, If the Patient has still a pretty good Share of Health; if he is not of too advanced an Age; if the Pulse has a perceivable Hardness, and yet at the same Time some Strength; if the Weather is dry, and the Wind blows from the North, he should be bled once, to a moderate Quantity. But if the greater Part of these Circumstances are wanting, Bleeding would be very prejudicial. Were we obliged to establish some general and positive Rule in this Case, it were better to exclude Bleeding, than to admit it.

2, The Stomach and the Bowels should be unloaded from their viscid glutinous Contents; and the Medicines which succeed the best in this Respect are No. 35, when the Symptoms shew there is a great Necessity for vomiting, and there is no Inflammation; or the Prescription No. 25, which after vomiting, purges by Stool, promotes Urine, breaks down and divides the viscid Humours that occasion the Disease, and increase Perspiration. When we are afraid of hazarding the Agitation of a Vomit and its Consequences, the Potion, No. 11 may be given; but we must be very cautious, in Regard to old Men, even with this; as such may expire during the Operation of it.

3, They should, from the Beginning of the Disease, drink plentifully of the Ptisan No. 26, which is the best Drink in this Disease; or that of No. 12, adding half a Dram of Nitre to every Pint of it.