Sec. 257. A few Fits of an Intermittent are not very injurious, and it happens sometimes, that they are attended with a favourable Alteration of the Habit in Point of Health; by their exterminating the Cause or Principle of some languid and tedious Disorder; though it is erroneous to consider them as salutary. If they prove tedious and obstinate, and the Fits are long and violent, they weaken the whole Body, impairing all its Functions, and particularly the Digestions: They make the Humours sharp and unbalmy, and introduce several other Maladies, such as the Jaundice, Dropsy, Asthma and slow wasting Fevers. Nay sometimes old Persons, and those who are very weak, expire in the Fit; though such an Event never happens but in the cold Fit. Sec. 258. Very happily Nature has afforded us a Medicine, that infallibly cures these Fevers: this is the _Kinkina_, or Jesuits Bark; and as we are possessed of this certain Remedy, the only remaining Difficulty is to discover, if there be not some other Disease combined with these Fevers, which Disease might be aggravated by the Bark. Should any such exist, it must be removed by Medicines adapted to it, before the Bark is given. [67] [67] This admirable Medicine was unknown in Europe, till about one hundred and twenty Years past; we are obliged to the Spaniards for it, who found it in the Province of Quito in Peru; the Countess of Chinchon being the first European who used it in America, whence it was brought to Spain, under the Name of the Countesses Powder. The Jesuits having soon dispensed and distributed it abroad, it became still more publick by the Name of the Jesuits Powder: and since it has been known by that of _Kinkina_ or the Peruvian Bark. It met with great Opposition at first; some deeming it a Poison, while others considered it as a divine Remedy: so that the Prejudices of many being heightened by their Animosity, it was nearly a full Century, before its true Virtue and its Use were agreed to: and about twenty Years since the most unfavourable Prejudices against it pretty generally subsided. The Insufficience of other Medicines in several Cases; its great Efficaciousness; and the many and surprizing Cures which it did, and daily does effect; the Number of Distempers; the different kinds of Fevers, in which it proves the sovereign Remedy; its Effects in the most difficult chirurgical Cases; the Comfort, the Strength and Sprits it gives those who need and take it, have at length opened every Persons Eyes; so that it has almost unanimously obtained the first Reputation, among the most efficacious Medicines. The World is no longer amused with Apprehensions of its injuring the Stomach; of its fixing, or _shutting up_ the Fever (as the Phrase has been) without curing it; that it shuts up the Wolf in the Sheepfold; that it throws those