Domestic medicine : $b or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitionersBuchan, William
Science
Domestic medicine : $b or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners
Buchan, William
Medicine, Popular -- Early works to 1800
If towards the ninth, tenth, or twelfth day, the tongue becomes more
moist, with a plentiful spitting, a gentle purging, or a moisture upon
the skin; or if a suppuration happens in one or both ears, or large
pustules break out about the lips and nose, there is reason to hope for
a favourable crisis.
But if there is an excessive looseness, or wasting sweats, with frequent
fainting fits; if the tongue, when put out, trembles excessively, and
the extremities feel cold, with a fluttering or slow creeping pulse; if
there is a starting of the tendons, an almost total loss of sight and
hearing, and an involuntary discharge by stool and urine, there is great
reason to fear that death is approaching.
REGIMEN.——It is very necessary in this disease to keep the patient cool
and quiet. The least motion would fatigue him, and will be apt to
occasion weariness, and even faintings. His mind ought not only to be
kept easy, but soothed and comforted with the hopes of a speedy
recovery. Nothing is more hurtful in low fevers of this kind than
presenting to the patient’s imagination gloomy or frightful ideas. These
of themselves often occasion nervous fevers, and it is not to be doubted
but they will likewise aggravate them.
The patient must not be kept too low. His strength and spirits ought to
be supported by nourishing diet and generous cordials. For this purpose
his gruel, panado, or whatever food he takes, must be mixed with wine
according as the symptoms may require. Pretty strong wine-whey, or small
negus, sharpened with the juice of orange or lemon, will be proper for
his ordinary drink. Mustard-whey is likewise a very proper drink in this
fever, and may be rendered an excellent cordial medicine by the addition
of a proper quantity of white-wine[78].
Wine in this disease, if it could be obtained genuine, is almost the
only medicine that would be necessary. Good wine possesses all the
virtues of the cordial medicines, while it is free from many of their
bad qualities. I say good wine; for however common this article of
luxury is now become, it is rarely to be obtained genuine, especially by
the poor, who are obliged to purchase it in small quantities.
I have often seen patients in low nervous fevers where the pulse could
hardly be felt, with a constant delirium, coldness of the extremities,
and almost every other mortal symptom, recover by using in whey, gruel,
and negus, a bottle or two of strong wine every day. Good old sound
claret is the best, and may be made into negus, or given by itself, as
circumstances require.
In a word, the great aim in this disease is to support the patient’s
strength, by giving him frequently small quantities of the above, or
other drinks of a warm and cordial nature. He is not however to be
overheated either with liquor or clothes; and his food ought to be
light, and given in small quantities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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