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
There is a nausea, and sometimes a vomiting of bile; a violent pain of
the head, with a strong pulsation or throbbing of the temporal arteries;
the eyes often appear red and inflamed, with a pain at the bottom of the
orbit; there is a noise in the ears, the breathing is laborious, and
often interrupted with a sigh; the patient complains of a pain about the
region of the stomach, and in his back and loins; his tongue is at first
white, but afterwards it appears black and chaped; and his teeth are
covered with a black crust. He sometimes passes worms both upwards and
downwards, is affected with tremors or shaking, and often becomes
delirious.
If blood is let, it appears dissolved, or with a very small degree of
cohesion, and soon becomes putrid; the stools smell extremely fœtid, and
are sometimes of a greenish, black, or reddish cast. Spots of a pale
purple, dun, or black colour, often appear upon the skin, and sometimes
there are violent hæmorrhages, or discharges of blood from the mouth,
eyes, nose, &c.
Putrid fevers may be distinguished from the inflammatory, by the
smallness of the pulse, the great dejection of mind, the dissolved state
of the blood, the petechiæ, or purple spots, and the putrid smell of the
excrements. They may likewise be distinguished from the low or nervous
fever by the heat and thirst being greater, the urine of a higher
colour, and the loss of strength, dejection of mind, and all the other
symptoms more violent.
It sometimes happens, however, that the inflammatory, nervous, and
putrid symptoms are so blended together, as to render it very difficult
to determine to which class the fever belongs. In this case the greatest
caution and skill are requisite. Attention must be paid to those
symptoms which are most prevalent, and both the regimen and medicines
adapted to them.
Inflammatory and nervous fevers may be converted into malignant and
putrid, by too hot a regimen or improper medicines.
The duration of putrid fevers is extremely uncertain; sometimes they
terminate between the seventh and fourteenth day, and at other times
they are prolonged for five or six weeks. Their duration depends greatly
upon the constitution of the patient, and the manner of treating the
disease.
The most favourable symptoms are, a gentle looseness after the fourth or
fifth day, with a warm mild sweat. These, when continued for a
considerable time, often carry off the fever, and should never be
imprudently stopped. Small miliary pustules appearing between the
petechiæ or purple spots are likewise favourable, as also hot scabby
eruptions about the mouth and nose. It is a good sign when the pulse
rises upon the use of wine, or other cordials, and the nervous symptoms
abate; deafness coming on towards the decline of the fever, is likewise
often a favourable symptom[83], as are abscesses in the groin or parotid
glands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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