There is no disease wherein the benefit of bathing the feet and legs in lukewarm water is more apparent: that practice ought therefore never to be neglected. If people were careful to keep warm, to wrap up their throats with flannel, to bathe their feet and legs in warm water, and to use a spare diet, with diluting liquors, at the beginning of this disease, it would seldom proceed to a great height, or be attended with any danger; but when these precautions are neglected, and the disease becomes violent, more powerful medicines are necessary. MEDICINE.——An inflammation of the throat being a most acute and dangerous distemper, which sometimes takes off the patient very suddenly, it will be proper, as soon as the symptoms appear, to bleed in the arm, or rather in the jugular vein, and to repeat the operation if circumstances require. The body should likewise be kept gently open. This may either be done by giving the patient for his ordinary drink a decoction of figs and tamarinds, or small doses of rhubarb and nitre, as recommended in the erysipelas. These may be increased according to the age of the patient, and repeated till they have the desired effect. I have often known very good effects from a bit of _sal prunel_, or purified nitre, held in the mouth, and swallowed down as it melted. This promotes the discharge of _saliva_, by which means it answers the end of a gargle, while at the same time it abates the fever, by promoting the discharge of urine, &c. The throat ought likewise to be rubbed twice or thrice a-day with a little of the volatile liniment. This seldom fails to produce some good effects. At the same time the neck ought to be carefully covered with wool or flannel, to prevent the cold from penetrating the skin, as this application renders it very tender. Many other external applications are recommended in this disease, as a swallow’s nest, poultices made of the fungus called Jew’s ears, album Græcum, &c. But as we do not look upon any of these to be preferable to a common poultice of bread and milk, we shall take no farther notice of them. Some recommend the gum guaiacum as a specific in this disease. Half a dram of the gum in powder may be made into an electuary with the rob of elderberries, or the jelly of currants for a dose, and repeated occasionally[107]. Blistering upon the neck or behind the ears in violent inflammations of the throat is very beneficial; and in bad cases it will be necessary to lay a blistering-plaster quite across the throat, so as to reach from ear to ear. After the plasters are taken off, the parts ought to be kept running by the application of issue ointment, till the inflammation is gone; otherwise, upon their drying up, the patient will be in danger of a relapse.