Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
A clergyman of a respectable character from the country, who was
attacked by the disease in the city, returned home, from a desire of
being attended by his own family, and died in a few days afterwards.
This is only one, of many cases, in which I have observed travelling,
even in the easiest carriages, to prove fatal in fevers after they were
formed, or after the first symptoms had shown themselves. The quickest
and most effectual way of conquering a fever, in most cases, is, by an
early submission to it.
The drinks I recommended to my patients were sage and balm teas, weak
punch, lemonade, wine whey, tamarind and apple water.
The apple water should be made by pouring boiling water upon slices of
raw apples. It is more lively than that which is made by pouring the
water on roasted apples.
I found obvious advantages, in many cases, from the use of pediluvia,
every night.
In every case, I found the patients refreshed and relieved by frequent
changes of their linen.
On the third or fourth day, in the forenoon, the pains in the head and
back generally abated, with a sweat which was diffused over the whole
body. The pulse at this time remained quick and weak. This was, however,
no objection to the use of the bark, a few doses of which immediately
abated its quickness, and prevented a return of the fever.
If the fever continued beyond the third or fourth day without an
intermission, I always had recourse to blisters. Those which were
applied to the neck, and behind the ears, produced the most immediate
good effects. They seldom failed of producing an intermission in the
fever, the day after they were applied. Where delirium or coma attended,
I applied the blister to the neck on the _first_ day of the disease. A
worthy family in this city will always ascribe the life of a promising
boy, of ten years old, to the early application of a blister to the
neck, in this fever.
Where the fever did not yield to blisters, and assumed malignant, or
typhus symptoms, I gave the medicines usually exhibited in both those
states of fever.
I took notice, in the history of this fever, that it was sometimes
accompanied with symptoms of a dysentery. Where this disease appeared,
I prescribed lenient purges and opiates. Where these failed of success,
I gave the bark in the intermissions of the pain in the bowels, and
applied blisters to the wrists. The good effects of these remedies led
me to conclude, that the dysentery was the febris introversa of Dr.
Sydenham.
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