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
4. Calomel should likewise be given in large doses. Dr. Physick gave
half a drachm of this medicine, in one day, to the infant whose case
has been mentioned. I have never known it excite a salivation when
given to children whose ages rendered them subjects of it, probably
because it has been given in such large quantities as to pass rapidly
through the bowels. Its good effects seem to depend upon its exciting a
counter-action in the whole intestinal canal, and thereby lessening the
disposition of the tracheal blood-vessels to discharge the mucus, or
form the membrane, which have been described.
5. Blisters should be applied to the throat, breast, neck, and even to
the limbs.
6. Dr. Archer of Maryland commends, in high terms, the use of polygola,
or Seneka snake-root, in this disease. I can say nothing in favour of
its exclusive use, from my own experience, having never given it, but as
an auxiliary to other remedies.
7. I have seen great relief given by the use of the warm bath,
especially when it has been followed by a gentle perspiration.
8. Towards the close of the disease, after the symptoms of great morbid
action begin to decline, a few drops of liquid laudanum, by quieting
the cough which generally succeeds it, often produce the most salutary
effects. They should be given in flaxseed, or bran, or onion tea, of
which drinks the patient should drink freely in every stage of the
disease.
The cynanche trachealis is attended with most danger, when the patient
labours under a _constant_ and audible stertorous breathing. The danger
is less, when a dry stertorous cough attends, with _easy_ respiration
in its intervals. The danger is nearly over, when the cough, though
stertorous, is _loose_, and accompanied with a _discharge_ of mucus from
the trachea.
An eruption of little red blotches, which frequently appears and
disappears two or three times in the course of this disease, is always a
favourable symptom.
I once attended a man from Virginia, of the name of Bampfield, who,
after an attack of this disease, was much distressed with the stertorous
breathing and cough which belong to it. I suspected both to arise from
a membrane formed by inflammation in his trachea. This membrane I
supposed to be in part detached from the trachea, from the rattling
noise which attended his breathing. He had used many remedies for it
to no purpose. I advised a salivation, which in less than three weeks
perfectly cured him.
Since the general adoption of the remedies which have been enumerated,
for the cynanche trachealis, instances of its mortality have become very
uncommon in the city of Philadelphia.
AN ACCOUNT
OF THE EFFICACY OF
BLISTERS AND BLEEDING,
IN THE CURE OF OBSTINATE
_Intermitting Fevers_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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