_Laudanum_ has been called by Dr. Mosely "a fatal medicine" in the yellow fever. In one of my patients, who took only fifteen drops of it, without my advice, to ease a pain in his bowels, it produced a delirium, and death in a few hours. I was much gratified in discovering that my practice, with respect to the use of opium in this fever, accorded with Dr. Wade's in the fever of Bengal. He tells us, "that it was mischievous in almost every instance, even in combination with antimonials." The _spices_ were hurtful in the first stage of the fever, and, when sufficient evacuations had been used, they were seldom necessary in its second. The _elixir of vitriol_ was, in general, offensive to the stomach. The _cold bath_ was useful in those cases where its sedative prevailed over its stimulating effects. But this could not often happen, from the suddenness and force, with which the water was thrown upon the body. In two cases in which I prescribed it, it produced a gentle sweat, but it did not save life. In a third it removed a delirium, and reduced the pulse for a few minutes, in frequency and force, but this patient died. The recommendation of it indiscriminately, in all cases, was extremely improper. In that chilliness and tendency to fainting upon the least motion, which attended the disease in some patients, it was an unsafe remedy. I heard of a woman who was seized with delirium immediately after using it, from which she never recovered; and of a man who died a few minutes after he came out of a bathing tub. Had this remedy been the exclusive antidote to the yellow fever, the mortality of the disease would have been but little checked by it. Thousands must have perished from the want of means to procure tubs, and of a suitable number of attendants to apply the water, and to lift the patient in and out of bed. The reason of our citizens ran before the learning of the friends of this remedy, and long before it was abandoned by the physicians, it was rejected as useless, or not attempted, because impracticable, by the good sense of the city. It is to be lamented that the remedy of cold water has suffered in its character by the manner in which it was advised. In fevers of too much action, it reduces the morbid excitement of the blood-vessels, provided it be _applied without force_, and for a considerable time, to the body. It is in the jail fever, and in the second stage of the yellow fever only, in which its stimulant and tonic powers are proper. Dr. Jackson establishes this mode of using it, by informing us, that when it did service, it "gave vigour and tone" to the system[92]. [92] Fevers of Jamaica.