It was owing to their _early_ use of the proper remedies, and to their being guided in the repetition of them, by the continuance of a tense pulse, or of pain and fever. A day, an afternoon, and even an hour, were not lost by these people in waiting for the visit of a physician, who was often detained from them by sickness, or by new and unexpected engagements, by which means the precious moment for using the remedies with effect passed irrevocably away. I have stated these facts from faithful inquiries, and numerous observations. I could mention the names and families of many persons who thus cured themselves. One person only shall be mentioned, who has shown by her conduct what reason is capable of doing when it is forced to act for itself. Mrs. Long, a widow, after having been twice unsuccessful in her attempts to procure a physician, undertook at last to cure herself. She took several of the mercurial purges, agreeably to the printed directions, and had herself bled _seven_ times in the course of five or six days. The indication for repeating the bleeding was the continuance of the pain in her head. Her recovery was rapid and complete. The history of it was communicated to me by herself, with great gratitude, in my own house, during my second confinement with the fever. To these accounts of persons who cured themselves in the city, I could add many others, of citizens who sickened in the country, and who cured themselves by plentiful bleeding and purging, without the attendance of a physician. [96] In the letter before quoted, from Mr. Connelly, he expresses his opinion of those four medicines in the following words: "Laudanum, bark, and wine have put a period to the existence of some, where the fever has been apparently broken, and the patients in a fair way of recovery; a single dose of laudanum has hurried them suddenly into eternity. I have visited a few patients where the hot bath was used, and am convinced that it only tended to weaken and relax the system, without producing any good effect." [97] The yellow fever prevailed at the Caraccos, in South-America, in October, 1793, with great mortality, more especially among the Spanish troops. Nearly all died who were attended by physicians. Recourse was finally had to the old women, who were successful in almost every case to which they were called. Their remedies were a liquor called _narencado_ (a species of lemonade) and a tea made of a root called _fistula_. With these drinks they drenched their patients for the first two or three days. They induced plentiful sweats, and, probably, after blunting, discharged the bile from the bowels. I received this information from an American gentleman, who had been cured, by one of those Amazons in medicine, in the above way.