Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
The following remedies were found, very generally, to be effectual in
this fever.
1. Moderate bleeding. I bled but three patients three, and only one, four
times. In general, the loss of from ten to twenty ounces of blood,
reduced the pulse from a synocha to a synoichoid or typhoid state, and
thereby prepared the system for other remedies.
2. Purges were always useful. I gave calomel and jalap, castor oil,
salts, and senna, according to the grade of the disease, and often
according to the humour or taste of the patient. I aided these purges by
glysters. In one case, where a griping and black stools attended, I
directed injections of lime water and milk to be used, with the happiest
effects.
3. I gave emetics in many cases with advantage, but never while the pulse
was full or tense.
4. Having observed, as in the year 1802, a spontaneous moisture on the
skin on the first day of the disease, in several cases, I was led to
assist this disposition in nature to be relieved by the pores, by means
of sweating remedies, but in no instance did I follow it, without
previous evacuations from the blood-vessels or bowels; for, however
useful the intimations of nature may be in acute diseases, her efforts
should never be trusted to alone, inasmuch as they are in most cases too
feeble to do service, or so violent as to do mischief. I saw one death,
and I heard of another, from an exclusive reliance upon spontaneous
sweats in the beginning of this fever. The remedies I employed to promote
this evacuation by the pores were, an infusion of the eupatorium
perfoliatum in boiling water, aided by copious warm drinks, and hot
bricks and blankets, applied to the external surface of the body. The
eupatorium sometimes sickened the stomach, and puked. The sweats were
intermitted, and renewed two or three times in the course of four and
twenty hours.
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