The patient is seized first with a shivering chilliness, which is soon succeeded with a weak unequal fluttering pulse; the body is seized with a universal pain, together with a great debility; the mouth is hot and dry; the respiration depressed; and the mind labours under a heavy anxiety.—The fever continues, though not very high; and the pulse not very full;—a delirium or else a stupor ensues; the urine becomes deep coloured, and has an oily skim at top; and the patient is in so imminent a state of danger, that, unless a favourable crisis happens soon, twenty-four hours rapid progress is liable to put him beyond all help. The first and immediate remedy should be a vomit, No. XXVI, which is the grand step to be taken in all fevers; not so much for the sake of cleansing the stomach, as for the universal ease it gives to nature. The next step is to correct the putrescent acrimony in the system; for which purpose make the following draught. No. XXX _Take fever powder_ (L) _one scruple; elixir of vitriol_ (G) _thirty drops; sweet spirit of nitre_ (D) _thirty drops; calomel_ (N) _two grains; essential oil of peppermint_ (U) _four drops; upon a lump of sugar; and half a tea cup full of water._ Let the patient take this draught every six hours; and after four have been taken, the calomel should be omitted. If the nerves seem to be affected, the essential oil of peppermint may be increased. If a delirium should come on, the _liquid laudanum_ (T) from ten to twelve drops and upwards may be given in the draught. I know many will think it odd, that I should give calomel in a fever; but all this is merely the effect of blind prejudice; a better medicine than calomel is not in all Nature, if judiciously applied; and so fortunate have I been in my success with this exalted medicine in contagious fevers, that I have preserved myself and my patients in the midst of Death’s spreading horror around us. But to proceed; if the patient continues to be dry on the surface of the skin, and perspiration seems backward, a blister betwixt the shoulders, the bigness of the palm of the hand[15], will greatly facilitate the crisis or turn of the fever; but let it not be erroneously supposed, that a blister will draw off the bad humour, or that it does good by such an operation; for this notion has proved destructive to many patients. All the good a blister does is to spur on the animal function; by which sometimes the acrimony is thrown off from the system; but if thus irritating the system be overdone, or wrong applied, it is productive of many additional evils to the disease; causes spasms, strictures, and other acute disorders, that of themselves may become mortal. Therefore blisters should never be used but when the body is defective of perspiration, or when the debilitated system is defective in its excretory functions. Footnote 15: