Chapter XXXIV: Introduction (6)

In a cancer which had set all medicines, and even surgery, at
defiance, I lately saw remarkable effects from an obstinate
perseverance in a course of antiseptics. I ordered the deep ulcers to
be washed to the bottom by means of a syringe, twice or thrice a-day,
either with an infusion of the bark, or a decoction of carrot, and
that the patient should take four or five times a-day, a glass of good
wine, with half a drachm of the best powdered bark in it. The sores,
after being washed, were likewise sprinkled with the same powder. When
the patient began this course, her death was daily expected. She
continued it for above two years, with manifest advantage; but being
told by an eminent surgeon, that the bark would not cure a cancer, and
that the sores ought not to be washed, she discontinued the practice,
and died in a few weeks. This course was not expected to cure the
cancer, but to prolong the patient’s life, which it evidently did
almost to a miracle.

Footnote 160:

As hemlock is the principal medicine recommended in this disease, we
would have given some directions for the gathering and preparing of
that plant; but as its different preparations are now kept in the
shops, we think it much safer for people to get them there, with
proper directions for using them.

Footnote 161:

Though we give this prescription on the credit of Dr. Mead, yet we
would not advise any person, who has reason to believe that he has
been bit by a dog which was really mad, to trust to it alone. Mead was
an able physician, but he seems to have been no great philosopher, and
was some times the dupe of his own credulity.

Footnote 162:

The Ormskirk medicine, as it is called, seems to me to consist chiefly
of cinnabar. Though it is said to be infallible, as a preventive; yet
I would not advise any one to trust to it alone. Indeed it is ordered
to be taken in a manner which gives it more the appearance of a charm
than of a medicine. Surely if a medicine is to produce any change in
the body, it must be taken for some considerable time, and in
sufficient quantity.

Footnote 163:

The practice of sucking out poisons is very ancient; and indeed
nothing can be more rational. Where the bite cannot be cut out, this
is the most likely way for extracting the poison. There can be no
danger in performing this office, as the poison does no harm unless it
be taken into the body by a wound. The person who sucks the wound
ought however to wash his mouth frequently with salad-oil, which will
secure him from even the least inconveniency. The _Psylli_ in Africa,
and the _Marsi_ in Italy, were famed for curing the bites of poisonous
animals by sucking the wound; and we are told, that the Indians in
North America practise the same at this day.

Footnote 164:

Although it is now very common to cure the gonorrhœa by astringent
injections, there are still many practitioners who do not approve this
mode of practice. I can, however, from much experience, assert, that
it is both the most easy, elegant, and efficacious method of cure; and
that any bad consequences arising from it must be owing to the
ignorance or misconduct of the practitioner himself, and not to the
remedy. Many, for example, use strong preparations of lead, all of
which are dangerous when applied to the internal surfaces of the body;
others use escharotics, which inflame and injure the parts. I have
known a gonorrhœa actually cured by an injection made of green tea,
and would always recommend gentle methods where they will succeed.

Footnote 165:

If the patient can swallow a solution of salts and manna, he may take
six drachms, or, if his constitution requires it, an ounce of the
former, with half an ounce of the latter. These may be dissolved in an
English pint of boiling water, whey, or thin water-gruel, and taken
early in the morning.

If an infusion of senna and tamarinds be more agreeable, two drachms
of the former, and an ounce of the latter, may be infused all night in
an English pint of boiling water. The infusion may be strained next
morning, and half an ounce of Glauber’s salts dissolved in it. A
tea-cupful of this infusion may be taken every half hour till it
operates.

Should the patient prefer an electuary, the following will be found to
answer very well. Take of the lenitive electuary four ounces, cream of
tartar two ounces, jalap in powder two drachms, rhubarb one drachm,
and as much of the syrup of pale roses as will serve to make up the
whole into a soft electuary. Two or three tea-spoonfuls of this may be
taken over-night, and about the same quantity next morning, every day
that the patient chuses to take a purge.

The doses of the above medicines may be increased or diminished
according as the patient finds it necessary. We have ordered the salts
to be dissolved in a large quantity of water, because it renders their
operation more mild.

Footnote 166:

Take quicksilver one drachm, gum-arabic reduced to a mucilage two
drachms; let the quicksilver be rubbed with the mucilage, in a marble
mortar, until the globules of mercury entirely disappear; afterwards
add gradually, still continuing the trituration, half an ounce of
balsamic syrup, and eight ounces of simple cinnamon-water. Two
table-spoonfuls of this solution may be taken night and morning. Some
reckon this the best form in which quicksilver can be exhibited for
the cure of a gonorrhœa.

Footnote 167:

The Peruvian bark may be combined with other astringents, and prepared
in the following manner:

Take of Peruvian bark bruised six drachms, of fresh galls bruised two
drachms; boil them in a pound and a half of water to a pound; to the
strained liquor add three ounces of the simple tincture of the bark. A
small tea-cupful of this may be taken three times a-day, adding to
each cup fifteen or twenty drops of the acid elixir of vitriol.

Footnote 168:

Take Venice turpentine, boiled to a sufficient degree of hardness,
half an ounce, calomel half a drachm. Let these be mixed and formed
into sixty pills, of which five or six may be taken night and morning.
If, during the use of these pills, the mouth should grow sore, or the
breath become offensive, they must be discontinued till these symptoms
disappear.

Footnote 169:

I have been accustomed for some time past to apply leeches to inflamed
testicles, which practice has always been followed with the most happy
effects.

Footnote 170:

The extract of hemlock may be made into pills, and taken in the manner
directed under the article Cancer.

Footnote 171:

For the dispersion of a bubo, a number of leeches applied to the part
affected will be found equally efficacious as in the inflamed
testicle.

Footnote 172:

When venereal ulcers are seated in the lips, the infection may be
communicated by kissing. I have seen very obstinate venereal ulcers in
the lips, which I had all the reason in the world to believe were
communicated in this manner.

Nurses ought to beware of suckling infected children, or having their
breasts drawn by persons tainted with the venereal disease. This
caution is peculiarly necessary for nurses who reside in the
neighbourhood of great towns.

Footnote 173:

I have found it answer extremely well to sprinkle chancres twice a-day
with calomel. This will often perform a cure without any other
application whatever. If the chancres are upon the _glans_, they may
be washed with milk and water, a little warm, and afterwards the
calomel may be applied as above.

Footnote 174:

The sublimate may be given in distilled water, or any other liquor
that the patient chuses. I commonly order ten grains to be dissolved
in an ounce of the spirit of wine, for the conveniency of carriage,
and let the patient take twenty or thirty drops of it night and
morning in half a glass of brandy or other spirits. Mr. Debraw, an
ingenious chymist of this place, informs me, that he prepares a salt
of mercury much more mild and gentle in its operation than the
sublimate, though equally efficacious.

Footnote 175:

See Appendix, _Decoct. of Sarsaparilla_.

Footnote 176:

Though we are still very much in the dark with regard to the method of
curing this disease among the natives of America, yet it is generally
affirmed, that they do cure it with speed, safety, and success, and
that without the least knowledge of mercury. Hence it becomes an
object of considerable importance to discover their method of cure.
This might surely be done by making trials of the various plants which
are found in those parts, and particularly of such as the natives are
known to make use of. All people in a rude state take their medicines
chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, and are often possessed of
valuable secrets with regard to the virtues of plants, of which more
enlightened nations are ignorant. Indeed we make no doubt but some
plants of our own growth, were proper pains taken to discover them,
would be found as efficacious in curing the venereal disease as those
of America. It must however be remembered, that what will cure the
venereal disease in one country, will not always be found to have
equal success in another.

Footnote 177:

I have not only often seen a recent infection carried off in a few
days by means of cleanliness, viz. bathing, fomentations, injections,
&c. but have likewise found it of the greatest advantage in the more
advanced stages of the disease. Of this I had lately a very remarkable
instance, in a man whose penis was almost wholly consumed by venereal
ulcers; the matter had been allowed to continue on the sores, without
any care having been taken to clean them, till, notwithstanding the
use of mercury and other medicines, it had produced the effects above
mentioned. I ordered warm milk and water to be injected three or four
times a-day into all the sinuous ulcers, in order to wash out the
matter; after which they were stuffed with dry lint to absorb the
fresh matter as it was generated. The patient at the same time took
every day half a grain of the corrective sublimate of mercury,
dissolved in an ounce of brandy, and drank an English quart of the
decoction of sarsaparilla. By this treatment, in about six weeks, he
was perfectly cured; and, what was very remarkable, a part of the
penis was actually regenerated.

Doctor Gilchrist has given an account of a species of the _lues
venerea_ which prevails in the west of Scotland, to which the natives
give the name of _Sibbins_ or _Sivvins_. The Doctor observes, that the
spreading of this disease is chiefly owing to a neglect of
cleanliness, and seems to think, that by due attention to that
_virtue_, it might be extirpated. The treatment of this disease is
similar to that of a confirmed lues or pox. The _yaws_, a disease
which is now very common both in America and the West India islands,
may also be cured in the same manner.

Footnote 178:

It is the duty of mothers, and those who are intrusted with the
education of girls, to instruct them early in the conduct and
management of themselves at this critical period of their lives. False
modesty, inattention, and ignorance of what is beneficial or hurtful
at this time, are the sources of many diseases and misfortunes in
life, which a few sensible lessons from an experienced matron might
have prevented. Nor is care less necessary in the subsequent returns
of this discharge. Taking improper food, violent affections of the
mind, or catching cold at this period, is often sufficient to ruin the
health, or to render the female ever after incapable of procreation.

Footnote 179:

Two drachms of allum and one of Japan earth may be pounded together,
and divided into eight or nine doses, one of which may be taken three
times a day.

Persons whose stomachs cannot bear the allum, may take two
table-spoonfuls of the tincture of roses three or four times a-day, to
each dose of which ten drops of laudanum may be added.

If these should fail, half a drachm of the Peruvian bark, in powder,
with ten drops of the elixir of vitriol, may be taken, in a glass of
red wine, four times a-day.

Footnote 180:

Every mother who procures an abortion does it at the hazard of her
life; yet there are not a few who run this risk merely to prevent the
trouble of bearing and bringing up children. It is surely a most
unnatural crime, and cannot, even in the most abandoned, be viewed
without horror; but in the decent matron, it is still more
unpardonable.—Those wretches who daily advertise their assistance to
women in this business, deserve, in my opinion, the most severe of all
human punishments.

Footnote 181:

Though the management of women in child-bed has been practised as an
employment since the earliest accounts of time; yet it is still in
most countries on a very bad footing. Few women think of following
this employment till they are reduced to the necessity of doing it for
bread. Hence not one in a hundred of them have any education, or
proper knowledge of their business. It is true, that Nature, if left
to herself, will generally expel the _fœtus_; but it is equally true,
that most women in child-bed require to be managed with skill and
attention, and that they are often hurt by the superstitious
prejudices of ignorant and officious midwives. The mischief done in
this way is much greater than is generally imagined; most of which
might be prevented by allowing no women to practise midwifery but such
as are properly qualified. Were due attention paid to this, it would
not only be the means of saving many lives, but would prevent the
necessity of employing men in this indelicate and disagreeable branch
of medicine, which is, on many accounts, more proper for the other
sex.

Footnote 182:

We cannot help taking notice of that ridiculous custom which still
prevails in some parts of the country, of collecting a number of women
together upon such occasions. These, instead of being useful, serve
only to crowd the house, and obstruct the necessary attendants.
Besides, they hurt the patient with their noise; and often, by their
untimely and impertinent advice, do much mischief.

Footnote 183:

In a violent flooding after delivery, I have seen very good effects
from the following mixture: Take of penny-royal water, simple
cinnamon-water, and syrup of poppies, each two ounces, elixir of
vitriol a drachm. Mix, and take two table-spoonfuls every two hours,
or oftner, if necessary.

Footnote 184:

Take of crabs claws prepared half an ounce, purified nitre two
drachms, saffron powdered half a drachm; rub them together in a
mortar, and divide the whole into eight or nine doses.

When the patient is low-spirited, or troubled with hysterical
complaints, she ought to take frequently twelve or fifteen drops of
the tincture of asafœtida in a cup of penny-royal tea.

Footnote 185:

Midwives ought to be very cautious in administering vomits or purges
to women in child-bed. I have known a woman, who was recovering
extremely well, thrown into the most imminent danger, by a strong
purge which was given her by an officious midwife.

Footnote 186:

Dr. Cheyne avers, that want of children is oftner the fault of the
male than of the female, and strongly recommends a milk and vegetable
diet to the former as well as the latter; adding, that his friend Dr.
Taylor, whom he calls the Milk-doctor of Croydon, had brought sundry
opulent families in his neighbourhood, who had continued some years
after marriage without progeny, to have several fine children, by
keeping both parents, for a considerable time, to a milk and vegetable
diet.

Footnote 187:

Of the officious and ill-judged care of midwives, we shall adduce only
one instance, viz. the common practice of torturing infants by
squeezing their breasts, to draw off the milk, as they call it. Though
a small quantity of moisture is generally found in the breasts of
infants, yet, as they are certainly not intended to give suck, this
ought never to be drawn off. I have seen this cruel operation bring on
hardness, inflammation, and suppuration of the breasts; but never knew
any ill consequences from its being omitted. When the breasts are
hard, the only application that we would recommend is a soft poultice,
or a little of the diachylon plaster, spread thin upon a bit of soft
leather, about the size of half a crown, and applied over each nipple.
These may be suffered to continue till the hardness disappears.

Footnote 188:

See Appendix, _Laxative absorbent Mixture_.

Footnote 189:

Some nurses remove this complaint by sucking the child’s nose. This is
by no means a cleanly operation; but when nurses have the resolution
to do it, I am far from discouraging the practice.

Footnote 190:

I some time ago saw a very striking instance of the danger of
substituting drying medicines in the place of cleanliness and
wholesome food, in the Foundling Hospital at Ackworth, where the
children were grievously afflicted with scabbed heads and other
cutaneous disorders. Upon inquiry it was found, that very little
attention was paid either to the propriety or soundness of their
provisions, and that cleanliness was totally neglected; accordingly it
was advised that they should have more wholesome food, and be kept
thoroughly clean. This advice, however, was not followed. It was too
troublesome to the servants, superintendants, &c. The business was to
be done by medicine; which was accordingly attempted, but had nearly
proved fatal to the whole house. Fevers and other internal disorders
immediately appeared, and at length a putrid dysentery, which proved
so infectious, that it carried off a great many of the children, and
spread over a considerable part of the neighbouring country.

Footnote 191:

In this disease bleeding is not always proper; but in very full habits
it must certainly be of use.

Footnote 192:

I was lately favoured with a letter from Dr. William Turnbull in
London, a physician of great experience, and who, from his former
situation on the north-east coast of England, had many opportunities
of observing the symptoms and progress of this dangerous disease. I am
sorry the letter came too late to be inserted at length; but as the
Doctor’s sentiments differ very little from my own, this misfortune is
the less to be regretted. The Doctor indeed observes, that he never
found blistering of any service; but recommends cataplasms of garlic,
camphor, and Venice treacle, to be applied both to the throat and
soles of the feet. He likewise recommends boluses of camphor, castor,
valerian root, salt of hartshorn, and musk, adapted to the age,
strength, &c. of the patient; after which he advises two spoonfuls of
the following decoction:—Take of garlic and distilled vinegar each an
ounce, hysop-water eight ounces; beat up the ingredients together,
gradually mixing the water, and adding three ounces of honey. Let the
whole be simmered over a gentle fire, and afterwards drained for use.

Footnote 193:

One reason why this disease is seldom or never cured, may be, that it
is seldom known till too far advanced to admit of remedy. Did parents
watch the first symptoms, and call a physician in due time, I am
inclined to think that something might be done. But these symptoms are
not yet sufficiently known, and are often mistaken even by physicians
themselves. Of this I lately saw a striking instance in a patient
attended by an eminent practitioner of this city, who had all along
mistaken the disease for teething.

Footnote 194:

Dr. Tissot, in his _Advice to the People_, gives the following
directions for gathering, preparing, and applying the agaric.—“Gather
in autumn,” says he, “while the fine weather lasts, the agaric of the
oak, which is a kind of fungus or excrescence issuing from the wood of
that tree. It consists at first of four parts, which present
themselves successively: 1. The outward rind or skin, which may be
thrown away. 2. The part immediately under this rind, which is the
best of all. This is to be beat well with a hammer, till it becomes
soft and very pliable. This is the only preparation it requires, and a
slice of it of a proper size is to be applied directly over the
bursting open blood vessels. It constringes and brings them close
together, stops the bleeding, and generally falls off at the end of
two days. 3. The third part adhering to the second may serve to stop
the bleeding from the smaller vessels; and the fourth and last part
may be reduced to powder as conducing to the same purpose.”—Where the
agaric cannot be had, sponge may be used in its stead. It must be
applied in the same manner, and has nearly the same effects.

Footnote 195:

See Appendix, _Wax plaster_.

Footnote 196:

See Appendix, _Yellow basilicum_.

Footnote 197:

See Appendix, _Turner’s cerate_.

Footnote 198:

In ulcers of the lower limbs great benefit is often received from
tight rollers, or wearing a laced stocking, as this prevents the flux
of humours to the sores, and disposes them to heal.

Footnote 199:

Various pieces of machinery have been contrived for counteracting the
force of the muscles, and retaining the fragments of broken bones; but
as descriptions of these without drawings would be of little use, I
shall refer the reader to a cheap and useful performance _on the
nature and cure of fractures_, lately published by my ingenious friend
Mr. Aitken, surgeon in Edinburgh; wherein that gentleman has not only
given an account of the machines recommended in fractures by former
authors, but has likewise added several improvements of his own, which
are peculiarly useful in compound fractures, and in cases where
patients with broken bones are obliged to be transported from one
place to another.

Footnote 200:

A great many external applications are recommended for strains, some
of which do good, and others hurt. The following are such as may be
used with the greatest safety, viz. poultices made of stale beer or
vinegar and oatmeal, camphorated spirits of wine, Mindererus’s spirit,
volatile liniment, volatile aromatic spirit diluted with a double
quantity of water, and the common fomentation, with the addition of
brandy or spirit of wine.

Footnote 201:

I would here beg leave to recommend it to every practitioner, when his
patient complains of pain in the belly with obstinate costiveness, to
examine the groins and every place where a rupture may happen, in
order that it may be immediately reduced. By neglecting this, many
perish who were not suspected to have had ruptures till after they
were dead. I have known this happen where half a dozen of the faculty
were in attendance.

Footnote 202:

A woman in one of the hospitals of this city lately discharged a great
number of pins, which she had swallowed in the course of her business,
through an ulcer in her side.

Footnote 203:

These accidents are not always the effects of carelessness. I have
known an infant overlaid by its mother being seized in the night with
an hysteric fit. This ought to serve as a caution against employing
hysteric women as nurses; and should likewise teach such women never
to lay an infant in the same bed with themselves, but in a small
adjacent one.

Footnote 204:

The Author is happy to observe, that, since the first publication of
this work, several societies have been instituted in Britain with the
same benevolent intention as that of Amsterdam, and that their
endeavours have proved no less successful. He is likewise happy to
observe, that premiums have been awarded to those who have been active
in their endeavours to restore to life persons who had been drowned,
or suddenly deprived of life by any accident. How much is this
superior to the superstitious institution, which allows any man a
premium who brings a dead person out of the water, so that he may
receive Christian burial; but allows nothing to the person who brings
him out alive, or who recovers him after he has been to all appearance
dead.

Footnote 205:

The late celebrated Dr. Smollet has indeed said, that if he were
persuaded he had an ulcer in the lungs, he would jump into the cold
bath: but here the Doctor evidently shews more courage than
discretion; and that he was more a man of wit than a physician, every
one will allow. A nervous asthma, or an atrophy, may be mistaken for a
pulmonary consumption; yet, in the two former, the cold bath proves
often beneficial, though I never knew it to in the latter. Indeed, all
the phthisical patients I ever saw, who had tried the cold bath, were
evidently hurt by it.

Footnote 206:

The celebrated Galen says, that immersion in cold water is fit only
for the young of lions and bears; and recommends warm bathing, as
conducive to the growth and strength of infants. How egregiously do
the greatest men err whenever they lose sight of facts, and substitute
reasoning in physic in place of observation and experience!

Footnote 207:

The greatest class of mineral waters in this country is the
chalybeate. In many parts of Britain these are to be found in almost
every field; but those chiefly in use, for medical purposes, are the
purging chalybeates, as the waters of Scarborough, Cheltenham, Thorp
Arch, Nevil Holt, &c. Of those which do not purge, the waters of
Tunbridge stand in the highest repute. The saline purging waters, as
those of Acton, Epsom, Kilburn, &c. are also in very general esteem;
but the fountains most frequented by the sick in this country, are
those to which the minerals impart a certain degree of heat, as Bath,
Bristol, Buxton, &c.

Footnote 208:

When I speak of drinking a glass of the water over-night, I must beg
leave to caution those who follow this plan against eating heavy
suppers. The late Dr. Daultry of York, who was the first that brought
the Harrowgate waters into repute, used to advise his patients to
drink a glass before they went to bed; the consequence of which was,
that having eat a flesh supper, and the water operating in the night,
they were often tormented with gripes, and obliged to call for medical
assistance.

Footnote 209:

See a paper on this subject in the Edinburgh Physical and Literary
Essays, by the ingenious Dr. John Gardener.

Footnote 210:

A very good tincture of guaiacum, for domestic use, may be made by
infusing two or three ounces of the gum in a bottle of rum or brandy.

Footnote 211:

See _Collyrium of Lead_.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Page Changed from Changed to

161 If the patient be afflicted with If the patient be afflicted with
reaching, or an inclination retching, or an inclination

357 sitting with the head bear near sitting with the head bare near
an open window, or an open window, or

415 as wearing flannel, lying to as wearing flannel, lying too
long a-bed long a-bed

533 but induces a plethora, or two but induces a plethora, or too
great a fulness of great a fulness of

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.