(28) [In distempers of a lax and weak fibre] the cure must be obtained, 1. By aliments that abound in such matter as is described in section 21, and which [should] be almost so prepared beforehand as they are in a strong and healthy body; such are milk, eggs, flesh-broths, panadoes[85] rightly prepared of well-fermented bread; and rough wines. All which must be given in small quantities, but often. 2. By increasing and invigorating the motion of the solids and fluids by means of frictions with a flesh-brush, or with flannel; by riding on horseback, and in a coach, or by being carried in a boat; and lastly by walking, running and other bodily exercises. 3. By a gentle pressure or a bandage upon the vessels, and a moderate repelling of the liquids therein contained. 4. By medicines both acid and austere, or such as are spirituous and well fermented, but applied with great caution and gentleness. 5. By any means that will remove and remedy the too great pulling of them.
[That Boerhaave belonged to the iatrophysical or iatromechanical school appears very clearly throughout these quotations.]
DISTEMPERS OF THE STIFF AND ELASTIC FIBRE
(35) [In distempers of this group] the cure is effected, 1. By such meat and drink as is thin and watery, without any roughness, chiefly by the continued use of milk-whey, of the softest herbs and salads, barley-water, thin gruel, and unfermented liquors. 2. By avoiding of exercise, and dwelling in a moist, coolish air, and taking long sleeps. 3. By the taking or outwardly applying watery, lukewarm, tasteless medicines, and such as contain the lightest and softest oils.
In the second half of the volume I find abundant evidence of Boerhaave’s ability to treat efficiently some of the acute and chronic maladies; and, after a perusal of the text which deals with these affections, I have no difficulty in understanding how he came to be looked upon as one of the leading medical practitioners of the period during which he lived. I should be glad to reproduce here such portions of the aphorisms as would corroborate the statement that I have just made, but unfortunately the small amount of space that I can command does not permit me to do this. At every step, as I advance, I am warned against the danger of exceeding the limits permitted, and I shall, therefore, in the present instance, have to rest satisfied with quoting the larger part of a single paragraph in which is given an account of the treatment employed in a case of acute pleurisy.
(890) ... If the same pleurisy be recent before the end of the third day, yet violent from the many and strong symptoms, and dry, in a strong, exercised, dry body, without the hopes of the presence of (887 and 888) From the beginning ought to be used fomentations, bathings, warm streams, liniments, plaisters, and the like; which may be of use as they loosen, resolve, mitigate, and avert.... As only extracts of considerable length would suffice to give our readers a satisfactory idea of the attractive manner in which Boerhaave deals with the subject of chemistry, I prefer to omit them altogether, and to recommend to those who are specially interested in this branch of science, that they consult Peter Shaw’s excellent English translation of the “Elementa Chemiae.” Albert von Haller, the celebrated Swiss physiologist and historian of medical literature, speaks of Boerhaave as “my beloved preceptor, a man of refined taste and a speaker or lecturer so logical and charming that one more gifted can hardly be imagined.”CHAPTER XXXV
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY IN EUROPE DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES