Continued Fevers are generally of a Bilious character, except in winter, when they are more or less connected with irritation of the lungs, or with Rheumatic affections, when they are termed Catarrhal or Rheumatic Fevers. If the bilious symptoms prevail, give Aconite and Baptisia during the chills and high febrile stage, at intervals of an hour, and during the declining stage of the fever, give Podophyllin and Mercurius until a perfect intermission is produced, when the same treatment should be adopted as in intermittents. But should it take the form of
Catarrhal Fever,
the head being "stuffed up," pain in the head, the lungs oppressed, cough and sneezing, the eyes and nose suffused with increased secretion of tears and mucus, pain in the back or loins, almost constant chilly sensations, use in rotation Baptisia, Copaiva and Phosphorus, giving a dose every hour until the fever begins to abate and perspiration comes on, then leave off the Baptisia, and give in its stead Macrotin, lengthening the interval between the remedies to two hours or longer.
For the chronic cough that sometimes follows catarrhal fever, Copaiva, Macrotin and Phosphorus should be used morning, noon and night, in the order here named. Should the fever be a
Rheumatic Fever,
(Rheumatism,) the patient complaining of soreness of the muscles, of the chest, back and limbs, with or without lameness of the joints, Aconite, Macrotin and Nux Vom. are the remedies for a male patient, and the two former, with Pulsatilla, for a female, (or for a male, of light hair, delicate skin, feminine voice and mild temper,) to be used in rotation one hour apart. These remedies are to be taken in a severe acute case, every half hour until the symptoms begin to abate; then every hour or two hours as the case progresses. Baths properly administered, are of great importance in all forms of fever. The surface of the patient should be washed and thoroughly rubbed in water quite warm, into which a sufficiency of the ley of wood ashes has been put to make it feel quite slippery. This should be done twice daily in all fevers. But in
Rheumatism,
In addition to the medicines directed under the head of Rheumatic Fever, the most decided benefit can be derived from Alcoholic Vapor Baths, which, while they do not in the least interfere with the action of the medicines, tend greatly to mitigate the pains, and produce an equal state of the circulation by stimulating the surface; abridging in many cases, the disease one-half the time it would run under the long interval treatment alone. This is to be applied by filling a tea cup with alcohol, placed in a saucer of water to insure against danger from an overflow while burning. Place both under a solid wood bottom chair, elevated about the thickness of a brick under each post, strip the patient naked, and after giving him the alkaline bath, and rubbing his surface dry, place him upon the chair, enveloping him completely, except his head, with a woollen sheet or blanket, (as there is no danger of the wool taking fire,) letting the blanket enclose also the chair and come down to the floor. Then set fire to the alcohol, and if the heat is too great, raise the edge of the blanket and let it become reduced. Continue this until he sweats freely, or becomes too much fatigued to sit longer. Let the patient often drink freely of cold water, during the process. Remove him from the chair to his bed and cover him warmly. It is well to place the feet in hot water during this process. This is a delightful operation for a rheumatic patient, and no one will object to a repetition of it. Whatever Physicians may think or say of this operation, I know it is a most potent agent for the cure of inflammatory rheumatism, and is a valuable agent in the chronic form of this disease.