II. Gentle purges.
III. Nitre. From fifteen to twenty grains of this medicine should be given three times a-day.
IV. A TEMPERATE DIET, and a total abstinence from fermented and distilled liquors.
V. Cool and PURE AIR.
VI. Rest in a recumbent posture of the body.
The local remedies in this state of the system should be,
I. Cold water. Dr. Rigby has written largely in favour of this remedy when applied to local inflammations. From its good effects in allaying the inflammation which sometimes follows the puncture which is made in the arm in communicating the small-pox, and from the sudden relief it affords in the inflammatory state of the ophthalmia and in the piles, no one can doubt of its efficacy in sore legs, accompanied by inflammation in those vessels, which are the immediate seat of the disease.
II. Soft poultices of bread and milk, or of bread moistened with lead water. Dr. Underwood's method of making a poultice of bread and milk should be preferred in this case. He directs us first to boil the milk, then to powder the bread, and throw it into the milk, and after they have been intimately mixed, by being well stirred and boiled together, they should be poured out and spread upon a rag, and a knife dipped in sweet oil or lard, should be run over them. The solidity and consistence of the poultice is hereby better preserved, than when the oil or lard is mixed with the bread and milk over the fire.
III. When the inflammation subsides, adhesive plasters so applied as to draw the sound edges of the sores together. This remedy has been used with great success by Dr. Physick, in the Pennsylvania hospital, and in his private practice.