If the patient therefore, after the vomit, and the above draught, is attacked again with the fit of the ague, and succeeding fever, have immediate recourse to your elixir of iron.——Let him take after the fever is off, every three hours, a table spoonful of the elixir, and should it seem to come up again at first (which it sometimes will, particularly if the stomach is yet foul) give immediately another spoonful, and repeat this at least three times of the day.
A little gentle exercise upon taking the elixir is highly beneficial; and if it throws a gentle warmth over the body, and brings it into a gentle perspiration, you are sure of success.
The quantity of it should be adapted to the condition of the patient, and the strength of the stomach; if it sits easy, a larger quantity may be taken, and seldomer; and if it is more nauseous, a smaller dose and oftener.—Should the fits seem obstinate, the following electuary may be used; and is a powerful specific.
No. XXIX
Take stomach powder (M), two drachmes; nutmeg powdered, one drachm; powdered alum (17), half a drachm; essential oil of peppermint (U), twenty drops; calomel (N), ten grains; honey (E), one ounce: the whole well mixed.
Of this let the patient take every eight, or twelve hours, the bigness of a nutmeg, taking his elixir as before observed; and this will ever prove successful in the most obstinate case.
As patients of that kind at sea, have ever a taint of the scurvy in their composition, or at least have a tendency towards it, exercise and freshness of food, will prove one of the restorative means. The malt decoction should also be their drink, as well as in the scurvy.
To conclude, I shall only observe, that bleeding in agues must at all events be omitted, as being absolutely pernicious, as it cannot fail of impoverishing the blood; which is the principle source of the disorder. Also, in the intermitting time, exercise should be observed, and the diet should, when the stomach craves, be good. Sometimes indeed, the stomach is too ravenous and greedy; but that is a default which proceeds from the same cause as that which makes it loath its victuals; a vomit in either case is the most effectual medicine, and may be repeated as often as it is requisite, without the least fear of injury, particularly in this disease.