BLISTER-Plasters were applied to several Parts; as the Nape of the Neck, within-side the Arms, the Thighs, and Legs; and by these the Vessels were warmed, the Juices rendered more fluid, a Stimulus given to the Sluggishness of Nature, and Passage made sufficiently large, for the Evacuation not only of superfluous Serosities and noxious Humours, but also for the pestilential Poison, which by this Artifice seemed to be turned out this Way; not to say any Thing of the Revulsion made hereby of Venom from the nobler Parts.
FOR this Purpose, I once ordered a Blister-Plaster to be applied within-side the Thigh, a little below a Buboe in the Groin, but by the Carelesness of the Nurse, it was laid upon the Buboe it self; which happening to prove fortunate, after obtained in Practice, in Expectation thereby to prevent the morbifick Humour from going back again, and to forward its Suppuration; but altho’ this was of Advantage in some Cases, it was yet much suspected by the more cautious Physicians and Surgeons, as for the most Part it
brought too great an Inflammation all round it, and promoted a Strangury, which, by Excess of Uneasiness, greatly wasted the Spirits, and sunk the Patient’s Strength.
THAT these Applications may certainly answer their End, the most sharp ought to be used: The following Composition never failed me in all my Practice; but before its Application, the Part was always rubbed with Vinegar.
[a]℞] Picis navalis [a]℥] v. galbani colat. [a]℥] j. ceræ [a]℥] j. [a][ss.] quibus simul liquatis, & ab igne semotis, adde pulv. cantharidum præp. [a]ʒ] vij. vel [a]℥] j. fermenti veteris, sem. ameos ana [a]ʒ] iij. euphorbii [a]ʒ] j. cum aceti scillit. q. s. incorporentur, assiduè agitando, quoùsque cogantur in Emplastri massam.
THE Parts thus vesicated were never suffered to heal, till the Malignity of the Disease was spent; and to prevent their suddain drying up, they were continually stimulated by Melilot Plasters sprinkled over with some Powder of Cantharides; which kept up a constant Drein of noxious Humours; but to asswage the great Heat and Inflammations, sometimes occasioned hereby, Cole-wort Leaves were applied to them.
YET although Epispasticks did so much Service to the Infected, and sufficiently made amends for the Trouble and Pain they gave; yet they were not indifferently suitable to all Persons; As for Instance, where there was an Heat of Urin, or a continual Inclination to piss, where the Sphincter of the Bladder was inflamed, or ulcerated, in an Hemorrhage, or to Women with Child, or having the Menses; and lastly, where there was a great Languor upon the Spirits; it is also diligently to be considered when Epispasticks are applied to Buboes or Carbuncles near upon Suppuration, that they do not fuse the Humours too much, to admit them going into a laudible Pus, and give such a Stimulus to the Parts, as may sink the Spirits, and frustrate other Endeavours of Nature to help her self.
BESIDES Epispasticks, it is not lost Labour to apply proper Things to the Feet; I commonly used a Plaster made of the compound Bettany Plaster, adding to it some Euphorbium, Saffron, and London Treacle; And I found this to do more Good than Cataplasms, which some, however, liked better to use, and were made of Bryony Root steeped in
Vinegar, the Flesh of pickled Herrings, black Soap, Rue, Scordium, and Arum, with a sufficient Quantity of Vinegar: Sometimes also Pidgeons were applied to the Feet.
BUT these, and other Medicines of the same Rank, were not applied in any Expectation to draw away by them the pestilential Miasmata as by Attraction; but because the Multitude of Pores, and their Largeness in the Soles of the Feet, gave such Things an Opportunity of sending in that warmth, as would keep the Animal Humours more fluxile, and cherish the natural Heat that was almost extinct; and from thence the whole Body would be refreshed by their Influence: Applications were likewise made to the Wrist with the same View.