“Immediately after which he should drink half an ounce of the following medicinal wine:
“℞. Rad. cariophil. mont. Pœn. mar. ana unc. i. Cort. rad. capp. tamarisc. ana unc. iß. Lign. agalloch. ver. unc. i. Vin. Gall. alb. lib. vi. f. l. a. vin. med.
“I hope (added Boerhaave) that the patient will be cured, after having employed this regimen for two months.”
But he would not make use of it, and died, in a few weeks, of a malignant flux. What would have been the effect of this remedy? That can be only conjectured.
M. Zimmermann wrote to me, that he had made a patient try it for two months, but without any success.
M. Hoffman sets forth the precautions which he conceived ought to be taken, and the methods to be employed.
“We must (says he) avoid all the remedies which do not agree with weak habits of body, or that may weaken still more those who are already enervated: such are all astringents, all over-refrigerants, all saturnines, nitrous, acid, and especially narcotic medicines: all these are pernicious in cases of this kind, and unfortunately there is, however, too much use made of them.
“The end to be proposed is to re-establish the vital forces, and to restore to the fibres the tension they have lost. Heating remedies, volatiles, aromatics, those that have an agreeable but strong odor, are not proper here: nothing but the mildest aliments should be allowed, such as are the fittest to repair that nutritious gelatinous substance, which immoderate evacuations will have destroyed: such are strong broths of beef, of veal, of capon, with a little of wine, of lemon-juice, of salt, of nutmeg, and cloves. To the use of this diet may beneficially be joined, those remedies which favor perspiration, and which reanimate the languishing tone of the fibres.”
In another consultation for a self-pollutor, he ordered the taking, every morning, a certain measure of asses milk mixed with a third of the quantity of Selter-water.