A man of eight and twenty years old, had, for many years, been cruelly tormented with an irregular gout, which seized constantly his head, and occasioned dreadful distortions of his face; he had consulted a number of physicians, and tried remedies of various kinds, and lately a medicinal wine composed of the most penetrative aromatics, infused in Spanish wine; all, and especially the last, had increased his disorder; blisters had been applied to his legs which brought on violent symptoms; at this epoch it was that I was consulted. I advised for him, a strong decoction of bark and of camomile, which he continued for six weeks, and which restored him to more health, than he had enjoyed for many years. It would be needless here to adduce a great number of examples, especially foreign to the case, to prove the strengthening quality of these remedies, which has been so long demonstrated, and of which every thing in this disorder indicates the use; an use of which the happiest successes have confirmed the virtue.
When I employed the bark in a liquid form, I ordered the decoction of one ounce in twelve ounces of water, or, according to the indication, of red wine, boiled for two hours in a close vessel, to be taken, at three ounces a time, three times a day. I time the cold bath in the evening, when the digestion of the dinner is intirely completed; it contributes much to procure a quiet sleep. I knew a young man, accustomed to self-pollution, who used to pass the night in the most sleepless disquiet, and who was every morning bathed in his own colliquative sweats; the night that followed the sixth cold bath he slept five hours, and got up in the morning without sweats, and much refreshed.
Martials are a third remedy, so often used in all cases of weakness, as not to need any insistence here on their efficacy in quality of strengtheners; as they contain nothing of an irritating nature, they are extremely proper in this disorder. They are given in substance or in infusion; but the best preparation is the chalybeate waters prepared by nature, and especially the spaw-waters, one of the most powerful tonics that are known, and a tonic, so far from irritative, that it softens any acridity that may be in the humors. The gums, myrrh, the bitters, the mildest aromatics may also be of use. It must be the circumstances that must decide the choice from among these different remedies. The first of those that I have indicated, merit, for the most times, the preference; but there may cases occur which require others; they should, in general, be selected from the class of the nervous medicines, taking for a guide of choice, the precautions I have above specified. It is a disorder of the nerves, and ought to be treated as such; and treated so it has often been with success, without the cause of it having been known. It is a truth, and a truth demonstrated by incontestable observations, that the ignorance of this cause, and a neglect thereto consequential of the precautions which it exacts, has sometimes frustrated prescriptions to all appearances the best indicated, without the physicians being able to penetrate the cause of their failure of success.
I prescribed for the young man, whose case is described in a fragment of his letters (p. 34.) pills of which mirrh was the basis, with a decoction of the bark; and this was attended with the happiest success[122]. “I am every day (as he wrote me sixteen days after his beginning these remedies) more and more sensible of the great good they do me; my head-achs are no longer either so frequent or so violent: I have not them now any more, unless when I apply close; my stomach grows better; I have now but rarely pains in my limbs.” At the end of a month his cure was complete, except in this, that he had not, nor perhaps ever will have, the strength it is probable he would have had but for his misconduct. The check, which the machine receives in its growing season, has consequences which are irreparable. Oh, that this truth were but strongly imprinted on the minds of youth! It has been lately urged with great energy. “Youth” (says M. Linnæus) “is the most important season for forming a robust constitution. Nothing is more to be dreaded than a premature or excessive use of the pleasures of venery: thence proceed weaknesses of the eyes, vertigos, diminution of appetite, and even an enfeeblement of the mental powers. Bodies enervated in youth never recover their original vigor: their old age is accelerated and infirm, and their life short[123].”
Sixteen hundred years before the times of this great Naturalist, Plutarch, in his valuable work on the education of children, had recommended the formation of their constitution as a point of the highest importance. “No care (says he) should be neglected that can contribute to the elegance and vigor of the body:” (the excesses of which I am treating are detrimental to both the one and the other;) “for” (adds he) “the foundation for a healthy old age is to be laid in youth: temperance and moderation at this early time of life, are a passport to a happy latter season[124].”
To the account of the preceding case, in which the success appears due to the bark, I shall subjoin another, in which the cold bath was the principal remedy.
A young man of a bilious constitution, seduced to libidinous practices from the age of ten years, had always been, from that time, weak, languishing, and of an ill habit of body: he had had some bilious disorders, which it had been very difficult to cure; he was extremely lean, pale, feeble, melancholic. I prescribed for him the cold bath, and a powder of cream of tartar, martials, and a very little cinnamon. In less than six weeks he acquired such a strength as he had never before known.
One great advantage of the Spaw-waters and of the bark is, that the use of them agrees with milk, and suffers it to pass. The Spaw-waters are not the only ones that have this property. Hoffman prescribed asses milk, with a third of Seltzer-water. M. de la Mettrie has preserved to us a curious observation of M. Boerhaave; speaking of the Duke of ——, “This amiable Duke (I translate literally) had thrown himself out of the nuptial paradise; I brought him into it again by the use of Spaw-waters with milk[125].”
A weakness of the stomach which causes the digestion to be too slow; acids; the want of activity in the bile; the obstructions in the intestines of the abdominal region, are the principal causes that hinder the digestion of the milk, and counter-indicate its use. The waters which remedy all these causes cannot but facilitate the digestion; and the bark, which fulfils the same indications, may also be very well combined with the milk. These remedies may be employed, either precedently, to prepare the passages, which is almost always necessary, or at the same time.