Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health

by S. A. D. Tissot

The proper Remedies have been already directed, [§ 525]. The Steam of Vinegar is very serviceable in such Cases.

Of Poisons.

§ 532. There are a great Number of Poisons, whose Manner of acting is not alike; and whose ill Effects are to be opposed by different Remedies: But Arsenic, or Ratsbane, and some particular Plants are the Poisons which are the most frequently productive of Mischief, in Country Places.

§ 533. It is in Consequence of its excessive Acrimony, or violent Heat and Sharpness, which corrodes or gnaws, that Arsenic destroys by an excessive Inflammation, with a burning Fire as it were, most torturing Pains in the Mouth, Throat, Stomach, Guts; with rending and often bloody Vomitings, and Stools, Convulsions, Faintings, &c.

The best Remedy of all is pouring down whole Torrents of Milk, or, where there is not Milk, of warm Water. Nothing but a prodigious Quantity of such weak Liquids can avail such a miserable Patient. If the Cause of the Disorder is immediately known, after having very speedily taken down a large Quantity of warm Water, Vomiting may be excited with Oil, or with melted Butter, and by tickling the Inside of the Throat with a Feather. But when the Poison has already inflamed the Stomach and the Guts, we must not expect to discharge it by vomiting. Whatever is healing or emollient, Decoctions of mealy Pulse, of Barley, of Oatmeal, of Marsh-mallows, and Butter and Oil are the most suitable.

As soon as ever the tormenting Pains are felt in the Belly, and the Intestines seem attacked, Glysters of Milk must be very frequently thrown up.

If at the very Beginning of the Attack, the Patient has a strong Pulse, a very large Bleeding may be considerably serviceable by its delaying the Progress, and diminishing the Degree of Inflammation.

And even though it should happen that a Patient overcomes the first Violence of this dreadful Accident, it is too common for him to continue in a languid State for a long Time, and sometimes for all the Remainder of his Life. The most certain Method of preventing this Misery, is to live for some Months solely upon Milk, and some very new laid Eggs, just received from the Hen, and dissolved or blended in the Milk, without boiling them.

§ 534. The Plants which chiefly produce these unhappy Accidents are some Kinds of Hemlock, whether it be the Leaf or the Root, the Berries of the Bella Donna, or deadly Nightshade, which Children eat by mistake for Cherries; some Kind of Mushrooms, the Seed of the Datura, or the stinking Thorn-Apple.

All the Poisons of this Class prove mortal rather from a narcotic, or stupefying, than from an acrid, or very sharp Quality. Vertigos, Faintings, Reachings to vomit, and actual Vomitings are the first Symptoms produced by them.