§ 39. 3. Their Drink should be such as allays Thirst, and abates the Fever; such as dilutes, relaxes, and promotes the Evacuations by Stool, Urine and Perspiration. All these which I have recommended in the preceding Chapters, jointly and severally possess these Qualities. A Glass or a Glass and a half of the Juice of such Fruits as I have just mentioned, may also be added to three full Pints of Water.
§ 40. The Sick should drink at least twice or thrice that Quantity daily, often, and a little at once, between three or four Ounces, every Quarter of an Hour. The Coldness of the Drink should just be taken off.
§ 41. 4. If the Patient has not two Motions in the 24 Hours; if the Urine be in small Quantity and high coloured; if he rave, the Fever rage, the Pain of the Head and of the Loins be considerable, with a Pain in the Belly, and a Propensity to vomit, the Glyster [Nº. 5] should be given at least once a Day. The People have generally an Aversion to this kind of Remedy; notwithstanding there is not any more useful in feverish Disorders, especially in those I have just recounted; and one Glyster commonly gives more Relief, than if the Patient had drank four or five Times the Quantity of his Drinks. The Use of Glysters, in different Diseases, will be properly ascertained in the different Chapters, which treat of them. But it may be observed in this Place, that they are never to be given at the very Time the Patient is in a Sweat, which seems to relieve him.
§ 42. 5. As long as the Patient has sufficient Strength for it, he should sit up out of Bed one Hour daily, and longer if he can bear it; but at least half an Hour. It has a Tendency to lessen the Fever, the Head-ach, and a Light-headiness, or Raving. But he should not be raised, while he has a hopeful Sweating; though such Sweats hardly ever occur, but at the Conclusion of Diseases, and after the Sick has had several other Evacuations.
§ 43. 6. His Bed should be made daily while he sits up; and the Sheets of the Bed, as well as the Patient's Linen, should be changed every two Days, if it can be done with Safety. An unhappy Prejudice has established a contrary, and a really dangerous, Practice. The People about the Patient dread the very Thought of his rising out of Bed; they let him continue there in nasty Linen loaden with putrid Steams and Humours; which contribute, not only to keep up the Distemper, but even to heighten it into some Degree of Malignity. I do again repeat it here, that nothing conduces more to continue the Fever and Raving, than confining the Sick constantly to Bed, and witholding him from changing his foul Linen: by relieving him from both of which Circumstances I have, without the Assistance of any other Remedy, put a Stop to a continual Delirium of twelve Days uninterrupted Duration. It is usually said, the Patient is too weak, but this is a very weak Reason. He must be in very nearly a dying Condition, not to be able to bear these small Commotions, which, in the very Moment when he permits them, increase his Strength, and immediately after abate his Complaints. One Advantage the Sick gain by sitting up a little out of Bed, is the increased Quantity of their Urine, with greater Facility in passing it. Some have been observed to make none at all, if they did not rise out of Bed.
A very considerable Number of acute Diseases have been radically, effectually, cured by this Method, which mitigates them all. Where it is not used, as an Assistance at least, Medicines are very often of no Advantage. It were to be wished the Patient and his Friends were made to understand, that Distempers were not to be expelled at once with rough and precipitate Usage; that they must have their certain Career or Course; and that the Use of the violent Methods and Medicines they chuse to employ, might indeed abridge the Course of them, by killing the Patient; yet never otherwise shortened the Disease; but, on the contrary, rendered it more perplexing, tedious and obstinate; and often entailed such unhappy Consequences on the Sufferer, as left him feeble and languid for the rest of his Life.
§ 44. But it is not sufficient to treat, and, as it were, to conduct the Distemper properly. The Term of Recovery from a Disease requires considerable Vigilance and Attention, as it is always a State of Feebleness, and, thence, of Depression and Faintness. The same Kind of Prejudice which destroys the Sick, by compelling them to eat, during the Violence of the Disease, is extended also into the Stage of Convalescence, or Recovery; and either renders it troublesome and tedious; or produces fatal Relapses, and often chronical Distempers. In Proportion to the Abatement, and in the Decline, of the Fever, the Quantity of Nourishment may be gradually increased: but as long as there are any Remains of it, their Qualities should be those I have already recommended. Whenever the Fever is compleatly terminated, some different Foods may be entered upon; so that the Patient may venture upon a little white Meat, provided it be tender; some [18] Fish; a little Flesh-Soup, a few Eggs at times, with Wine property diluted. It must be observed at the same Time, that those very proper Aliments which restore the Strength, when taken moderately, delay the perfect Cure, if they exceed in Quantity, tho' but a little; because the Action of the Stomach being extremely weakened by the Disease and the Remedies, is capable only, as yet, of a small Degree of Digestion; and if the Quantity of its Extents exceed its Powers, they do not digest, but become putrid. Frequent Returns of the Fever supervene; a continual Faintishness; Head-achs; a heavy Drowsiness without a Power of Sleeping comfortably; flying Pains and Heats in the Arms and Legs; Inquietude; Peevishness; Propensity to Vomit; Looseness; Obstructions, and sometimes a slow Fever, with a Collection of Humours, that comes to Suppuration.
All these bad Consequences are prevented, by the recovering Sick contenting themselves, for some Time, with a very moderate Share of proper Food. We are not nourished in Proportion to the Quantity we swallow, but to that we digest. A Person on the mending Hand, who eats moderately, digests it and grows strong from it. He who swallows abundantly does not digest it, and instead of being nourished and strengthened, he withers insensibly away.
§ 45. We may reduce, within the few following Rules, all that is most especially to be observed, in Order to procure a compleat, a perfect Termination of acute Diseases; and to prevent their leaving behind them any Impediments to Health.
1. Let these who are recovering, as well as those who are actually sick, take very little Nourishment at a time, and take it often.