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

by S. A. D. Tissot

2, His Legs must be bathed, and he must take some Glysters: the Vehemence of the Symptoms must regulate the Number of each.

3, The Ptisans [Nº. 3] or [4] must be taken, or a Tea of Elder and Lime-tree Flowers, to which a fifth Part Milk may be added.

4, The Vapour, the Steam of warm Water should also be employed, as very conducive to asswage the Cough; the Soreness of the Throat, and the Oppression the Patient labours under.

5, As soon as the Efflorescence, the Redness becomes pale, the Patient is to be purged with the Draught [Nº. 23].

6, He is still to be kept strictly to his Regimen, for two Days after this Purge; after which he is to be put upon the Diet of those who are in a State of Recovery.

7, If during the Eruption such Symptoms supervene as occur [at the same Term] in the Small-Pocks, they are to be treated in the Manner already directed there.

§ 226. Whenever this Method has not been observed, and the Accidents described [§ 223] supervene, the Distemper must be treated like an Inflammation in its first State, and all must be done as directed [§ 225]. If the Disease is not vehement, [⁶⁰] Bleeding may be omitted. If it is of some standing in gross Children, loaded with Humours, inactive, and pale, we must add to the Medicines already prescribed the Potion [Nº. 8], and Blisters to the Legs.

§ 227. It often happens from the Distance of proper Advice, that the Relics, the Dregs as it were, of the Disease have been too little regarded, especially the Cough; in which Circumstance it forms a real Suppuration in the Lungs, attended with a slow Fever. I have seen many Children in Country Villages destroyed by this Neglect. Their Case is then of the same Nature with that described [§ 68] and [82], and terminates in the same Manner in a Looseness, (attended with very little Pain) and sometimes a very fœtid one, which carries off the Patient. In such Cases we must recur to the Remedies prescribed [§ 74], Article 3, 4, 5; to the Powder [Nº. 14]; and to Milk and Exercise. But it is so very difficult to make Children take the Powder, that it may be sometimes necessary to trust to the Milk without it, which I have often seen in such Situations accomplish a very difficult Cure. I must advise the Reader at the same Time, that it has not so compleat an Effect, as when it is taken solely unjoined by any other Aliment; and that it is of the last Importance not to join it with any, which has the least Acidity or Sharpness. Persons in easy Circumstances may successfully take, at the same Time, Pfeffer, [⁶¹] Seltzer, Peterstal, or some other light Waters, which are but moderately loaded with mineral Ingredients. These are also successfully employed in all the Cases, in which the Cure I have mentioned is necessary.

§ 228. Sometimes there remains, after the Course of the Measles, a strong dry Cough, with great Heat in the Breast, and throughout the whole Body, with Thirst, an excessive Dryness of the Tongue, and of the whole Surface of the Body. I have cured Persons thus indisposed after this Distemper, by making them breathe in the Vapour of warm Water; by the repeated Use of warm Baths; and by allowing them to take nothing for several Days but Water and Milk.

Before I take leave of this Subject, I assure the Reader again, that the contagious Cause of the Measles is of an extremely sharp and acrid Nature. It appears to have some Resemblance to the bilious Humour, which produces the Erisipelas, or St. Anthony's Fire; and thence it demands our particular Attention and Vigilance; without which very troublesome and dangerous Consequences may be apprehended. I have seen, not very long since, a young Girl, who was in a very languid State after the Measles, which she had Undergone three Years before: It was at length attended with an Ulceration in her Neck, which was cured, and her Health finally restored by Sarsaparilla with Milk and Water.