9, If the Skin be dry, with a Looseness, and that by checking it, we design to increase Perspiration, instead of the Rhubarb, the Cream of Tartar may be blended with the Ipecacuana, [Nº. 39], which, being given in small and frequent Doses, restrains the Purging, and promotes Perspiration. This Medicine, as the former, is to be taken in the Morning; two Hours after, the Sick must begin with the Potion [Nº. 40], and repeat it regularly every three Hours; until it be interrupted by giving one of the Medicines [Nº. 38] or [39]: After which the Potion is to be repeated again, as already directed, till the Patient grows considerably better.
10, If the Strength of the Sick be very considerably depressed, and he is in great Dejection and Anguish, he should take, with every Draught of the Potion, the Bolus, or Morsel [Nº. 41]. If the Diarrhœa, the Purging is violent, there should be added, once or twice a Day to the Bolus, the Weight of twenty Grains, or the Size of a very small Bean, of Diascordium; or if that is not readily to be got, as much Venice Treacle.
11, Whenever, notwithstanding all this Assistance, the Patient continues in a State of Weakness and Insensibility, two large Blisters should be applied to the fleshy Insides of the Legs, or a large one to the Nape of the Neck: and sometimes, if there be a great Drowsiness, with a manifest Embarrassment of the Brain, they may be applied with great Success over the whole Head. Their Suppuration and Discharge is to be promoted abundantly; and, if they dry up within a few Days, others are to be applied, and their Evacuation is to be kept up for a considerable Time.
12, As soon as the Distemper is sufficiently abated, for the Patient to remain some Hours with very little or no Fever, we must avail ourselves of this Interval, to give him six, or at least five Doses of the Medicine [Nº. 14], and repeat the same the next Day, which may prevent the Return of the Fever: [66] after which it may be sufficient to give daily only two Doses for a few Days.
13, When the Sick continue entirely clear of a Fever, or any Return, they are to be put into the Regimen of Persons in a State of Recovery. But if his Strength returns very slowly, or not at all; in Order to the speedier Establishment and Confirmation of it, he may take three Doses a Day of the Theriaca Pauperum, or poor Man's Treacle [Nº. 42], the first of them fasting, and the other twelve Hours after. It were to be wished indeed, this Medicine was introduced into all the Apothecaries Shops, as an excellent Stomachic, in which Respect it is much preferable to Venice Treacle, which is an absurd Composition, dear and often dangerous. It is true it does not dispose the Patients to Sleep; but when we would procure them Sleep, there are better Medicines than the Treacle to answer that Purpose. Such as may not think the Expence of the Medicine [Nº. 14], too much, may take three Doses of it daily for some Weeks, instead of the Medicine [Nº. 42], already directed.
§ 248. It is necessary to eradicate a Prejudice that prevails among Country People, with Regard to the Treatment of these Fevers; not only because it is false and ridiculous, but even dangerous too. They imagine that the Application of Animals can draw out the Poison of the Disease; in Consequence of which they apply Poultry, or Pigeons, Cats or sucking Pigs to the Feet, or upon the Head of the Patient, having first split the living Animals open. Some Hours after they remove their strange Applications, corrupted, and stinking very offensively; and then ascribe such Corruption and horrid Stink to the Poison they suppose their Application to be charged with; and which they suppose to be the Cause of this Fever. But in this supposed Extraction of Poison, they are grosly mistaken, since the Flesh does not stink in Consequence of any such Extraction, but from its being corrupted through Moisture and Heat: and they contract no other Smell but what they would have got, if they had been put in any other Place, as well as on the Patient's Body, that was equally hot and moist. Very far from drawing out the Poison, they augment the Corruption of the Disease; and it would be sufficient to communicate it to a sound Person, if he was to suffer many of these animal Bodies, thus absurdly and uselessly butchered, to be applied to various Parts of his Body in Bed; and to lie still a long Time with their putrified Carcases fastened about him, and corrupting whatever Air he breathed there.
With the same Intention they fasten a living Sheep to the Bed's-foot for several Hours; which, though not equally dangerous, is in some Measure hurtful, since the more Animals there are in a Chamber, the Air of it is proportionably corrupted, or altered at least from its natural Simplicity, by their Respiration and Exhalations: but admitting this to be less pernicious, it is equally absurd. It is certain indeed, the Animals who are kept very near the sick Person breathe in the poisonous, or noxious Vapours which exhale from his Body, and may be incommoded with them, as well as his Attendants: But it is ridiculous to suppose their being kept near the Sick causes such Poison to come out of their Bodies. On the very contrary, in contributing still further to the Corruption of the Air, they increase the Disease. They draw a false Consequence, and no Wonder, from a false Principle; saying, if the Sheep dies, the Sick will recover. Now, most frequently the Sheep does not die; notwithstanding which the Sick sometimes recover; and sometimes they both die.
§ 249. The Cause of Malignant Fevers is, not infrequently, combined with other Diseases, whose Danger it extremely increases. It is blended for Instance, with the Poison of the Small-Pocks, or of the Measles. This may be known by the Union of those Symptoms, which carry the Marks of Malignity, with the Symptoms of the other Diseases. Such combined Cases are extremely dangerous; they demand the utmost Attention of the Physician; nor is it possible to prescribe their exact Treatment here; since it consists in general of a Mixture of the Treatment of each Disease; though the Malignity commonly demands the greatest Attention.