[55]. If a person suspects that his bed is damp, the simple precaution of taking off the sheets and lying in the blankets, with all, or most of his clothes on, will prevent all the danger. I have practised this for many years, and never have been hurt by damp beds, though no constitution, without care, is proof against their baneful influence.
[56]. People imagine if a good fire is made in a room after it has been washed, that there is no danger from sitting in it; but they must give me leave to say that this increases the danger. The evaporation excited by the fire generates cold, and renders the damp more active.
[57]. The tap-rooms in London and other great towns, where such numbers of people spend their evenings, are highly pernicious. The breath of a number of people crowded into a low apartment, with the addition of fires, candles, the smoke of tobacco, and the fumes of hot liquor, &c. must not only render it hurtful to continue in such places, but dangerous to go out of them into a cold and chilly atmosphere.
[58]. Dr. Lind says, that twenty or twenty-five drops of laudanum put into a cup of the patient’s drink, and given about half an hour after the commencement of the hot fit, promotes the sweat, shortens the fit, relieves the head, and tends greatly to remove the disease.
[59]. It has lately been observed, that the red bark is more powerful than that which has for some time been in common use. Its superior efficacy seems to arise from its being of a more perfect growth than the quill bark, and consequently more fully impregnated with the medical properties of the plant.
[60]. In intermitting fevers of an obstinate nature, I have found it necessary to throw in the bark much faster. Indeed the benefits arising from this medicine depend chiefly upon a large quantity of it being administered in a short time. Several ounces of bark given in a few days will do more than as many pounds taken in the course of some weeks. When this medicine is intended either to stop a mortification, or cure an obstinate ague, it ought to be thrown in as fast as the stomach can possibly bear it. Inattention to this circumstance has hurt the reputation of one of the best medicines of which we are in possession.
[61]. There is reason to believe, that sundry of our own plants or barks, which are very bitter and astringent, would succeed in the cure of intermittent fevers, especially when assisted by aromatics. But as the Peruvian bark has been long approved in the cure of this disease, and is now to be obtained at a very reasonable rate, it is of less importance to search after new medicines. We cannot however omit taking notice, that the Peruvian bark is very often adulterated, and that it requires considerable skill to distinguish between the genuine and the false. This ought to make people very cautious of whom they purchase it.
[62]. In obstinate agues, when the patient is old, the habit phlegmatic, the season rainy, the situation damp, or the like, it will be necessary to mix with two ounces of the bark, half an ounce of Virginian snake-root, and a quarter of an ounce of ginger, or some other warm aromatic; but when the symptoms are of an inflammatory nature, half an ounce of salt of wormwood or salt of tartar may be added to the above quantity of bark.
[63]. Arsenic has of late been recommended as an infallible remedy in the ague; but I would advise that it should be used only under the eye of a physician.
[64]. See Appendix, Saline mixture.