[168]. Take Venice turpentine, boiled to a sufficient degree of hardness, half an ounce, calomel half a drachm. Let these be mixed and formed into sixty pills, of which five or six may be taken night and morning. If, during the use of these pills, the mouth should grow sore, or the breath become offensive, they must be discontinued till these symptoms disappear.
[169]. I have been accustomed for some time past to apply leeches to inflamed testicles, which practice has always been followed with the most happy effects.
[170]. The extract of hemlock may be made into pills, and taken in the manner directed under the article Cancer.
[171]. For the dispersion of a bubo, a number of leeches applied to the part affected will be found equally efficacious as in the inflamed testicle.
[172]. When venereal ulcers are seated in the lips, the infection may be communicated by kissing. I have seen very obstinate venereal ulcers in the lips, which I had all the reason in the world to believe were communicated in this manner.
Nurses ought to beware of suckling infected children, or having their breasts drawn by persons tainted with the venereal disease. This caution is peculiarly necessary for nurses who reside in the neighbourhood of great towns.
[173]. I have found it answer extremely well to sprinkle chancres twice a-day with calomel. This will often perform a cure without any other application whatever. If the chancres are upon the glans, they may be washed with milk and water, a little warm, and afterwards the calomel may be applied as above.
[174]. The sublimate may be given in distilled water, or any other liquor that the patient chuses. I commonly order ten grains to be dissolved in an ounce of the spirit of wine, for the conveniency of carriage, and let the patient take twenty or thirty drops of it night and morning in half a glass of brandy or other spirits. Mr. Debraw, an ingenious chymist of this place, informs me, that he prepares a salt of mercury much more mild and gentle in its operation than the sublimate, though equally efficacious.
[175]. See Appendix, Decoct. of Sarsaparilla.
[176]. Though we are still very much in the dark with regard to the method of curing this disease among the natives of America, yet it is generally affirmed, that they do cure it with speed, safety, and success, and that without the least knowledge of mercury. Hence it becomes an object of considerable importance to discover their method of cure. This might surely be done by making trials of the various plants which are found in those parts, and particularly of such as the natives are known to make use of. All people in a rude state take their medicines chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, and are often possessed of valuable secrets with regard to the virtues of plants, of which more enlightened nations are ignorant. Indeed we make no doubt but some plants of our own growth, were proper pains taken to discover them, would be found as efficacious in curing the venereal disease as those of America. It must however be remembered, that what will cure the venereal disease in one country, will not always be found to have equal success in another.