[203]. These accidents are not always the effects of carelessness. I have known an infant overlaid by its mother being seized in the night with an hysteric fit. This ought to serve as a caution against employing hysteric women as nurses; and should likewise teach such women never to lay an infant in the same bed with themselves, but in a small adjacent one.
[204]. The Author is happy to observe, that, since the first publication of this work, several societies have been instituted in Britain with the same benevolent intention as that of Amsterdam, and that their endeavours have proved no less successful. He is likewise happy to observe, that premiums have been awarded to those who have been active in their endeavours to restore to life persons who had been drowned, or suddenly deprived of life by any accident. How much is this superior to the superstitious institution, which allows any man a premium who brings a dead person out of the water, so that he may receive Christian burial; but allows nothing to the person who brings him out alive, or who recovers him after he has been to all appearance dead.
[205]. The late celebrated Dr. Smollet has indeed said, that if he were persuaded he had an ulcer in the lungs, he would jump into the cold bath: but here the Doctor evidently shews more courage than discretion; and that he was more a man of wit than a physician, every one will allow. A nervous asthma, or an atrophy, may be mistaken for a pulmonary consumption; yet, in the two former, the cold bath proves often beneficial, though I never knew it to in the latter. Indeed, all the phthisical patients I ever saw, who had tried the cold bath, were evidently hurt by it.
[206]. The celebrated Galen says, that immersion in cold water is fit only for the young of lions and bears; and recommends warm bathing, as conducive to the growth and strength of infants. How egregiously do the greatest men err whenever they lose sight of facts, and substitute reasoning in physic in place of observation and experience!
[207]. The greatest class of mineral waters in this country is the chalybeate. In many parts of Britain these are to be found in almost every field; but those chiefly in use, for medical purposes, are the purging chalybeates, as the waters of Scarborough, Cheltenham, Thorp Arch, Nevil Holt, &c. Of those which do not purge, the waters of Tunbridge stand in the highest repute. The saline purging waters, as those of Acton, Epsom, Kilburn, &c. are also in very general esteem; but the fountains most frequented by the sick in this country, are those to which the minerals impart a certain degree of heat, as Bath, Bristol, Buxton, &c.
[208]. When I speak of drinking a glass of the water over-night, I must beg leave to caution those who follow this plan against eating heavy suppers. The late Dr. Daultry of York, who was the first that brought the Harrowgate waters into repute, used to advise his patients to drink a glass before they went to bed; the consequence of which was, that having eat a flesh supper, and the water operating in the night, they were often tormented with gripes, and obliged to call for medical assistance.
[209]. See a paper on this subject in the Edinburgh Physical and Literary Essays, by the ingenious Dr. John Gardener.
[210]. A very good tincture of guaiacum, for domestic use, may be made by infusing two or three ounces of the gum in a bottle of rum or brandy.
[211]. See Collyrium of Lead.