common for Patients bad in the malignant Fever to be
seized likewise with the Flux. Such Cases were always extremely
dangerous; and when the Fever was bad, we were often obliged to
neglect the Flux, and only attend to the Fever.--When the Purging was
violent, and appeared very early in the Fever, it often sunk the
Patients, and soon carried them off: but where it was moderate, and
did not appear till towards the Height or the Decline of the Fever, it
often proved a Crisis to the Disorder.
When such Fluxes appeared early attended with sharp Pain of the
Bowels, and Signs of Inflammation; if the Patient was strong, we
began the Cure with opening a Vein, which the Patient bore easily, and
it gave Relief; but when the Symptoms were mild, without any acute
Pain, the Bleeding was omitted.--Commonly the Bowels were loaded with
corrupted Humours, when this Symptom appeared; and, therefore, we
found it of Advantage to give a Dose of the Salts with Manna and Oil,
or some other gentle Purge, to carry them off; and in the Evening an
Opiate to ease the Pain and procure the Patient Rest.
After this we gave the Mindereri Draughts with Mithridate; and as soon
as the Petechiae appeared, or we observed any Remissions in the Fever,
the Patient took every four or six Hours, a Drachm of an Electuary,
composed of equal Parts of the _electuarium corticis_ and the
_electuarium diascordii_[44]; or Half a Drachm of the Powder of the
Bark, or a Scruple of the Extract, in the Mindereri Draughts, with
four or five Drops of the _tinctura thebaica_; and we repeated the
Opiate in the Evening, always proportioning the Quantity of it to the
Effects of the former Dose, and the Violence of the Purging.
[44] This Practice of giving the Cortex with Opiates in the
Dysentery is not new; for Dr. R. _Morton_, in his Appendix to
his second Exercise on the Fevers, which appeared from 1658
to 1691, observes, that after the Plague of 1666 had ceased,
a Fever from a milder Poison, attended with Gripes and
Dysentery, began to make its Appearance. As the common
Methods of Cure proved unsuccessful, and Dr. _Morton_
observed Exacerbations and Remissions, he resolved to give
the Bark mixed with Laudanum; and found it answer his
Expectation. The first Patient to whom he gave it, was a man
in _Long Lane_, who laboured under a Tertian Dysentery; upon
observing a Remission, he ordered a Drachm of the Bark, mixed
with
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