a Grain of Opium, to be given every four Hours for six
Times; and this removed both the Fever and Dysentery.--He
says, he afterwards gave it, with equal Success, in the
Quotidian Dysenteries, where he observed Exacerbations or
Remissions; and he adds, that he does not doubt but that it
will answer as well in Epidemical Diarrhoea's, and Camp Fevers
attended with such Symptoms.
Dr. _Whytt_ of _Edinburgh_ has given with Success a strong
Decoction of the Bark, mixed with the _confectio japonica_ of
the _Edinburgh_ Dispensatory, in the bad State of the
Dysentery, when the Mouth and alimentary Canal were
threatened with Aphthae, and even sometimes after they had
appeared. And Dr. _Pringle_ mentions his having given the
Decoction of the Bark, with Snake-Root and some Drops of
Laudanum, in the Dysentery complicated with the malignant
Fever. See _Note to Page 245 of his third Edition on the
Diseases of the Army_.
On the second or third Day, we repeated the Purge; or, if the Patient
was weak, ordered a Clyster to be administered in its Place; in order
to prevent the putrid Fluids and Excrements from being accumulated in
the Bowels:--In other respects we treated it as when the Disorder was
not complicated with the malignant Fever.
This Method, though it did not succeed with all, yet it answered
better than any other I tried;--and it ought to be remarked, that
although it had such a good Effect in Cases attended with the
malignant Fever, or where the Fever inclined to the intermittent Kind,
it did not answer so well in other recent Cases, but often made the
Patient sick.
In military Hospitals, Fluxes are liable to be complicated with other
Disorders, as well as with the malignant Fever; especially with
Coughs, and pleuritic and peripneumonic Symptoms, when the Weather
begins to be cold, in _October_ and _November_.--In such Cases, when
the Patients were strong, we were often obliged to bleed freely, to
apply Blisters, and in the Beginning treat the Disorder as
inflammatory; having at the same Time an Eye towards the Flux, in the
other Medicines we prescribed.
Patients, who have had the Flux long, are apt to have their Legs swell
at Nights; or to swell all over as soon as the Flux has stopped. Such
oedematous or anasarcous Swellings, we treated nearly in the same
Manner as those which followed the petechial Fever; only that we durst
not at first be so free
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