ng on the Outside of the left Thigh, immediately above the Knee.

[113] "Ulcers on the Legs, or any other Part of the Body,
require pretty much the same Treatment, _viz._ very gentle
Compression, in order to keep under the Fungus, and such
antiseptic Applications as have been recommended for putrid
Gums, _viz. mel rosat._ acidulated with _spiritus vitrioli_,
_ung. AEgiptiacum_, &c. but nothing will avail where the
Patient cannot have Vegetables and Fruits." _Dr. Lind's
Treatise on Scurvy_, part ii. chap. v. p. 204. And he
recommends, if the Swellings and Ulcers of the Legs neither
yield to the general Cure nor to the Methods here proposed,
that a slow and gentle Course of Mercury should be tried,
after the scorbutic Taint is a good deal removed, and the
Gums are sufficiently firm; and to give along with it a
Decoction of the Woods, or of Sarsaparilla; but this Method
ought not to be attempted till the Gums have acquired a
proper Firmness. See _ibid._ part ii. chap. v.

We treated them all four in the Method above-mentioned, adding a Mess
of Greens to Dinner, giving Lemonade for Drink, and the Bark, with
Elixir of Vitriol, by Way of Medicine. The Parts that were hard and
swelled, were fomented, and rubbed with soft Liniments, and Poultices
were applied to the hard Swelling on the Outside of the left Thigh;
and the Ulcers of the Legs dressed with Digestives, and occasionally
washed with spirituous Tinctures, and touched with Escharotics. Before
I left _Bremen_, the first Week in _June_, the first and second
Patients were perfectly recovered, and the third and fourth almost
well. All of them had had the Disorder some Months before they came to
the Hospital.

OF THE ITCH.

There was no Disorder so common in the military Hospitals as the Itch.
It is of an infectious Nature, and now most commonly believed to be
entirely owing to little Insects lodged in the Skin, which many
Authors affirm they have seen in the Pustules by the Help of a
Microscope; and that the Disorder is entirely communicated by
Infection, and does not arise from any Fault in the Fluids or Solids.

It has been found by Experience, that internal Medicines have little
or no Effect in removing this Disorder; and that only external
Remedies, which come immediately in contact with the Parts affected,
are capable of making a Cure; which has been brought as a farther
Proof, that the Itch