The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the character, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas.

Robert Thomas

Date:: 1822

Credit: The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the character, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

Title Page

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$Order /.] YELLOW FEVEB. <J3 vulsions took place, and to procure sleep towards the decline of the disease. When a severe headach, with great depression of spirits, is com- plained of, camphor and aether may probably be administered with some advantage. In cases where violent delirium prevails, the ap- plication of a blister to the neck or shoulders may be advisable ; but where there is only coma, this remedy will not be necessary. When remissions are obtained, and the disease shows a disposi- tion to yield, the cinchona bark, joined with sulphuric acid, may be taken with advantage, and its use should be continued during the whole stage of convalescence, which is often tedious and long, owing to the great debility that is always left behind, and from which the patient cannot readily recover, unless by a change of climate. Quassia in a cold infusion is a valuable medicine during conva- lescence, and here the cold bath may also be serviceable. The cortex cuspariae has likewise been found an useful medicine towards the close of this fever, when debility is the chief symptom. An infusion of it* sits easy on the stomach, and is attended with the most beneficial effects in restoring the strength and appetite. Other tonics may be used at the same time: for these, see Dyspepsia. In recommending a use of the cortex cuspariae, it appears worthy of observation to guard practitioners against a spurious species of it met with in the trade, and which proves of a deleterious and poisonous nature. That of a safe nature, and commonly used, is a thin smooth bark, of a yellowish colour in the fracture, and of a bitter aromatic taste. The poisonous kind is less thick, a white, or yellowish white bark; in the fracture gray, on the inner edge yellowish, partly approaching to brown, of an unpleasant bitter taste, and hardly possessing any aroma. The effects of the spuri- ous and bitter cusparia, both on mankind and animals, are pretty much the same with those produced by the nux vomica. Not long ago a fever of a highly malignant nature made its appearance at Gibraltar, as well as at Cadiz and Malaga, and destroyed some thousands of the inhabitants. By some practi- tioners it was supposed highly contagious,! by others again not so. Thus it appears that the same diversity of opinion prevailed on this head with respect to this disease, as with regard to the yellow fever, which indeed it very nearly resembles, and probably t See Reports of the Pestilential Disorder of Andalusia, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, by Sir James Fellowes. 1 4. R Infus. Cort. Cuspariae, f. %v. Tinet. Cinchon. f. Calumb. f. aa !§ss. M. Capiat Cochl. magna ij. ter quaterve in die, cum Acid. Sulph. Dilut. TTJ, xvi. * 4. Take Infusion of Aegustura Bark, five ounces. Tincture of Peruvian ditto, of Calumbo, each half an ounce. Mix them The dose maybe two table-spoonsful three or four times a day, adding about twenty- four drops of Diluted Sulphuric Acid$