Observations on the changes of the air, and the concomitant epidemical diseases in the island of Barbadoes : to which is added, A treatise on the putrid bilious fever, commonly called the yellow fever, and such other diseases as are indigenous or endemial in the West India islands, or in the torrid zone / by William Hillary, M.D. with notes by Benjamin Rush, M.D.
- William Hillary
- Date:
- 1811..
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on the changes of the air, and the concomitant epidemical diseases in the island of Barbadoes : to which is added, A treatise on the putrid bilious fever, commonly called the yellow fever, and such other diseases as are indigenous or endemial in the West India islands, or in the torrid zone / by William Hillary, M.D. with notes by Benjamin Rush, M.D. 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.)
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![by large, plentiful bleeding, and the abovementioned an- tiphlogictic medicines. As to the quantity of blood to be taken away, either in these, or in any other cases, it can- not be said how much is necessary, because a person for- med with delicate, weak, or relaxed weak fibres, cannot often bear the loss of nine or ten ounces of blood, so well as a plethoric person with strong elastic solids, can bear the loss of sixty or eighty ounces of blood. The month of February also continued to be very dry, though we had sometimes some small showers of rain, though of little importance; for the whole quantity of rain which fell in this month, was but equal to 1.03 inch deep. The lowest the thermometer ever was in the morning in this month, was at 74, and the highest it ever was in the morning this month, was at 76; the lowest it was at noon was at 78, and the highest at noon was at 80. The lowest that the barometer was, was at 29.8, and the highest at 29.9. Few catarrhs appeared after the middle of the last month, and now they totally ceased: but the numbers in the above inflammatory diseases increased during this month, and required very large evacuations by bleeding, &c. before the inflammation and fever could be taken off; which reduced some patients pretty low. To these as well as to those who were naturally weak, I found it ne- cessary to give some cardiacs; but I soon found that the usual cordial waters, and cardiac medicines of the shops, heated and inflamed the blood too much, and increased the fever in this warm climate; wherefore I used the rich sweet wines made from mature grapes, as canary and frontigniac, and found them to be much better cordials in this case, than the hot fiery spirits of the shops are, and that they heated and inflamed much less; to which I sometimes added sp. c. c. or spir. mindereri, thus, ]J> decoct, pectoral, j^i. vini canar. (vel frontig.) 3 v. tlix. paragoric. |ss. spir. mindereri gij. syr. scillitic. giss misce. capiat asger sal. nitri 3ss. cum sal. ammon. crud. pur. gr. x. commixt. in cochl. tria vel quatuor huj us decoct, tertia quaq; hora. This revived them and encouraged the expectoration, abated the fever and inflammation, and answered the desiv red success.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21128522_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
