A letter to a friend, concerning the epidemic fever of April and May, 1778, in York and its neighbourhood. Containing the history of the disease, and the author's method of treatment, with a few useful hints how to prevent it / By Thomas Withers, M.D.

  • Thomas Withers
Date:
[1778?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to a friend, concerning the epidemic fever of April and May, 1778, in York and its neighbourhood. Containing the history of the disease, and the author's method of treatment, with a few useful hints how to prevent it / By Thomas Withers, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    n ] ing is the mo£l dangerous pra&ice that can be made ufe of. But if there be a local determination of the blood to the head, and confequently a violent irritation on the brain, with a furious delirium, when the pulfe and ge¬ neral habit is fo weak that general bleeding is not ad- miflible, leeches or cupping is often highly ufeful, for the blood is drawn as near as poflible from the part af¬ fected* We proceed to the confideration of the ufe of Anti- jnonials and Emetics in this Fever. If I am called in at the beginning, I have frequently ordered the follow¬ ing Antimonial mixture with fuccefs. Pure water, four ounces ; Simple Alexeterial water, three ounces j Emetic Tartar, two grains; Nutmeg water, lix drams ; Common fyrup, two drams. Let the patient take two fpoonfuls of this mixture every twenty minutes till the whole be taken, uri¬ le fs it either makes him vomit, or gives him a loofe Ilooi, in either of which cafes he is immediately to defift from the ufe of it. If it makes him vo¬ mit, let him drink a little Chamomile tea. By the ufe of this Antimonial mixture, I have, in feveral cafes, put an entire ftop to the Fever at its commencement. I take care to premife blood-letting, if abfolutely neceflary, but not otherwife. If my pa¬ tient be very weakly, I order a lefs dofe, or the fame dofe at longer intervals; fometimes one fpoonful every twenty minutes; fometimes two fpoonfuls every five or fix hours. In this laft mode of adminiftration, its ufe is continued for forty or fifty hours, but fddom longer. In