Paedotrophia, or, The art of nursing and rearing children. A poem, in three books / translated from the Latin of Scevole de St. Marthe ; with medical and historical notes; with the life of the author, from the French of Michel and Niceron ... by H.W. Tytler.

Date:: 1797

Credit: Paedotrophia, or, The art of nursing and rearing children. A poem, in three books / translated from the Latin of Scevole de St. Marthe ; with medical and historical notes; with the life of the author, from the French of Michel and Niceron ... by H.W. Tytler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$And chief prefer the herb, with fpreading leaves, That from the lofty elm its name receives; The fragrant herb, to ancient times unknown, 565 That fheds new grace and glory on our own ; Whofe pow'rs, inherent in its facred juice. Of all, can beft a breathing fweat produce, Relieve Ver. 568. Of all, can heft a breathing fweaipi dduce,] Dr. Mead alfo recommends gentle fweating, efpeciaUy in the moft dange- rous fpecies of the fmall-pox; and this fliould be tried, about the fourth or fifth da)', after the evacuations already mentioned have taken place. Spiritus Mindereri, and other Saline Mixtures are now chiefly ufed for this purpofe, the herb recomttiended in the text, though flill retained in the Materia Medica, being al- moft entirely laid afide in modern praaice; and I apprehend there are few phyficiansat prefent alive, who can determine its virtues by experience. At the fame time, its fragrant and moft refrefli- ing fmell feems to fhevv that an infufion or decoftion of its leaves and flowers would be an excellent antifpafmodic and diaphore- tic in this diforder. It is called ulmaria, from ulmus, the elm, having fome refemblance to the figure of that tree : and as' St. Marthe beftows fuch encomiums on it, and had doubtiefs made trial of it as a dinphoretic himfelf, I flisU give the following ac- count of it from Dr. Lewis: Ulmaria, five Regina Prati Ph. Ed. Barba caprje floiibus compaftis C. B. meadow-fweet, or «* queen of the meadows ; a plant with tall, fmooth, reddifli, *' brittle ftalks ; and oval, fliarp-pointed, indented leaves, fet in <* pairs along a middle rib, with fmaller pieces between ; and at « the end, a large odd one divided into three feftions, wrinkled *• ar\d green above, white underneath j on the tops come forth large$