A view of the diseases most prevalent in the United States of America : at different seasons of the year ; with an account of the most improved method of treating them ; being an abstact [sic] not only of the editor's own experience, but of the experience of several physicians ... residing in the different states ; including the substance of ... improvements that have been made in the treatment of similar diseases in other countries / collected and arranged by William Currie.

  • Currie, William, 1754-1828.
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A view of the diseases most prevalent in the United States of America : at different seasons of the year ; with an account of the most improved method of treating them ; being an abstact [sic] not only of the editor's own experience, but of the experience of several physicians ... residing in the different states ; including the substance of ... improvements that have been made in the treatment of similar diseases in other countries / collected and arranged by William Currie. 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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    The chamber should also be constantly preserved of a tern perature agreeable to the feelings of the patient, and the drinks should be of an acidulous refrigerating quality; such as lemonade, tamarind water, apple water, quince tea, currant jelly and water, barberry jelly and barley water, linseed tea, balsa water, toast and water, &c. Sec. The diet should consist entirely of a decoction of barley and raisins in water, to which may be added, on account of the cough, gum arabic and sugar; oatmeal gruel, panada made without the addition of wine or spices, buttermilk and water, rennet whey, the juices of oranges, &c. &c. Medicines, usually called expectorants, consisting of oily mixtures, spermaceti, and syrups, were formerly much em- ployed in these diseases, wfth an expectation of relieving the cough; but later and more accurate observers have generally discarded them as inefficacious and useless, if not injurious. The only expectorants to be depended upon in inflamma- tory affections of the lungs, or their surrounding membrane, are those which reduce immoderate action and the general vigour of the system. When the inflammation terminates by an effusion into the cellular membrane of the lungs, all attempts to relieve, that I have hitherto seen attempted, have been of no avail. Dr. Darwin, on the subject of pneumonic inflammation, vol. i. p. 249, Philadelphia edition, mentions that when the patient becomes delirious, and smiles disagreeably at intervals, 16