A treatise on the small-pox and measles / by Abú Becr Mohammed ibn Zacaríyá ar-Rází (commonly called Rhazes). Translated from the original Arabic by William Alexander Greenhill.

  • Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925?
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the small-pox and measles / by Abú Becr Mohammed ibn Zacaríyá ar-Rází (commonly called Rhazes). Translated from the original Arabic by William Alexander Greenhill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    in the skin, the patient finds himself easier after it, and his pulse and breathing are relieved in proportion; but if you see that the eruption and appearance of the pustules goes on slowly and with difficulty, you must in this case avoid all very extin- guishing medicines, for to use them would be acting contrary to Nature, and hindering her from throwing out the superfluous humours upon the skin. And when there follows, upon the use of extinguents, any anxiety and inquietude which were not present before, and especially if there be a palpitation of the heart, then you may be sure that you have committed an error. You must, therefore, immediately take all possible pains to soften the skin, in the way I have mentioned ; and give to drink from time to time warm water, either alone, or that in which there have been first boiled the seeds of sweet fennel and smallage, and others of the same kind to be hereafter mentioned, which facilitate the eruption of the Small-Pox, ac- cording as you see the heat to be less or more inflamed, and as the patient is able to bear it; regard being also had to the sluggishness of the Small-Pox, and the slowness of the pustules in coming out. (4.) The following is an easy, gentle mode of treatment, which will not excite too much heat, and will facilitate the eruption of the pustules :— [Form. 5.] Take yellow Figs, to the number of thirty, Of Raisins stoned, twenty drachms; Pour upon them three pints of water, and let them boil gently until they are nearly dissolved: give the patient to drink half -■> pint of this decoction, at three several times; then cover him up with clothes, and expose him to hot vapour, in the manner we have before mentioned. (5.) The following preparation is more efficacious :— p. 100. [Form. 6.] Take of the aforesaid Decoction, four ounces, Of the Decoction of Sweet Fennel Seed and Smallage, two ounces; Give it to the patient to drink, in the way we have mentioned. (6.) The following is still more efficacious:— [Form. 7.] Take of Sweet Fennel Seed, Smallage Seed, of each ten drachms; Boil them in the aforesaid decoction until the water is red, then strain it, and give the patient to drink three ounces of it. 4.