Curiosities of common water, or the advantages thereof in preventing and curing many diseases : gathered from the writings of several eminent physicians, and also from more than forty years' experience, to which are added some rules for preserving health by diet / by John Smith.

  • Smith, John, 1647 or 1648-1727?
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of common water, or the advantages thereof in preventing and curing many diseases : gathered from the writings of several eminent physicians, and also from more than forty years' experience, to which are added some rules for preserving health by diet / by John Smith. 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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    GRIEF AND FRIGHT. (ire, or put a hot toast of bread into every pint; and the same is true in fevers, or in pains from gravel or the colic. A small quantity will not be effectual in these cases, for in the colic a quart is necessary, which ought to he carefully noted ; and in a fever a little water will rather increase the burning, which large draughts, often drank, will soon take off. Rest, fasting, and drinking much water, after a vomit or two, is a course that never yet hath failed to cure fevers, by clearing the stomach of that sordid filthine?s which causeth the distemper; for a happy issue will -.crtainly follow such a course, if the fever is simple, an» not complicated with such other distempers, which will resist all remedies ; for in many cases nothing can prevent mortality, as is evident by the death of the best physicians themselves, and by the death of many who consulted with them for a cure, since many die under the hands of the most able doctors as well as quacks. GRIEF AND FRIGHT. I will add to what hath been said one experiment more that is very material; and that is, being very hypochon- driacal, and of a melancholy temper, I have often been strangely dejected in mind, when under grief for some misfortunes, which sometimes have been so great as to threaten danger to life ; in which fits of grief I always found the parts within my breast very uneasy, and some- times continued long; but now I have found a good remedy, for upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, I find ease in two or three minutes, so that no grief seems to afflict. Which experience I discover for the sake of others in the same circumstances, being verily G*