The family adviser; or, A plain and modern practice of physic : calculated for the use of families who have not the advantages of a physician, and accommodated to the diseases of America / by Henry Wilkins, M.D.

  • Wilkins, Henry, 1767-1847.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family adviser; or, A plain and modern practice of physic : calculated for the use of families who have not the advantages of a physician, and accommodated to the diseases of America / by Henry Wilkins, M.D. 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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    Sometimes twenty drops of laudanum given be- fore the ague, will put it off, and sometimes giving it just before the patient is expected to sweat, will prepare for the bark ; sometimes a quantity of snake-root tea at the same time will prove ef- fectual; and in many cases bitters, of horehound, dogwood, rue, &c. will do as well as bark. The fever and ague, after it has continued for sometime, is apt to associate custom with its causes of recurrence : and thus it will frequently continue through such seasons as it would not have begun in. In such cases as these almost any al- teration in the system will lessen or remove it; thus keeping the patient under expectation, fear or joy, have often removed it; and thus the im- positions of old women have often been effectual, when the faith of her patient has roused his ex- pectation, and fixed his attention. Though such things may at times be allowed, yet I would cau- tion every prudent person to k; sp his skin to him- self, and not let ignorant quack fill up their lack of knowledge upon him, with the virulence of an arsenical plaster, or a more dangerous bolus. CHAP. VII. HECTIC FEVER. f^AUSES. Violent racks of the constitution from ^ any cause, absorption of matter from ulcers, excessive relaxation, and delicacy of any part that is exposed to irritation, as the kings, stomach, and bowels ; all these causes are attended with general debility, and particular relaxation of the parts that defend the tender extreme vessels, from the ir- ritations which act about them. Symptoms. The fever usually comes on in the forenoon, sometimes with considerable chills or coldness, which last some time ; this is succeed- ed by heat, a quick, small, and weak puke in