THE 
FAMILY ADVISER; 
OR A PLAIN AND 
MODERN PRACTICE OF PHYSIC 
CALCULATED FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES WHO 
H AVE NOT THE ADVANTAGES OP A PHYSICIAN, 
AND ACCOMMODATED TO THE 
DISEASES OF AMERICA 
HENRY WILKINS, M. D. 
(JEfjc <£Dition. 
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED, 
MR. WESLEY’S 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC* 
REVISED. 
JVETF-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY J. SOULE AND T. MASON FOR THV 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 
•Mm C.Totten, printer. 
1813. PREFACE. 
THE substance of the following pages is 
chief y drawn from those excellent authors, 
Home, Cullen, and Bride ; whose names 
alone are a sufficient recommendation:—■ 
They were compiled at the request of our 
friend Mr. As bury. 
The work contains a good description of 
each disorder, and its remote causes, as far 
as known. The proximate cause is generally 
omitted, being unintelligible to those who are 
not acquainted with medicine, of little use, and 
much disputed by Physicians, The cure is 
as simple as possible, so as not to interfere 
with efficacy: few medicines being recom- 
mended, and no compounds where they could 
be omitted. To this is prefixed the manage- 
ment of the sick, about which the attendants 
arc usually much at a loss. 
Such medicines as are frequently used are 
put at the end, numbered and referred to, IV 
PREFACE. 
which prevents frequent ; repetition but those 
that are not so general, are inserted in the 
reading. Will not this be much more agreea- 
ble to the reader, than a general reference or 
a general insertion ? 
A few disorders are omitted, because they 
are not proper to this country, or because they 
are unmanageable, even in the hands of Phy- 
sicians, or for other as good reasons : other- 
tvise it comprehends as many disorders as 
Dr. Cullen has treated on. 
It is recommended to the Methodist Society 
in particular, by their Friend. 
Philadelphia, 1793, 
THE AUTHOR. THE FAMILY ADVISEE. 
CHAP. I. 
Fevers admit of a twofold distinction: 
first, with respect to their duration ; as into 
Continued, Remittent and Intermittent Fe- 
vers. 
OF FEVERS IN GENERAL. 
Continued fevers go to their end, without 
any very obvious change for better or worse, 
in a period of twenty-four hours. 
Remittent fevers either obviously abate at 
some period or periods during twTenty-four 
hours, or are like a number of short contin- 
ued fevers linked together, abating once in 
the course of two or three or more days. 
Intermittents go perfectly off every day, 
and return the next, which is called a Quo- 
tidian ; or every other day, leaving an inter- 
mediate well day, called Tertians ; or eve- 
ry fourth day inclusive, leaving two well 
days, called Quartans. In this manner they 
go and come till they change, or finish their 
course. 
The second distinction respects the state of the system ; as Inflammatory, Nervous 
and Putrid Fevers. 
%**IILY ADVISER. 
Inflammatory fevers show more or less the 
symptoms of general inflammation ; strong 
action and an absence of every symptom of 
putridity and insensibility ; they are most 
commonly continued. 
Nervous fevers show a general debility, 
insensibility, and irregularity, without any 
symptoms of the fluids tending much to dis- 
solution ; though a slight and slow tendency 
is observable, after they have continued for 
some time. 
Putrid fevers sometimes show signs of in- 
flammatory action for a while ; but these 
quickly give way to symptoms of putrefac- 
tion, viz. blackness of the gums and tongue ; 
from being lined with foetid secretions: a 
blackness and foetor of what is discharged 
by vomiting, which usually attends ; and the 
same appearance of many of the secretions 
and excretions, particularly the stools; to 
which may b 6 added a quick succeeding de- 
bility. 
CHAP. 11. 
INFLAMMATORY FEVER. 
THIS fever most frequently attacks the 
young in the vigour of their life ; such as 
are of a rustic sanguine athletic constitu- FAMILY ADVISER. 
iion, who indulge themselves in living free- 
ly : though sufficient causes will bring it on 
in some degree, in almost any constitution 
and way of living. It attacks at all seasons, 
but most frequently in the spring and begin- 
ning of summer. 
Causes. Heat and cold alternately, or 
variously applied, fatigue, anger, immode- 
rate use of spirituous liquors,‘watching, &c. 
&c. 
Symptoms. It discovers itself by a lassi- 
tude, with a dull sensation of the body, de- 
bility, alternating chills and heats, tremors, 
pains throughout the whole body, but more 
particularly about the shoulders, back, knees 
and head. These are succeeded by an in- 
tense and burning heat, an inextinguishable 
thirst, inflamed eyes, tumefaction or fulness 
of the face, sickness and vomiting, inquie- 
tude, anxiety, full and strong pulse, dry skin, 
red (though sometimes watery) urine ; 
rough, dry, yellow, or dark coloured tongue, 
covered with a crust; difficult breathing, 
costiveness, cough, watching, delirium, stu- 
por ; and if the fever is not checked, a co- 
ma, or constant tendency to sleep, tremors, 
partial convulsions, as of the hands, &c. 
hiccough, involuntary discharges of the bel- 
ly and bladder take place, and close the 
scene in death. This is a description of it 
in its most violent degree. In the greatest 
number ol cases, we meet with it far more  FAMILY ADVISER. 
moderate ; a strong pulse, sick stomach, and 
thirst being the chief symptoms. 
Management. The patient should be 
confined to his bed, in a cool, dark and si- 
lent room; the coolness to be regulated by 
the season. He should abstain from all 
kinds of meats and strong drinks. For 
food; panada, barley, jellies, light unsea- 
soned puddings and pies, may be given in 
small quantity. For drink; lemonade, vin- 
egar and water, barley water, herb teas with 
lemon juice, apple water, tamarind water,or 
jelly and water, may be given largely. 
Cure. If the fever be violent, and the 
patient as described in the first paragraph 
of the case, from half to two thirds of a pint 
of blood should be taken away (according to 
the age and customs of the patient,) as quick 
as possible ; which may be repeated the next 
day in lesser quantity, if the fever has not 
abated. After the first bleeding let him take 
one ounce of Glauber’s salts, which will fre- 
quently exclude the necessity of another 
bleeding. After this the bowels should be 
opened daily, if required, by a common clys- 
ter. If after one bleeding and a dose of 
salts, the fever does not go off, which it sel- 
dom does, let the patient have one of the 
powders, No. 1. every two hours, provided 
they will remain on his stomach : but if they 
will not, give the saline mixture No. 2. two 
table-spoonfuls every two hours : and after FAMILY ADVISER. 
9 
this has been given some lime, if the pa- 
tient’s skin becomes soft and moist, it should 
be continued in, otherwise lay it aside and 
try the powders again. If these, when giv- 
en for a day or two, do not lessen the fever, 
or if they will not remain, and the saline 
mixture is ineffectual, and withal bleeding 
has been practised as far as prudent; it will 
then be necessary to put a blister on the 
back of the neck, and to soak the patient’s 
feet in lukewarm water for an hour, if he 
can bear it; after this try the powders, or 
the mixture again, and they will then have 
their only chance, and in many cases will 
be effectual. 
In the slighter cases of this fever, such as 
1 have said, we most commonly meet with, 
if the patient will allow of it, one bleeding 
will be proper, after which, or in such as 
will not allow bleeding, give a puke ; two 
grains of tartar emetic divided into three 
doses and taken in half an hour, or fifteen 
grains of ipecacuana, of half a table spoon- 
ful of antimonial wine will anstver; after 
which give the powders or the mixture, and 
open the bowels with a dose of salts. After 
the fever has gone off, which usually is at- 
tended with a sweat, if the patient is much 
reduced, let him take a lea-spoonful of bark 
in port wine, or in water every three hours 
till he has taken an ounce, after which he 
may take one or two more at longer intervals. 10 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
He should use gentle exercise in a carriage, 
and return gradually to his business and 
diet. 
There is a fever which has the name of 
synochus, which in the first stage is of the 
above type, but after a while quickly chan- 
ges to the putrid, to be hereafter described. 
In such a case all the management and cure 
above should be relinquished as soon as the 
change is observed, and the management 
and cure for the putrid immediately adopted. 
CHAP. 111. 
NERVOUS FEVER. 
THOSE of relaxed fibres and weak ner- 
vous system, are the persons most subject to 
this fever. 
Causes. Excessive evacuations, repeat- 
ed salivations* immoderate venery, depres- 
sions of the mind from grief, watching and 
night study, humid stagnant air of subterra- 
neous apartments, indigestible food, espe- 
cially such as is unfit for nutrition; as of 
cold watery fruits and vegetables ; thin 
cloathing, rainy seasons, soft moist win- 
ter, &c. 
Symptoms. This fever approaches with 
dejection of mind, loss of appetite, oppres- 
sion, sleeplessness, involuntary groans* re- 
peated sighs, fear, unusual lassitude after FAMILY ADVISER. 
11 
motion, and alternate successions of cold 
and heat. 
After some days, a swimming or pain in 
the head comes on with sick stomach and 
vomiting of insipid phlegm, great weakness, 
moderate heat, insensibility to thirst; fre- 
quent, weak, and sometimes intermitting 
pulse ; a moist tongue, sometimes red, and 
at other times covered with a white or yel- 
lowish tough mucus ; dry lips, oppression 
about the breast and difficult breathing, pale 
watery or whey-like urine : a dull sense of 
pains about the breast and head, dozing, de- 
lirium, redness and warmth of the face, 
whilst the feet are cold 5 a tendency and dis- 
position to be easily and frequently disturb- 
ed by dreams : after these have taken place 
and continued some time, they are followed 
by immoderate sweats, and wasting laxes, 
great dulness and slothfulness of the exter- 
nal and internal senses, anxiety and faint- 
ing. And now nature being exhausted by 
the disorder, the tongue trembles, the ex- 
tremities from a coldness become cold, the 
nails turn livid, sight and hearing perish, 
the delirium turns to a coma, the belly and 
bladder are involuntarily evacuated, topical 
convulsions come on, and death closes the 
scene, usually before the fourteenth day.— 
The symptoms increase in the evening.— 
The delirium is only a muttering continual- 
ly: quite different from the delirium of the 12 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
former fever: though in this there is gen- 
erally a great insensibility, and towards the 
end a loss of sight and hearing, yet at times 
in the beginning there is a great and preter- 
natural sensibility to light and noise ; some- 
times an eruption like millet seed appears 
without any alteration for better or worse. 
A continuance of this fever has brought on 
temporal idiotism, which vanished with the 
debility. 
Management, The patient should be 
confined to his bed in an airy darkened 
room, and kept agreeably warm or cool, ac- 
cording to the season. His room, bed and 
body clothes, face, hands and feet should be 
kept clean. His diet should be light though 
nourishing, and given frequently, rather than 
in large quantities at once : it should be 
mild : chicken water and broth, or beef tea 
may be given, if the patient desires it, and 
(lie effect proves it to be useful ; but the 
general stock of food should consist of the 
various preparations of mild, digestible, nou- 
rishing vegetables, sufficiently well known 
to every housekeeper; these should be suit- 
ed to the patient’s appetite ; and changed 
so as not to pall him with any one. Wine 
and water may be used from the beginning, 
though then it may only be given to allay the 
thirst, and should be made weak : five or six 
times a day a cup full may be given, even 
though the patient do not ask for it; but as FAMILY ADVISER* 
13 
the strength fails, it should be made strong- 
er and stronger, and given in as large quan- 
tity as a person in health could take.— 
When the wine has not the effect of increas- 
ing the symptoms, and rendering the pulse 
too quick, it may be safely continued in— 
Claret is supposed to be the best. 
Cure. A gentle vomit of 12 grains of ipc- 
cacuana in a little w’ater may be given in 
the beginning, and may be repeated the 
next day. The bowels should be opened 
with thirty grains of rhubarb, and costive- 
ness «ontinual!y prevented by small doses 
of the same medicine. A blister should he 
applied to the side early in the disease, and 
when it has drawn, the water let out, and the 
part dressed with a eolewort leaf, or a little 
Turner’s cerate ; after this another may be 
applied to the other side, or to the back ot 
the neck, provided no bad symptoms follow 
the first; if they do, blisters should be laid 
aside till a state of insensibility comes on, 
when they sho.uld be applied successively, 
as long as they are attended with advantage, 
if the patient’s skin be dry in the begin- 
ning, let him take three or four grains of 
James’s powder in thick syrup three or four 
times a day, washing it down with snake- 
root tea ; yet not so as to sweat the patient. 
If the James’s powder is not to be had, one 
eighth of a grain of tartar emetic may be 
used in its. stead. When the debility in- 14 
creases, let. the patient begin and take two 
table-spoonfuls of the decoction of bark No. 
3. every hour or two, putting a little mint- 
water with it, and when (he patient has tak- 
en this some time, let him take (he bark in 
substance with wine : one tea-spoonful of 
bark in two table-spoonfuls of old claret 
every two or three hours : this, or No. 4, 
should be continued in till the patient per- 
fectly recovers. 
When the patient has been much harrass- 
ed for want of sleep, have his feet bathed at 
evening in tepid water, and give him ten or 
fifteen drops of laudanum. This practice 
may be continued as long as it proves effec- 
tual in. procuring sleep. In those cases that 
proceed from excessive evacuations (here is 
little hope, and scarce any thing should be 
attempted, but the strengthening plan. 
The patient should carefully shun all the 
causes, and use a generous diet with regular 
varied exercise of body and mind, and be 
sparing of his strength. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. IV. 
PUTRID FEVER. 
THOSE who are of a relaxed habit and 
gloomy disposition; those who have been 
debilitated by living upon bad victuals, by 
vinery, famine, labour, or loss of rest, &c 4. FAMILY ADVISER, 
15 
easily take this fever, (which is caused by 
putrid contagion or noxious air) and diffi- 
cultly emerge from it. 
Symptoms. An intense consuming though 
remitting heat, particularly inwards ; small, 
frequent, and unequal pulse without strength; 
throbbing of the arteries that run along the 
neck and temples ; great prostration of 
strength, heaviness without sleep ; and when 
sleep does takes place, little or no refresh- 
ment is gained from it ; an anxious, deject- 
ed, and desponding mind, nausea, and vom- 
iting of black bile, pain of the head and tem- 
ples, redness of the eyes, and pain about 
their sockets ; dusky countenance, noise in 
the ears, interrupted breathing, with sighs 
and foeted breath; pains about the stomach, 
joints and back, difficulty of lying in one 
posture, trembling, delirium. At first the 
tongue is whitish, but quickly changes black- 
ish, whilst the lips, teeth and gums are be- 
set with a tough disagreeable mucus; an 
inextinguishable thirst attends with a bitter 
mawkish taste, which is communicated to 
the drink. The urine, on the increase of 
the disorder, becomes blackish or red with 
a sediment: the sweats become foetid, the 
stools livid, black or bloody, and very foe- 
tid : and if the fever goes on, a thrush and 
ulcers attack the mouth and throat : blood 
is discharged from different parts, a hie- 16 
cough and other partial convulsions come 
on, which death scarce ever fails to follow. 
Management. The patient should have 
fresh air admitted by keeping the door of 
his chamber open, if it is not too cold, and 
by opening his windows, if it is summer 
time, and the weather clear. Saltpetre or 
vinegar should be burned upon the hearth 
in winter, and boughs of trees and flowers 
thrown about the room in summer. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
His hands, face and feet should be wash- 
ed daily in vinegar and water, or wine and 
water; he should be shaved frequently, and 
shifted in bed and body clothes as frequent- 
ly as can be afforded, if it is daily; in fine, 
the greatest attention should be paid to 
cleanliness. His food should be mostly of 
acid vegetables, such as please his appetite 
and stomach best. His drink should be 
port wine diluted; this he should drink 
more and more of, as he becomes more de- 
bilitated, so as to make it his drink and med- 
icine : a quart a day may be used ; this he 
should continue in for some time after he 
has recovered, though in smaller doses : a 
fresh airing every day, after recovery, will 
be highly useful. 
Cure. An emetic of eight grains of ipe- 
cacuana and one of tartar emetic, or half 
a table-spoonful of antimonial wine, should 
be given as quick as possible, besides this, 
' wenty-five or thirty grains of rhubarb, or FAMILY ADVISER. 
17 
two drachms of cream of tartar, should be 
given in a little jelly, to open the bowels, 
after which the decoction of bark, No. 3. 
should be given: two table-spoonfuls with 
a little mint water, every hour; if (he sto- 
mach bears this well, and the symptoms of 
putrefaction and debility increase, the bark 
xn substance should be used : a tea-spoonful 
in lemon juice and mint water every hour. 
But if the stomach does not bear the bark, or 
if the heat and fever be considerable, apply 
a blister to the breast, and give a dose of 
the saline mixture, or one of the following 
pills, between the times of taking (he bark, 
viz. camphor beat to an impalpable powder 
with common spirits, twenty-four grains, 
powdered seneca root as much if make them 
up with svrup. 
If the stomach still refuses the bark in the 
above ways, try it in triple quantities in clys- 
ters, or try the vinous tincture, No. 4. The 
bark is the only chance, we are therefore to 
persist in its use till a cure is made. Three 
drops of oil of vitriol in a glass of water 
every hour, may be tried where the delicacy 
of the stomach, or fever, will not admit any 
preparation of bark ; but as it is apt to gripe, 
it should never be used when the bowels 
are affected. 
Clysters of salt, sugar, and decoction of 
bitter herbs are to be used to keep the bow- 
els regular, or some of the gentle purges 18 
FAMILY ADVISLK. 
mentioned above ; but it will be often best 
to use first one and then the other, accord- 
ing to circumstances. In case this fever 
should be .of a remittent form, the remis- 
sions should be greatly attended to, and a 
double quantity of bark given if possible. 
Sometimes a lax with distension of the belly 
comes on after a while ; in such a case, the 
belly should be fomented with bitter herbs, 
boiled and applied warm, and one grain of 
ipecacuana, with five drops of laudanum, 
given every two hours. 
Sometimes spots break out in this fever, 
then it has been termed the Spotted-Fever 5 
at other times there is a yellowness of the 
skin, then it is termed the Yellow or West- 
India Fever. In this last case the symp- 
toms of putridity are in this country more 
lenient, and a considerable vomiting some- 
times hinders the giving of medicine : in 
this case a blister to the breast and the effer- 
vescing saline mixture hove been found ef- 
fectual to stop the vomiting ; but in general 
the treatment is the same as recommended 
above. 
In the end of these fevers, some physi- 
cians recommend blisters to rouse the pa- 
tient : if they are applied the skin should not 
be peeled off as is sometimes done, but only 
opened to discharge the water, and then 
dressed with Turner’s cerate. But the be- 
ginning or hrst stage is the most proper for 
blisters. FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. V. 
REMITTENT FEVER. 
CAUSES. Exposure to the sun for 
hours together, or the effects of a cool even- 
ing, and other similar causes after fatigue or 
summer heat. Thus there is no difference 
in the real causes of this fever and intermit- 
tents, except in the degree and mode of their 
application. 
Symptoms. Alternating cold and heat, fol- 
lowed by a continued heat and a fever: some- 
times a delirium comes on at the first attack. 
The patient is distressed with thirst and 
vomiting, usually of bile ; pain of the head, 
back, and joints ; the region of the stomach 
swells, and becomes painful; the tongue is 
white and moist, and the patient is harrass- 
cd with sleeplessness ; the skin and eyes are 
of a yellow cast; the pulse is sometimes a 
little hard, and seldom full; the bowels arc 
sometimes bound, sometimes loose: with 
>hese symptoms the fever usually proceeds, 
for 2,3, 4,5, 6,7, or 8 days, at one of 
which times, after a little sweat it remits, 
and the patient becomes evidently better. 
After a few hours have elapsed, commonly 
in the evening, the accession comes on, 
sometimes with, at other times without a 
chill, and so goes on as before; in this 20 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
manner, that, is, by accessions and remis- 
sions, the fever goes on to its final period. 
A copious sweat or discharge of blood 
from the nose, or an universal yellowness, 
commonly attend the conclusion of it. 
After the fever has gone off, a great light- 
ness of the head attends, so that the patient 
can scarce walk: rheumatic pains, and drop- 
sical swellings sometimes follow. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
cool and airy ; he should have plenty of 
acid drinks, as lemonade, jelly, tamarind, 
water, and for food be should have toasted 
bread moistened with a little tea, baked 
fruits, rice, sago, barley, &c. but these, 
though proper, will seldom have a place, as 
the patient can scarce ever contain on his 
stomach what his little appetite inclines him 
to take ; but the toast has often been found 
to stay, when nothing else would. 
Cure. If the vomiting be considerable, 
a little comomile tea may be given to pro- 
mote it a moment or two, that a remission 
may be procured to give the saline mixture 
No. 2, one table-spoonful every hour.'— 
When this sits on the stomach pretty well, 
ten drops of antimonial wine and a little 
mint water may be added to each dose, and 
the medicine continued : but if the vomiting 
be only slight, the best way to procure a re- 
mission of the symtoras will be to give an 
emetic, one tea-spoonful of antimonial wine FAMILY AUVISEK. 
21 
may be given every ten minutes until it op- 
erates, or 12 grains of ipecacuana may be 
given at once \ after which the mixture may 
■be given in the manner directed, with anti- 
monial wine. 
If the vomiting resists every thing given, 
or if a remission does not take place in a 
few days, blisters should be used; on the 
breast in the first case, on the back of the 
neck in the last. Sometimes a bundle of 
mint stewed in wine, and applied to the 
breast, has been found useful in checking 
the vomiting, therefore it may be tried be- 
fore a blister. 
Costiveness should be regularly obviated 
by taking a tea-spoonful or more of cream 
of tartar, or by using the common clysters of 
salts, sugar and milk occasionally. 
When the patient has suffered for want of 
sleep, after giving a clyster, and bathing the 
feet in lukewarm water for half an hour, ten 
or fifteen drops of laudanum may be given in 
a dose of the saline mixture, No. 2, and this 
should be done after noon before the increase 
of the fever, for it usually makes some in- 
crease towards night. 
When the fever remits, the decoction of 
bark should be given, two table-spoonfuls 
every hour, and if the accession is postpon- 
ed by it, the bark in substance should be giv- 
en, as long as the accession is absent; in some 
cases it will put it oil' altogether ; then, as 22 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
well as when the fever ceases, the bark 
should he given in large quantities, until the 
patient recovers his strength. 
When a lax attends, four grains of rhubarb 
and one of ipecacuana with two drops of lau- 
danum, may be given every three or four 
hours instead of the saline mixture. 
When great sweats attend in the end, it 
may be necessary to add five drops of elixir 
of vitriol to each or every other dose of bark; 
in case a headach follows, apply a small 
blister behind the ear, and repeat it if ne- 
cessary. The patient should be very care- 
ful in avoiding the causes of this fever, or 
he will experience a relapse. 
CHAP. VI. 
INTERMITTENT FEVER, (COTTWIOnIy) 
FEVER AND AGUE. 
CAUSES. The relaxing heat of sum- 
mer, especially when accompanied with 
moisture and bad air of marshy places, will 
so relax the surface and expose the extreme 
vessels to the air, that nothing more than the 
usual effect of common air is necessary to 
bring on the fever ; at other times, when the 
predisposition is not so great, a cool air will 
produce it. 
Symptoms. A languor, with yawning and 
stretching, coldness, sick stomach, rigors 
and tremors, usually attend the commence- FAMILY ADVISER. 
23 
rucnt j the cold with shivering continues in 
a very considerable degree, for one, two, or 
three hours, when it begins to give way, 
first to flushes..and then to a continual burn- 
ing heat and fever, with a full pulse and 
thirst. Pain of the head and frequently of 
the joints, attended sometimes with a deliri- 
um. After this has continued for some time, 
a sweat breaks out, which becomes profuse, 
and this* is succeeded by an intermisson of a 
part, a whole, or two days according to the 
type. Seepages. In the intermission, the 
patient is affected with scarce any thing but 
debility. The fever returns again at the 
end of the time mentioned, with the same 
symptoms, and so goes on to its end, unless 
it changes its form. Quotidians come on 
in the morning, and usually attack the deli- 
cate and irritable. Tertians come on about 
noon, and usually attack the more robust 
and vigorous. Quartans come on in the af- 
ternoon, and most commonly attack the aged 
and torpid. 
Management. Sometimes the ague so re- 
duces the patient, that it will be necessary 
to keep him warm and give a little wine; 
but this is seldom the case. In common, 
nothing is necessary but to lie down. In 
time of the fever, lemonade and other acid 
drinks, or warm teas may be used ; the for- 
mer will be most grateful. 24 
FAMILY ADVISEE. 
In the intermissions, port wine and water,, 
and a strengthening easy digested diet will 
be proper. 
Cure. In the beginning of the cold stagey 
if the patient is able to take a puke, he 
should take one : three grains of tartar em- 
etic in a gill of water, may be taken in the 
course of forty minutes, if required to take 
all: or 15 grains of ipecacuana in a spoon- 
ful of water, or a teaspoonful of antimoniai 
wine every fifteen minutes ; either of these 
may be used : the tartar is the most active 
and effectual, but acts too rough with some. 
When this has been taken, and the fever 
come on, a sweating should be encouraged, 
by taking about three pints of warm drink 
in the course of two hours, to which one 
hundred drops of antimoniai wine may be 
added, to make it more effectual. In case 
the patient cannot take a puke, let him take 
an Anderson’s pill to open his bowels before 
the time of the ague, and when the fever has 
come on and continued awhile, let him take 
fifteen drops of laudanum, and fifteen of an- 
timoniai wine, in a cup of warm tea, every 
half hour, for three times. 
But when nothing forbids a puke but the 
person’s inclination, he may take just be- 
fore the fit or after it is over some time, the 
following powder; twenty grains of rhubarb, 
and five of calomel in a little syrup, and when FAMILY ADVISER. 
25 
the fever comes on, take the warm drink as 
above. 
These medicines will prepare for the ex- 
hibition of bark, which should be given im- 
mediately after the sweat goes off. Any of 
the preparations may be given, but the pow- 
der is the best; it may be given in mint 
water, milk or wine ; one tea-spoonful every 
hour till the ague comes on again ; then it 
should be laid aside till this is over, when it 
is to be given again ; the patient should not 
cease under an ounce and a half, or two 
ounces. If, when this has been taken the 
ague does not cease, another puke should be 
used as before. In all cases the bowels 
should be kept open by Anderson’s pills or 
rhubarb. 
Sometimes twenty drops of laudanum giv- 
en before the ague, will put it off, and some- 
times giving it just before the patient is ex- 
pected to sweat, will prepare for the bark ; 
sometimes a quantity of snake root tea at 
the same time will prove effectual; 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 some time, is apt to associate custom 
with its causes of recurrence : and thus it 
will frequently continue through such sea- 
sons as it would not have begun in. In such 
cases as these almost any alteration in the 
system will lessen or remove it ; thus keep-  FAMILY ADVISER, 
ing the patient under expectation, fear or 
joy, have often removed it; and thus the im- 
position of old women have often been effec- 
tual, when the faith of her patient has roused 
his expectation, and fixed his attention.— 
Though such things may at times be allow- 
ed, yet I would caution every prudent per- 
son to keep his skin to himself, and not let 
ignorant quacks fill up their lack of knowl- 
edge upon him, with the virulence of an ar- 
senical plaster, or a more dangerous bolus. 
CHAP. VII. 
HECTIC FEVER. 
CAUSES. Violent racks of the con- 
stitution from any cause, absorption of mat- 
ter from ulcers, excessive relaxation, and 
delicacy of any part that is exposed to irri- 
tation, as the lungs, 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 irritations which act about them. 
Symptoms. The fever usually comes on 
in the forenoon, sometimes with considera- 
ble chills or coldness, which last some time ; 
this is succeeded by heat, a quick, small, 
and weak pulse in general, though some- 
times there is some hardness in it, especially 
in those who are not much reduced, and ear- 
ly in the complaint ; this sometimes lessen? FAMILY ADVISER. 
27 
towards evening, and again increases at 
night; at other limes it continues on with- 
out any very obvious change till towards 
morning, when it intermits or greatly remits 
with a profuse sweat which lasts a consider- 
able time : the sweats do not appear in the 
first stage, that is in profusion. A headach 
usually attends the fever, as also a sick sto- 
mach, both of which grow better in the in- 
termission, or remission. 
The tongue is usually clean in this fever, 
the belly at first is often bound, but in the 
end a lax almost always attends. The pa- 
tient wastes away gradually, his feet swell, 
particularly at night,, his hair falls off, his 
nails become crooked and thick, his face 
sharp, and a general failing takes place in 
every thing but his expectations of getting 
better, and his understanding, which usual- 
ly remain to the last. 
This is the most usual form, but there is 
some variety owing to the variety of the parts 
affected, and the state of the patient. 
Management. The patient should have 
the lightest and most nourishing food given 
him in small quantities at a time, and at such 
times chiefly as the fever is absent or slight, 
thus his breakfast or dinner at ten o’clock, 
should contain most of what he should eat. 
Milk is very proper when the stomach will 
receive it: sometimes it may be most agree- 
able when diluted with water and sweetened. FAMILY ADVISER. 
at other times it may sit better when boiled. 
Custards, light puddings, chicken water and 
broth, beef tea, rye mush, corn mush, with 
the common vegetables of the grain kind, 
are mostly proper. Weak wine and water in 
the absence of fever; barley water and sage 
tea at other times, will be proper for drink. 
The patient should be kept clean, and when 
his strength admits, he should be aired in a 
chair, and at all times have access to pure 
air. 
Cure. In many cases it will be needless 
to attempt any thing but a removal of the 
cause, when the fever will quickly cease : 
but in general both the one and the other 
are to be combated* For treating the cau- 
ses I refer to the places where they are 
treated of (though some of them could not 
have a place in this book, as they belong to 
surgery) for the treatment of the fever alone, 
the debility should be removed and the fever 
interrupted : for the first, when nothing for- 
bids, bitters and bark are necessary ; also 
elixir of vitriol, which may be given to six- 
ty drops a day. These are to be taken 
whilst the fever is off, or when it has greatly 
remitted, just before the time when the return 
is expected, and again after it has commen- 
ced, one of the following powders may be 
given ; ipecacuana two grains, magnesia one 
tea-spoonful, mix them and give it in a little 
camomile tea. When a lax comes on, there FAMILY ADVISER. 
29 
is little hope, but the following may be giv- 
en ; columbo root one drachm, pour one 
gill of boiling water upon it and in a quarter 
of an hour strain it off; to this 20 drops of 
laudanum may be added ; this may be used 
in the course of eight hours, and repeated. 
Rice will now be the best food. 
CHAP. VIII, 
INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 
CAUSES. These act either externally 
or internally, though frequently both take 
place in producing the affection. 
The externals are violence, dust, cold 
winds, changes from heat to cold, viewing 
minute objects or bright bodies ; metallic 
fumes, great heat, especially when accom- 
panied with moisture ; night reading, &c. 
The internal causes are, checked excre- 
tions, as the menses, &c. repulsion of some 
eruptive disorders, long continued ulcers 
dried up, immoderate use of spirituous li- 
quors and spices, fevers, measles, scrophula, 
venereal disease, &c. &c. 
Symptoms. Redness, swelling, stiffness, 
and pain of the ball of the eye or the lids ; 
both from an inflammation of the vessels (hat 
pass over and through them, being filled 
with too much blood, or with red blood, in- 
stead of the fine white parts of it.  FAMILY ADVISER. 
When the inflammation is considerable, a 
fever attends; and in such cases there is 
danger of the effects, unless speedily pre- 
vented by curing the disease. 
Management, In no case a cure can be 
hoped for, unless the causes be removed, 
which in many cases will be followed with 
an immediate cure. If any body be lodged 
in the eye, it is to be extracted, and if ano- 
ther disease be the cause, it must be cured 
by the means directed for such disease. In 
every case the patient should avoid exercis- 
ing his eyes any more than what there is ne- 
cessity for : He should confine himself to 
a dark room, or apply a fold of green silk 
over his eyes, and use an umbrella in the 
summer. His food should be light and 
mostly vegetable, in all cases without pep- 
per or mustard. His drink should be cool- 
ing and acid, without any mixture of spirit. 
His room should be cooled with sprinkling 
in the summer time. 
Cure. If there be a fever, or if the in- 
flammation be considerable, and the patient 
able to bear bleeding, he should loose half a 
pint of blood, which may be repeated if ne- 
cessary ; this should be followed by a dose 
of salts, or if the patient’s case dues not re- 
quire bleeding, or other circumstances pre- 
vent it, the salts then should be the first 
thing. All this is to be done after the cause 
is removed, and thus in many cases where FAMILY ADVISER. 
31 
removing the cause will be the chief means 
of cure, they will have no place ; as where 
the inflammation proceeds from the venereal 
disease, sorophula, &c. One of the fever 
powders, No. 1. when the fever continues, 
or the inflammation remains obstinate, giv- 
en every four hours, will be serviceable.— 
The belly should be kept regular by cream 
of tartar or small doses of salts, or of jalap 
and nitre : as jalap fifteen grains, nitre twen- 
ty-five, mix them. For external applica- 
tions, a blister behind the ears is most effec- 
tual, and to the eyes the following ; sugar of 
lead twelve grains to half a pint of water, or 
as much white vitriol to an equal quantity of 
water: to either of which when the inflam- 
mation has continued, and the former reme- 
dies have been used, may be added a table- 
spoonful of brandy. 
These external applications (the blister 
excepted) will be proper in every case and 
time. The weakness that follows requires 
that the patient use either a general or to- 
pical cold bath, and avoid much application 
and exposure. 
CHAP. IX. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 
THIS is either a symptomatic disorder 
as when it follow's in the course of a prima- 
ry affection; or it is original, being prima- ry itself—of this alone I shall treat, that re- 
quiring the treatment of the concomitant dis- 
order. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
It usually attacks in the heat of summer 
those of an irascible disposition, who are in 
their youth and given to study. 
Causes. Drunkenness, watching, long 
exposure to the sun, anger, excessive cogi- 
tation, grief, care, vehement desires, exter- 
nal violence, certain poisons, and suppres- 
sions of particular discharges ; as the piles, 
the discharge after parturition. 
Symptoms. It begins with rigors, which 
are followed by heat, pain, and throbbing of 
the head, disturbed sleep, noise within the 
head and ears, inflammation and pain in the 
eyes, with inability to bear the light and 
noise, and a bloated countenance—the pulse 
is low, oppressed and quick, often weak as 
well as low, though sometimes it is hard : 
the patient continues without any sleep for 
a long time, sometimes till the eighth day ; 
the arteries along the neck perceptibly throb, 
and blood sometimes issues by drops from 
the nose ; great debility, anxiety and sigh- 
ing attend, yet the patient is subject to an- 
ger, fierce delirium, startings and convul- 
sions. When the disorder has ceased, a 
swimming and heaviness of the head, weak 
eyes, and a great delicacy of hearing attend, 
for a considerable time. FAMILY ADVISER. 
Management. The patient should be con- 
fined in an airy, darkened, silent and cool 
room ; his bed should be hard, and his head 
somewhat raised upon it. He should have 
plenty of acid, cool drinks, without any mix- 
ture of spirit. His food should be of pana- 
da, barley, jelly, &c. The causes of the dis- 
order must be carefully removed. 
Cure. The patient should be bled pret- 
ty freely, and this may be repeated again 
and again in less quantities, during the first 
forty-eight hours: provided the symptoms 
demand it, and the patient be able to bear 
it: (he pulse will usually be the best guide; 
for if this does not sink very low, there will 
be no danger from bleeding. A dose of 
salts should be given after the first bleeding, 
and it may be necessary to repeat this the 
next day. Clysters may be given daily, 
such as No. 5. one of the fever powders 
No. I. may be given every three hours, be- 
gining after the operation of the first dose 
of the salts. The patient’s head should be 
shaved and washed with cold vinegar and 
water. If the delirium runs on after the 
above evacuations, a large blister should be 
applied to the crown of the head, and when 
this has drawn, others, if necessary, may be 
applied to the ankles. 
When the patient has suffered some time; 
for want of sleep, the feet should be bathed 
half an hour or twice as long, in water mod-  FAMILY ADVISER, 
erately warm, and if this is ineffectual, let 
him have ten or fifteen drops of laudanum, 
or a tea-spoonful of paregoric at night, with 
this care, that if it makes him worse, to dis- 
continue it; but if it has the desired effect, 
to persist giving it every night, if required. 
A nourishing diet and the use of wine 
should be gradually entered into, after the 
symptoms of danger are perfectly gone, in 
order to prevent the succeeding symptoms 
of^ebility. 
Great care will be necessary to avoid the 
causes of this disorder, as slighter ones may 
cause a relapse or repetition. 
CHAP. X. 
QUINSEY. 
CAUSES. The application of cold to 
the neck or throat, a stream of cool air ap- 
plied with force to the very part; as in rid- 
ing and running: these causes produce their 
effect more certainly when preceded by 
heat. 
Exercising the parts that suffer, as in 
singing, and loud speaking : acrids, mechan- 
ic bodies, suppressed evacuations, or artifi- 
cial evacuations, that have been long used, 
neglected. 
Symptoms. This complaint usually ap- 
pears with redness and swelling of the FAMILY ADVISER. 
glands situated on each side of the palate ; 
one is usually most swelled in the beginning, 
and as this declines, the other increases: a 
pain that shoots towards the ear attends, 
with feverish symptoms, and a strong full, 
quick pulse : the patient feels a disagreea- 
ble clamminess, and the tumour is usually 
tipped with whitish mucus. 
In some cases the external parts are much 
swelled; sometimes scarce any tumour is to 
be perceived by looking into the mouth, and 
at the same time the difficulty of swallowing 
and pain may be very considerable ; in the 
worst cases the breathing becomes very dif- 
ficult, the tumours closing up the passage 
almost entirely : then the patient sits with 
his mouth open, his drink regurgitates 
through his nostrils, and he is ready to stran- 
gle every minute for want of a free respira- 
tion, which is totally impeded when the pa- 
tient dies. 
What is usually termed a sore-throat, is a 
lesser degree of this same affection, there- 
fore the same remedies may be used, omit- 
ting the iiuost general and powerful one of 
bleeding. 
Management. The patient should be, 
kept neither hot nor cold : he should have 
a light vegetable diet of a fluid preparation 5 
his drink should be of the acid kind, and not 
cold or warm, but just aired. His head 
should be kept up in bed, or he may sit up 36 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
altogether ; speaking, and every exertion of 
the throat should be avoided, and the causes 
should be removed. 
Cure. The patient should be bled pretty 
freely, and this may be repeated the next 
day if necessary : he should take a dose of 
salts as soon as possible, and then a blister 
should be applied under the throat, of a slim 
form, so that it may reach from ear to ear: 
the bowels should be regularly kept open : 
before the tumour has become very consid- 
erable, fifteen grains of ipecacuana will be 
of great service. In such patients as do 
not allow of bleeding, this may be the first 
medicine. 
Warm water and vinegar should be in- 
spired from a prefer machine for the pur- 
pose, or from a funnel put over a wooden 
bowl of water and vinegar; the mouth 
should be frequently gargled with astringent 
■washes, as sage lea and vinegar; or alum- 
vinegar and honey, or decoction of oak bark 
and saltpetre. Scarifications with a lancet 
are necessary where there is danger of 
choaking; and likewise to let out the mat - 
ter when the tumours have suppurated. 
If the patient is liable to frequent returns 
of this affection, 1 would advise him to use 
the cold bath daily ; at any rate to wash his 
neck, and habituate himself to wear nothing 
out a very thin stock or ribband, instead 
of a large neckcloth. FAMILY ADVISER. 
37 
CHAP. XI. 
THIS disorder has for its cause, specific 
contagion, and therefore attacks all ages and 
constitutions. 
Symptoms. It begins with chills, which 
are followed by an intense and burning heat, 
a swimming and pain of the head, a trouble- 
some sensation in the throat, sickness and 
vomiting, looseness, inflamed and watery 
eyes, tumid and flushed face, with a stiflhess 
of the neck, a small, frequent, and irreg- 
ular pulse, foetid breath, and a disagreeable 
taste. Very soon while spots appear on the 
glands each side of the palate, and these 
with the palate appear red, swoln and glos- 
sy : these spots spread and unite, covering 
almost all of the mouth with thick sloughs, 
which falling oft’, leave ulcers in their pla- 
ces ; the redness and tumour are sometimes 
extended to the internal parts of the nose. 
On the second day, or later, efflorescences 
appear on the skin, which are sometimes in 
such small eminences as scarcely to be seen, 
but more usually spread in red patches, so 
as to cover the w'hole skin : beginning first 
about the face and neck, and so extending to 
the extremities, which feel stiff and swelled ; 
this usually continues about four days, and 
then goes off with a peeling of the skin.— 
PUTRID SORE THROAT. 38 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
The glands about the neck are sometimes 
swelled to an alarming degree. As the com- 
plaint advances, discharges of blood from 
different parts are frequent, and sometimes 
a gangrene takes place at the beginning of 
the windpipe, or of the oesophagus, the chan- 
nel which leads to the stomach. 
The patient’s voice is hoarse and flat, 
though his swallowing is not usually much 
impeded ; with these symptoms it runs on 
from twro to seven or more days, increasing 
every evening. 
Management. For food, drinks, and gen- 
eral management, the same may be used as 
directed for the putrid fever, only a less de- 
gree of cold will be requisite in this. 
Cure, Ten grains of ipecacuana should 
be given early in the complaint: three 
grains of calomel in a little honey, may be 
given once or twice the evenings after the 
puke, and if the first dose produces more 
than two stools, it should be checked by giv- 
ing ten drops of laudanum. This medicine 
will often prove very efficacious, without 
producing any discharge. Some of the pre- 
parations of bark, or the powder, which is 
best, should be given every twro hours after 
the puke, and to the end of the complaint. 
The throat should be frequently washed with 
the following : one hundred drops of elixir 
of vitriol, or twenty drops of oil of vitriol to 
half a pint of water, and one spoonful of 39 
honey. Spring water coloured with indigo 
has been found useful as a gargle. Port 
wine should be given to a pint, or quart a 
day, with the bark. If the tumour in the in- 
side of the throat be considerable, a blister 
should be laid on the outside. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
For the swelling of the legs, which some- 
times follows, the patient may use eight 
drops of elixir of vitriol with each dose of 
bark, four times a day. 
CHAP. XII. 
CROUP OR HIVES. 
CAUSES. Foregoing disorders, as the 
measles and the whooping cough; cold 
moist air from the water. 
It most frequently happens to such as live 
in seaport towns ; and to children, from the 
time they are weaned to their twelfth year. 
Symptoms. It sometimes comes on with 
the symptoms of a common cold only ; but 
the peculiar symptoms are a hoarseness, 
and ringing sound of the voice, at the same 
time there is an uneasiness or pain in the 
throat, and a whizzing noise in breathing, 
as if the passage was too much straitened 
for the air; the patient has a cough that is 
either dry, or accompanied with the dis- 
charge of flakes of phlegm, like a membrane; 
the pulse is quickened, and an uneasy sense 
of heat attends. By looking into the throat, 40 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
a redness and flakes of phlegm like those 
discharged, may sometimes be perceived.— 
It has happened that the patient has been 
taken off without scarce any complaining, 
in three, four, or five days. 
Management. The patient should not be 
kept cold, nor disagreeably warm, he should 
have a spare thin vegetable diet, with light 
aeid, or bitter drinks, as teas of various 
herbs. In time of coughing, he should be 
raised and assisted, to keep him from strang- 
ling. 
Cure. The patient should take a puke as 
quick as possible. (If he is twelve years 
old, ten grains of ipecacuana, and half a 
grain of tartar emetic, will not be too much, 
for there is a great degree of insensibility in 
the stomach in this complaint; if he is only 
four years old, let him have half as much, or 
one tea spoonful of antimonial wine, to be 
repeated every quarter of an hour, till it 
operates.) After taking the puke, he should 
take four grains (if twelve years,) of calo- 
mel, and ten of jalap, the evening of the 
same day ; after this, for three or four days, 
he should take one day the puke, and the 
next the purge; after the first puke and 
purge, a blister should be laid on the back 
of the neck. Throughout the complaint, 
the steams of warm vinegar, or of water in 
which there is a large lump of lime slacking. FAMILY ADVISER. 
41 
(which is supposed to be a solvent) may be 
drawn into the throat; warm teas, and soak- 
ing the feet, may be used to restore the per- 
spiration to the surface. 
CHAP. XIII. 
THE MUMPS. 
CONTAGION is the cause of this com- 
plaint. 
Symptoms. It makes its appearance with 
the usual febrile symptoms, of chills suc- 
ceeding heat, and quickened pulse; this is 
shortly followed by a swelling, at the corner 
of the lower jaw, of a moveable, glandular 
nature; in a little time it diffuses itself over 
the whole neck ; sometimes both sides are 
affected. It continues increasing till about 
the fourth day, and then declines with the 
fever. As the swelling recedes, some ,tu- 
mour is apt to take place in the testes of 
males, and in the breasts of women. Some- 
times when this has not taken place or when 
it has been repelled by imprudent applica- 
tions, the fever has continued or increased 
with delirium. 
Management. The palient should be kept 
upon a low vegetable diet, and not expose 
himself to cold. The above in general will 
be sufficient, but when the circumstance 
mentioned takes place, it. will bo necessary 42 
to direct something more than the above 
for a 
Cure. We should apply warm stewed 
bitter herbs, or warm bread and milk poul- 
tices to the parts ; and if the fever and de- 
lirium be considerable, the patient should 
be bled if he be able to bear bleeding; oth- 
erwise a puke should be the only evacuent, 
viz. fifteen grains of ipecacuana, more or 
less, according to the patient’s age. Be- 
sides this or these, it may be necessary to 
apply a blister to the back of the neck. In 
slighter cases, the puke and fomentations 
will be sufficient. In all cases, costiveness 
should be prevented by clysters, castor oil, 
or salts. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XIV. 
PLEURISY, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE INTER- 
NAL PARTS OF THE BREAST. 
THE end of winter, spring and beginning 
of summer are the usual times that this dis- 
ease is prevalent; all ages and most consti- 
tutions are liable to it, but the plethoric, and 
those of a rustic constitution, who have seen 
twenty years, and not exceeded sixty, are 
most liable. 
Causes. Cold and heat applied alter- 
nately, or unequally, straining or injuring of 
the parts, &c. 43 
Symptoms. It usually begins with chills, 
which are followed by heat, quick, strong, 
and full pulse, head-ach, difficult breathing, 
dry cough at the beginning, though some- 
times it begins moist : towards the end, or 
after it has continued, it is always moist, and 
sometimes a very considerable quantity of 
yellow mucus is discharged : this is not un- 
frequently streaked with blood. Most fre- 
quently, a pungent pain attacks the side, 
about the middle of the sixth or seventh 
rib, but if the pain should attack any other 
part of the chest, and should not be so vio- 
lent, yet accompanied with the other symp- 
toms, particularly the full, strong and quick 
pulse, we arc to consider the complaint as 
the same. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
Management. This should be identically 
the same with what is directed in Chap. 11. 
only with the addition of mucilaginous and 
syrup drinks to allay the cough : as of flax- 
seed, and mallow tea with honey : a little 
lemon juice will make it very agreeable. 
Cure, From half to two-thirds of a pint, 
or more of blood, should be taken away on 
the first appearance, and if the symptoms 
continue, it may be repeated in eight hours. 
After the first bleeding a dose of salts 
should be given, and small doses of the same, 
or common clysters may be given regularly 
to prevent costivencss. Immediately after 
the patient’s first bleeding, a blister should be applied as near as possible to the pained 
part, and one of the fever powders No. 1, giv- 
en every hour, beginning after the operation 
of the salts is over. If after the blister has 
drawn, the pulse continues up, and the pain 
has not considerably abated, the second 
bleeding should be immediately made, and 
if in half an hour after that, the pain does 
not give way, a second blister should be ap- 
plied on a fresh part, or on the opposite 
side. The powders should be continued 
every two hours. But in general, one 
bleeding, a blister, the powders, and keep- 
ing an open belly, will be sufficient. Noth- 
ing but a relaxation of the pain and fever, 
should induce the patient to omit any of the 
above remedies, for life and death are pretty 
certainly fixed to the narrow compass of a 
few days. If the pulse is strong, and bleed- 
ing has been omitted as long as six or seven 
days, it would be then better done than let 
alone ; but if the pulse flags, and the patient 
has had a frequent shivering about the last 
days, it will then be better, if not the very 
safety of the patient, to forbear. At such a 
time a blister might be applied without any 
injury, but if a suppuration has taken place, 
it will be of no service; however those who 
are not proper judges had better make the 
application, lest there might have been an 
insufficient inflammation to suppurate in 
that time; and with this the patient may 
FAMILY ADVISER. FAMILY ADVISER. 
45 
use what will be proper in the last case of 
every pleurisy when the cough is trouble- 
some : a tea-spoonful of paregoric in a lit- 
tle flax-seed, or other tea, once in four or 
five hours. In the latter stages, it may be 
necessary to support the patient’s strength 
with decoctions of bark, and a light nourish- 
ing diet. 
Seneca snake-root tea, the pleurisy root, 
or common salt-petre taken to one fourth of 
an ounce a day, in whey or gruel, may some- 
times alone, and often after a bleeding, re- 
move a pleurisy ; but they should only be 
tried, when the person cannot procure the 
above prescribed remedies. 
CHAP. XV. 
BASTARD OR SPURIOUS PLEURISY, 
THIS usually attacks the aged, those of 
a phlegmatic full habit, who have injured 
their constitutions by excess of drinking, 
particularly, and are liable to the vicissi- 
tudes of the weather, from being much expo- 
sed. 
Cause, The long application of cold 
suddenly succeeded by heat, and heating 
drinks; this, with the predisposition laid 
down above, is the chief, if not the only 
cause. 
Symptoms. It makes its appearance with 
chills and flushes, which are followed by a FAMILY ADVISER. 
slight fever, with a soft, not very frequent 
pulse. The heat of the patient is not usu- 
ally much increased; a pain affects the 
side, or breast, which is not very pungent, 
but rather dull and extending; a violent 
pain in the head, sick stomach, and some- 
times vomiting, are more or less present.— 
From the beginning it is common for a 
cough, straightened breathing, and spitting 
of tough mucus, to attend. An erysipela- 
tous redness often appears on the checks, 
and a looseness attends the advanced stage 
of the disease. The patient is apt to be hea- 
vy and drowsy ; thus though there be a pain 
in the side, and a fever, it is easily distin- 
guished from a true inflammatory affection 
of the breast. 
Management. The patient should be 
kept tolerably warm, his diet should be 
light and nourishing, and in the beginning, 
if the feverish symptoms are not considera- 
ble, he may have weak wine and water for 
his drink ; in the end it will always be pro- 
per, for the patient frequently becomes fain- 
ty, and is not able to take any thing besides. 
Lemonade may be used, when wine and 
water cannot be given for (he fever; and 
when lemons cannot be got, vinegar and wa- 
ter, or cyder and water. 
Cure. Bleeding, though it may some- 
times be proper, as when the patient is of a 
more robust habit, and belter constitution FAMILY ADVISER. 
47 
than what is described above, and when he 
has been accustomed to bleeding, and with- 
al the pulse and pain are not low, yet it 
should be used sparingly and cautiously, 
otherwise, in ninety cases out of one hun- 
dred, it would be injurious. In the begin- 
ning it will be proper to give ten or twelve 
grains of ipecacuana ; or a tea-spoonful of 
antimonial wine, every fifteen minutes until 
it operates ; a blister may be put on at the 
same, time, as near as possible to the pain ; 
the puke may be repeated once or twice if 
necessary, and sometimes it will be necessa- 
ry to lay on another blister close by the for- 
mer ; twenty grains of jalap, or thirty grains 
of rhubarb, or a table-spoonful of castor oil, 
or four or five grains of calomel may be 
used to remove any costiveness that is pres- 
ent: this should be attended to throughout. 
For the cough, two drachms of gum am- 
moniac, dissolved by trituration in a mor- 
tar, with half a pint of water, may be given, 
one table-spoonful every hour; or an ounce: 
of syrup (commonly called oxyme,) of squills, 
in as much water, may be given in the same 
way. 
Seneca snake-root or pleurisy root tea 
may be used, if the above cannot be procur- 
ed. To either of these medicines at night a 
dozen drops of laudanum may be added, in 
order to allay the cough, that the patient may 
rest; and if the cough is very frequent in 48 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
the day, a few drops may be taken every 
now and then. 
Towards the end when the patient grows 
weak, he should use about sixty drops of 
elixir of vitriol a-day, and use a decoction of 
bark or some good bitters. 
Great care will be requisite to prevent 
the return of this disorder, when the wea- 
ther is favourable to produce it. 
CHAP. XVI. 
SPASMODIC STITCH, OR INTERCOSTAL RHEU- 
MATISM. 
THIS complaint is prevalent when the 
changes of weather are frequent, as in the 
spring and fall. It usually attacks the 
young, those under forty years, those who 
are of a delicate, effeminate constitution, 
rather than those of a broken state of 
health. 
Exposure to cold, more particularly after 
heat and damp cloudy weather are the 
causes. 
Symptoms. It begins with a lancinating 
pain, most frequently about the ribs of one 
side ; this remits awhile, and then returns 
again, so as almost to make the patient 
scream out. After awhile it becomes fixed, 
and does not abate, though it is apt to ex- 
tend, and even to change its place, so that FAMILY ADVISER. 
49 
the muscles of the breast are frequently at- 
tacked, and there are pains in other parts 
that point out a rheumatic affection ; with 
the above a fever, sometimes pretty smart, 
at other times less, attends. In most cases 
the pulse is not strong, but easily stopped 
by pressing it, to what it is in true pleurisy. 
Frequently a cough attends, which is apt to 
increase towards the end of the other symp- 
toms, at which time it is accompanied with 
spitting of yellow tough mucus ; some de- 
gree of costiveness usually attends, and 
most of the symptoms are worse at night. 
The breathing is not in general affected 
so much as in pleurisy, little or no cough at- 
tends ; the head is usually much affected 
with pain, and as the pain of the side de- 
clines, the knees or back are sometimes at- 
tacked, if not before. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
on a vegetable moderate diet. 
His drink may be warm herb teas. 
Cure. If tire patient be pretty full of 
blood, and his pulse tolerably strong, it will 
then be prudent and useful to lake away 
half a pint or more of blood. A blister 
should be laid over the part, a dose of cas- 
tor oil, or of fifteen grains of jalap and as 
much cream of tartar should be given to open 
his bowels : if the pain continues, some 
proper sweating medicine should be given, 
as four grains of camphor beat up with ho- 50 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
ney into a bolus, to which two grains of ipe- 
cacuana may be added, this much should be 
taken every three or four hours, washing it 
down with seneca snake-root tea, or warm 
balm tea: or in the place of these, a lea- 
spoonful of paregoric and twenty dr . of 
antirnonial wine maybe taken ever inree 
hours ; using plenty of warm tea in the ner- 
vals. This last mixture will be proper for 
the cough taken in the same quantity and 
times. 
CHAP. XVII. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 
CAUSES. External violence, high sea* 
soned food, acrid medicine or poisons; hard 
bodies swallowed, as of glass or stone ; cold 
drink, when the body is heated ; distension 
from an over quantity of food that is of diffi- 
cult digestion ; inflammations of the adja- 
cent parts extending to the stomach; be- 
sides these causes, a translation of affection 
in other disorders are causes; as in the 
gout, small pox, measles, St. Anthony’s fire : 
but these require a treatment connected with 
the primary affection, which cannot be treat- 
ed of here. 
Symptoms. A violent, pungent, and some- 
times throbbing pain at the pit of the stom- 
ach, with burning and painful vomiting ; a 
hiccough, anxiety and difficult breathing 5 FAMILY ADVISER. 
51 
great weakness ; after taking any thing into 
the stomach the pain increases, and it is dis- 
charged by vomiting; the pulse is common- 
ly small, hard and quick. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
from swallowing any thing but mild drinks, 
as barley water, milk and water, &c. he 
should keep himself as still as possible in a 
dark room. 
Cure. If any thing that is acrid, or that 
may injure the stomach mechanically, has 
been taken in, it should be evacuated as 
quick as possible by taking plenty of warm 
water, and applying a feather to the throat,to 
induce immediate vomiting 5 but if the vom- 
iting is already considerable, it should not 
be solicited after vomiting; if the cause be 
some acrid, it should be diluted with muci- 
laginous drinks, as gum arabic dissolved in 
water; or oils may be given, as sweet oil or 
almond oil; at the same time it should be 
counteracted by a proper medicine. Thus 
if it be vitriol, or spirit of salt, or aqua fortis, 
let the patient take a table-spoonful of salt 
of tartar, or if he can get none of that let 
him get a piece of chalk and eat it. If it 
be arsenic, two tea-spoonfuls of precipitate 
sulphur may be swallowed. After this, or 
where these have not been required from 
the nature of the cause, the patient should 
loose a pint of blood, and in case the pain 
continues, and the pulse does not sink and 52 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
intermit, half as much more may be taken 
away in eight hours following; a blister af- 
ter the first bleeding should be applied to 
the left side, and clysters of oil, sugar, milk, 
and a little saltpetre, should be injected eve- 
ry three hours : four grains of sugar of lead 
in a little water may be given every two 
hours the first day; nothing but the medi- 
cine mentioned, should be applied by the 
mouth. 
CHAP. XVIII. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE INTESTINES. 
CAUSES. Besides most of the causes 
of the preceding disease, may be added, 
cold applied to the belly : long and violent 
cholic, and hernia, commonly termed a rup- 
ture. 
Symptoms. A fixed pain, sometimes 
spreading over the belly, at other times fix- 
ed about the naval, fever, costiveness and 
vomiting. 
Management. The patient should have 
light, liquid preparations of vegetables for 
food, and his drink should be jelly and wa- 
ter, or apple water, or lemonade, or mo- 
lasses and water with a little vinegar: 
these, or any of them, may be taken plenti- 
fully. 
Cure. He should be bled as quick as 
possible : the quantity should be pretty FAMILY ADVISER. 
large, proportioning it to (he habit of the 
patient ; this may be repeated in eight 
hours, if the symptoms demand it, and the 
pulse allow it. After the first bleeding, a 
blister should be applied over the pain, and 
a clyster of oil, molasses, milk, and glaubc-r 
salts injected : this may be repeated every 
three or four hours with small quantities of 
of salts after the first time; eight grains of 
nitre, if it does not excite vomiting, may be 
given in a little drink every hour. If the 
inflammation should suppurate and dis- 
charge matter downwards, nothing should 
be used but the mildest, nourishing spoon- 
diet of broths, &c. 
CHAP. XIX, 
ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 
CAUSES. External violence, from bruis- 
es and contusions, especially such as have 
occasioned a fracture of the skull at the 
same time ; violent passions, excessive 
summer heats, too much exercise, cold ap- 
plied externally or internally. 
Symptoms. A pungent pain of the right 
side, shooting up to the shoulder, a cough 
for the most part dry, tention of the right 
side over the liver, hard dry gums, vomit- 
ing, weakness, difficulty of breathing, watch- 
ing, costiveness, hiccough, and a hard, full, 
quickened pulse. 54 
Sometimes there is a difficulty of lying on 
the left side : sometimes the eyes, tongue, 
and urine are tinged with bile. 
Management. The causes should be at- 
tended to, and removed as far as possible. 
Light vegetable food, and acid drinks should 
compose the patient’s diet. He should be 
kept cool and still. 
Cure. The patient should be bled early 
in the disorder, and this may be repeated if 
necessar}7; a dose of salts should be given 
to open his bowels, after which cream of 
tartar may be used constantly for the same 
purpose, or clysters may be used of No. 5, 
A blister should be applied over the pained 
part, after the first bleeding, and after that, 
the parts around may be frequently foment- 
ed with warm stewed herbs, as mallows, 
horehound, wormwood, &c. If after the use 
of these, the fever continues with the pain, 
the following pills may be used until they 
affect the patient’s mouth : Calomel twenty- 
four grains, tartar emetic two grains, make 
them up with syrup into twelve pills : one 
of which may be taken morning, noon, and 
night. 
From the beginning, if the fever be con- 
siderable, one of the fever powders, No. 1. 
should be given every two hours, except 
when other medicine is to be given. 
FAMILY ADVISER. FAMILY ADVISER. 
55 
CHAP. XX. 
OBSTRUCTION OF THE LIVER. 
CAUSES. Intermitting and remitting 
fevers, exposure to frequent colds, sitting 
up of nights, obesity, &c. 
Symptoms. A dull, heavy sensation and 
lention of the right side, little or no fever, 
difficulty of lying upon the left side, yellow 
eyes and cosliveness. 
Management. Avoid or remove the cau- 
ses, live upon a simple vegetable diet, and 
watery drinks. 
Cure. If the patient be pretty full, or if 
accustomed to bleeding, blood letting may 
be once performed: ten grains of ipecacu- 
ana may be given at the distance of two or 
three days, for several times. 
The bowels should be kept open by the 
pills, No. 6. taken regularly so as to an- 
swer the purpose : the side should be fre- 
quently fomented with a warm decoction of 
bitter herbs, and one of th 6 calomel pills, 
in chapter xix. given every second night, 
till they affect the gums. 56 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XXI. 
CAUSES. External confusions, violent, 
long continued riding, strains of the back. 
Spanish flies taken inwardly, or applied 
outwardly on a blister, stones that have 
formed in the cavities of the kidney, pass- 
ing out. 
Symptoms. Fever, pain about the part, 
which may be distinguished from rheuma- 
tism, by the former not being much in- 
creased by motion ; a retraction of the tes- 
ticle on the same side, a numbness of the 
thigh and leg on the same side, vomiting, 
colic pains, costiveness, redness of the urine 
and small discharges of it at a time. 
Management. The patient should have 
plenty of light, mucilaginous drinks, as flax- 
seed tea, mallow tea, and gum arabic dissolv- 
ed in water ; these should be drank warm, 
his food should be broths and vegetables. 
Cure. The patient should be bled once 
or twice, proportioning the quantity to the 
age, habit and custom of the patient. The 
small of the back should be frequently fo- 
mented with warm decoctions of bitter 
herbs. His bowels should be opened with 
a dose of castor oil ; and emollient clys- 
ters of oil, molasses, and milk should be in- 
jected every two cr three hours ; besides 
INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. FAMILY ADVISER. 
57 
these, sixty grains of Glauber salts in lem- 
on-juice may be given, every two hours, 
throughout the continuance of the heat and 
fever. 
CHAP. XXII. 
THIS attacks at all seasons, but rarely 
at any other time than the spring and fall, 
when the vicissitudes of weather are great. 
Causes. Cold applied to the body, when 
unusually warm, or cold applied partially to 
the body. 
Symptoms. A pain affects some of the 
joints, and sometimes the mucles, so as to 
extend from one joint to another. Some- 
times almost every joint in the body is af- 
fected, and then the complaint comes on 
with chills, and fever, with a strong pulse, 
for the most part full. In some cases, the 
fever precedes the pains, at other times, it 
is the contrary; the joints affected become 
red and swelled ; the fever and pains usuab 
ly increase at night. If the general affec- 
tion continues long, the patient’s senses be- 
come somewhat impaired for a while. 
Management, The patient should bo 
kept cool, except when under the operation 
of sweating medicine, then he should lie be- 
tween blankets ; he should be kept from all 
but fight vegetable food, and cool acid, or 
ACUTE RHEUMATISM. 58 
warm herb drinks, which may be given plen- 
tifully ; and when the complaint has gone 
off, he should wear flannels till warm weath- 
er returns, and then use bathing. 
Cure. The patient should be instantly- 
bled, as freely as his habit and age will bear, 
and his complaint demands ; this may be re- 
peated in smaller quantities, for once or 
twice in the course of four days, if necessa- 
ry. After the first bleeding, a dose of salts 
should be given, and when that has done 
operating, one of the powders, No. 1. should 
be given every two hours. If this does not 
answer, let him have twelve grains of Do- 
ver’s powders (which may be had at the 
apothecaries’ shops) for two or three nights, 
lying then between blankets. If any pain 
still continues, it may be looked upon as 
verging to chronic rheumatism, and the fol- 
lowing may be given; one hundred drops 
of volatile tincture of guaiacum, in a little 
water three times a-day 
In general, nothing can be done (hat will 
be of service as an outward application ; 
however, a little Castile soap dissolved in 
water may be used to satisfy. 
In slighter cases, the bleeding may be 
omitted, and the salts, with a common sweat 
of seneca tea, used. 
FAMILY ADVISER. FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XXIII. 
CHRONIC RHEUMATISM. 
THE former disease is apt to terminate 
in this; especially when the patient is ad- 
vanced in years : cold is the common cause 
of it. 
Symptoms. A pain of some of the joints, 
or about the junction of the bones, with a 
stiffness of the part. No redness or swell- 
ing, like that from inflammation affects the 
part, though after a long continuance an 
enlargement of the joints is apt to take 
place. Little or no fever attends here, heat 
lessens the pain, and cold increases it; 
quite contrary to what takes place in the 
preceding complaint. When the pains fix 
about the small of the back, the affection is 
termed a Lumbago; when about the hip, in 
which case the patient becomes somewhat, 
lame, a Sciatica. 
Management. The part affected, if pos- 
sible, should be constantly wrapt in flannel, 
the patient should use wine with any food 
he may chuse, which will agree with his 
stomach. 
Cure. Ninety drops of volatile tincture 
of guaiacum, should be taken in a little 
water, four limes a day : if this does not an- 
swer, the following pills may be used till 60 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
they produce some effect; twelve grains of 
calomel and twelve grains of opium, to be 
made into one dozen pills, one to be taken 
morning and evening, washing it down with 
a large quantity of Virginia snake-root, lig- 
num vitse, or sassafras tea. Besides these, 
there are other common remedies, which are 
less certain, as a decoction of prickly ash, 
mustard whey, balsams, &c. In what is 
called the sciatica, twelve drops of spirit of 
turpentine, in a little honey, taken night and 
morning, is particularly effectual. 
The external remedies in rheumatism, arc 
spirits of camphor, spirits of hartshorn and 
oil: oil and spirits of turpentine, electricity 
applied by insolation, and drawing sparks : 
the flesh brush, cold water dashed on. How- 
ever, this last is more effectual in cases that 
are between the inflammatory and chronic, 
where one joint is chiefly affected. 
CHAP. XXIV. 
TOOTH ACH. 
CAUSES. A general cold, cold air ap- 
plied to the cheeks in an unusual and sud- 
den manner, acrids, sweets, or acids applied 
to the teeth, the acrid matter of a rotten 
tooth, extraordinary violence, as in break- 
ing hard substances, blows, &c. Besides 
these, there are certain disposing causes tin- FAMILY ADVISER. 
61 
dev which the usual exposure vve are con- 
stantly liable to, is a sufficient cause ; as a 
nerve being laid bare, by rotting or extrac- 
tion of a tooth, pregnancy, hysteric disposi- 
tions, &c. 
Symptoms. These are various in differ- 
ent circumstances. In the tooth ach that 
proceeds from common cold, there are fre- 
quently symptoms of a rheumatic affection 
of the adjacent parts, the pain extending 
from the tooth to the face, and along up to 
the temple, with a throbbing of the arteries 
and redness ; sometimes a little swelling of 
the face, and withal a feverishness. In 
most other cases a violent pain of the 
tooth, with a little inflammation of the gum 
are the only symptoms except that about the 
termination, the face, (in relaxed habits) is 
apt to swell. 
Management. The patient should care- 
fully avoid every cause, and confine him- 
self to his room. In the case of rheumatic 
symptoms, his food and drink should be of 
the weakest and lightest kind, and a silk 
handkerchief should be applied over his 
face. In the other cases, the face should 
be wrapped in flannel, and no change made 
in the food or drink. The tooth should be 
stopped with lint. 
Cure. In the first case it will be the best 
way to aim at the removal of the cold, by 
giving a dose of salts, and taking a sweat of 62 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
weak whey, with a tea-spoonful of salt-pe- 
tre. After this a small blister applied to the 
part will be most effectual; or instead of 
this, sweating the part with hot herbs, or a 
hot stone, wrapt in moist or dry rags, may 
be useful. In general, in such a case, it 
will be of little use to apply any thing to 
the tooth itself till the above has been first 
done, then a little laudanum and spirits may 
be held in the mouth. In all the other cases, 
topical applications are more effectual.— 
The chief of these are opium, camphor, oil 
of cloves, and other warm essential oils ; 
with these, electricity, burning the tooth, 
applying a hot iron to the ear, and many 
other means have been at times effectual. 
But it is often necessary with these to give 
small doses of laudanum, and apply a blis- 
ter, and when these fail, extracting the 
tooth ; which may be done at any time, by 
a careful trusty operator: but if this does 
not relieve, the pain passing to another 
tooth, the patient should not insist upon that 
being drawn, but commit all to patience. 
The best manner of applying topicals is to 
insert the medicine into the hollow, and 
cover it with lint or wax. FAMILY ADVISER. 
63 
CHAP. XXV. 
THE GOUT. 
THE causes of the gout, for better com- 
prehending them, may be placed under four 
heads. 
1. The prime which are the use 
of excessive quantities of high seasoned ani- 
mal food, and the liberal use of wine and 
other spiritous liquors. These are suppos- 
ed to produce their effect, by causing an ac- 
tion in the extreme vessels, (which are em- 
ployed in nutrition) in degree and constancy 
above what they were constructed to bear, 
so that as soon as the body ceases to yield, 
which is at the end of growth, the vessels 
from being over excited, are overcome, and 
suffer an indirect debility and relaxation. 
2. The predisposing causes ; under which 
a less degree of the above brings on the 
complaint, because they aim at the same 
point: they are, indolence, hereditary deli- 
cacy of the parts that suffer in the gout 
(from a general similarity to the parent) and 
that tendency in the animal economy which 
produces a robust and gross habit. These 
causes would, when they had proceeded to 
a certain extent, bring on the gout: but it 
is seldom the case, that it is not helped on 
by what may be called 64 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
3. The exciting causes; as venery, de- 
bauchery, cold applied to the feet, indi- 
gestion, much application of mind, night- 
watching, passions excessive evacuations, 
changing of habits, debilitating diseases, 
bruises or strains of the parts that suffer 
in gout; the use of acids and acid fruits, 
&c. All these act by debilitating gene- 
rail)' or topically, and this being always ac- 
companied with a relaxation, exposes the 
injured parts to the irritation of the air in an 
uncommon manner. The irritation of the 
air brings about 
4. The proximate or immediate cause ; 
which is a superabundant afflux of the ner- 
vous or vital principle, to the parts most de- 
bilitated or most exposed (to the common 
irritations ;) usually the extremity of the 
joints, or ball of the great toe. This afflux 
of vital principle has two effects, Ist, As 
there is no sensation without the presence 
of this principle, so in the abundance of it, 
the sensation is exquisite. 2dly, As there 
is no circulation without it, and the circula- 
tion is in proportion to it, so, in the abun- 
dance of it, the circulation is increased to 
inflammation, and the tender parts are for- 
ced, and filled faster than they can propel 
the blood ; hence congestion, redness, and 
pain of the joint, and in such parts as are 
not plentifully furnished with vessels, the 
muscular fibres arc contracted to a spasm. FAMILY ADVISER. 
65 
A CEASING of the sweat to which the 
feet have been accustomed, an unusual cold- 
ness of the legs and feet, a frequent numb- 
ness, alternating with a prickling sensation 
all along the course of the extremities, fre- 
quent cramps of the legs, and a swelling of 
the veins. Whilst these symptoms take 
place in the parts mentioned, the whole body 
is affected with a degree of torpor and lan- 
guor : the functions of the stomach in par- 
ticular are more or less disturbed, the appe- 
tite is diminished, and flatulency with other 
symptoms of indigestion felt. These symp- 
toms take place for some days before the fit 
of the gout comes on, but often on the day 
preceding the fit the appetite becomes great- 
er than usual: the fit usually begins about 
three o’clock in the morning, with pain af- 
fecting one foot, most commonly at the ball 
of the great toe, but sometimes in other parts 
of the foot; with the coming on of the pain, 
there is usually more or less of a cold shiv- 
ering, which as the pain increases gradually 
gives way to heat and fever, which lasts as 
long as the pain does. From the first at- 
tack (he pain becomes more violent till the 
next midnight, after which it gradually re- 
mits, and after continuing about twenty-four 
hours, usually ceases, with a sweating and 
sleep. 
THE SYMPTOMS OF THE REGULAR GOUT. The next morning after the remission, a 
swelling and redness is to be perceived in 
the part affected, which after continuing 
some days, gradually abates. 
But though the pain ceases at the end of 
twenty-four hours, it usually returns every 
evening, with less and less violence and fe- 
ver, and again abates in the morning: this 
recurring continues some days, and then 
goes off very entirely, (ill the third, second, 
or next spring, following. This is the case 
in the first attack of the gout ; but the re- 
turns become more frequent, till at length 
after some years the patient is never clear 
of it, except a month or so in the summer 
season: after the gout has continued, the 
pain does not remain in one joint, but 
shifts about until it has attacked almost ev- 
ery joint in the body. 
After a fit is over, the patient feels him- 
self recruited in body and mind. 
As the gout proceeds, the pains become 
less severe and more continued, and the 
other affections are more considerable, so 
that the stomach is very much affected with 
sickness. 
66 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
After the first fits of the gout, the joints 
remain supple; but in the advanced state 
they become stiff and motionless, with earthy 
concretions. 
In those who have suffered much with the gout, a complaint of the kidneys frequently 
alternates with the gouty affections. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
MANAGEMENT BETWEEN THE FITS. 
IF it be early in the complaint, or the pa- 
tient not debilitated, gentle continued bodi- 
ly exercise and a diet of vegetables and 
milk should be used ; but if the patient is 
already much injured by it, neither of the 
above will be safe. His exercise should 
then be gestation, for walking would injure 
the parts too much, and other exercise 
would be fatiguing: his diet should be of 
the most nourishing vegetables, milk and 
light meats, which last may be used more 
and in proportion to the debility, and if this 
be considerable, it will be necessary to use 
good Madeira, diluted, for drink; other- 
wise, all spiritous liquors should be abstain- 
ed from. The causes mentioned should as 
much as possible be avoided, and the patient 
should keep his bowels regular with a little 
sulphur, castor-oil, lenitive electuary, or any 
mild opening medicine; which 'are to be 
used at all times, to prevent or remove the 
costiveness. 
In general, it will be found useful after a 
fit not to rise soon, but to keep warm in bed 
most of the morning, and to go to bed early. 68 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
TREATMENT IN THE FIT. 
AT this lime very little can be done to 
advantage. If the patient is vigorous, and 
the inflammation and pain considerable, 
blood-letting may be once performed, though 
sparingly. Scarce any thing solid should 
be taken for diet, and when the patient has 
suffered much from want of rest, fifteen 
drops of laudanum in one tea-spoonful of 
spirits of nitre dulcified, may be taken at 
night. Applying poultices of bread and 
milk to the parts, will sometimes give ease 
to a small extent, and in a violent case may 
be tried; carded wool should always be ap- 
plied. 
When the inflammation has gone off, and 
a stiffness remains, it will be of service to 
use the flesh-brush to rub the parts with, 
and after the fit to take regularly some of 
the preparations of steel, mentioned here- 
after. 
OF THE ATONIC GOUT, OR GOUT OF THE 
STOMACH. 
IN such patients as have brought the gout 
on themselves, this peculiarity seldom hap- 
pens till late in the disorder, when the sys- 
tem is generally debilitated, and there is 
little disposition to inflammation. In such 
a slate the stomach is usually much debilita- FAMILY ADVISER. 
69 
ted, and liable to be acted upon by a slighter 
cause than what would bring on an affection 
of a joint. 
From the above circumstances of debili- 
ty, general and topical, as well as from the 
stomach being defended from the applica- 
tion of the common air (which produces the 
re-action, or inflammation in the regular 
gout) it happens that the gout of the stomach 
is a very different affection from the regu- 
lar gout; being a case of deficient and irreg- 
lar action of the part, instead of an inflam- 
mation and excessive action as in the regu- 
lar ; and hence requiring very different rem- 
edies. 
Symptoms. Loss of appetite, indigestion, 
flatulency, nausea and vomiting, acid eruc- 
tations, pains and cramps in different parts, 
which yield upon the discharge of wind; 
costiveness, though sometimes loseness, co- 
lick pains and hypocondriac symptoms 
(which consist in a great attention to the 
slightest symptoms, and an apprehension of 
danger) an absence of inflammatory affec- 
tions of the joints, and of fever. 
Management. The patient’s food should 
be a mixture of animal and vegetable, of 
the most nutrient and digestible kind, taken 
rather at many times than in large quanti- 
ties. Wine and water, or spirit and water 
should be his drink : it will be of great ad- 
vantage to keep close to the bed, except 70 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
when the patient is able, and the wea- 
ther good, then he should ride in a carriage 
daily. 
Treatment. Fifteen grains of rust of steel, 
with as much pounded orange-peel, may be 
taken with mint water, or a little spirit of lav- 
ender, four or five times a-day. 
A tea-spoonful of saline aromatic spirit 
will also be of service to take a few times 
a-day. 
If indigestion prevails much, fourteen 
grains of ipecacuana may be given every five 
or six days, or large draughts of strong camo- 
mile tea, which will frequently have the same 
effect. 
A third variety of the gout is, when the 
inflammation has appeared first in its usual 
place (the joints) but from improper treat- 
ment, bad management, exposure, and oth- 
er less observable causes, it leaves the joints, 
and fixes upon the stomach or some other 
part. 
This is called the Retrocedent Gout.— 
When the stomach receives the affection, a 
great anxiety, sickness and vomiting attend; 
if the lungs, an asthmatic affection is the 
product: if the heart, fainting; if the head, 
an apoplexy. 
When the stomach or bowels are attack- 
ed, wine, with spices boiled in it, should be 
given plentifully, or if this is not sufficient, 
spirits with spices in large doses. In slight- 
er cases, less doses of spirits, in which gar- FAMILY ADVISER. 
71 
lie has been steeped, may be given : with 
this the patient’s feet may be steeped in a 
strong hot mixture of spirits and water, and 
blisters laid on the ankles; volatile aromatic 
spirits, and assafoetida, are also proper to be 
given, but they are less powerful than spirits 
and spices. 
When the vomiting is troublesome, it may 
be encouraged with camomile tea, and after- 
wards restrained by twenty or thirty drops 
of laudanum with a drachm of spirits of nitre 
dulcified: vitriolic asther and musk are some- 
times useful. 
When any of the other parts are affected, 
a blister should be immediately applied, and 
the bath of spirits and water applied to the 
feet. If the patient is able to bear bleed- 
ing, it should be performed when the head or 
lungs are affected. In all cases, a gentle de- 
termination to the surface should be aimed 
at, by giving one tea-spoonful of saline aro- 
matic spirits every two hours ; or spirits of 
nitre dulcified and laudanum every two or 
three hours. 
The fourth and last variety of the gout is 
the Misplaced. That is, when the patient, 
instead of a regular affection, is immediate- 
ly (without any preceding affection of the 
joints) affected with an inflammation of the 
lungs, the bladder, or the lowrer end of the 
last gut; in this last it brings on the piles : 
when it affects the bladder, it brings on 72 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
strangury or a difficult discharge of urine. 
These affections are to be treated as di- 
rected in the chapters for them ; remember- 
ing the constitution and situation of the pa- 
tient. 
During every species costiveness should 
be removed by three or four grains of aloes, 
or twenty-five of rhubarb. And between 
every affection, the system may be strength- 
ened by the following medicine; half a 
wine-glass full of which may be taken twice 
a day, at eleven and at four o’clock ; port 
wine one quart, rusty iron or iron flakes, 
one handful, cinnamon, one ounce ; let them 
remain one week, and then use them. 
Observations. Ist. It appears, that a pri- 
mary gout is the consequence of a general 
injury done to the system; but that the 
stomach and extremities suffer chiefly, be- 
cause the stomach is particularly injured by 
the prime causes, and the extremities are 
more exposed (from their distance from the 
heart, and other causes) to the irritation of 
the air, which far exceeds common notice 
and opinion. 
2dly, It is also plain, that those who are 
much predisposed to the gout by hereditary 
constitution of the parts, cannot possibly es- 
cape it; because that quantity of food which 
is necessary for nutrition, will produce an ac- 
tion, that the vessels usually injured in the 
gout cannot support through life. FAMILY ADVISER. 
73 
3dly, A fit of the gout is a change in the 
system, which aims at a removal of the in- 
jury ; only being unbounded and excessive, 
not produced by any internal conscientious 
power, but by physical laws. 
CHAP. XXVI. 
THE SMALL POX. 
THE small pox is of two kinds ; the dis- 
tinct and the confluent: as they demand a 
very different treatment, I shall not confound 
them, but treat of them separately. 
THE DISTINCT SMALL POX. 
THE cause of this is a specific conta- 
gion. 
Symptoms. About eight days after inoc- 
ulation, and probably the same time after 
taking it the natural way, a fever appears 
of the continued inflammatory kind: after 
this has continued about three days, a dis- 
tinct eruption of small pimples, like flea- 
bites, appear on the face: these increase 
and extend, so that about the end of the 
fifth day the eruption is completed and ex- 
tended to the extremities: from the first 
eruption the fever usually declines, and at 
the finishing of the eruption it ceases.— 
faring the fever, children are frequently af- 74 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
flicted with starting, and if kept warm, with 
fits. 
About the eighth day after the eruption, 
these pimples have increased to spheroidal 
pustules, filled with matter, with a red mar- 
gin around each. 
Before the pustules arc quite filled, a 
swelling of the face takes place, which sub- 
sides as soon as the pustules are filled: a 
swelling of the wrists and feet succeeds the 
above, just in the progression of the erup- 
tion ; during this period a sore throat is com- 
mon. 
After the pustules are fully ripe and yel- 
low, they then cither pour out the matter, 
from a small rupture at their top, or the mat- 
ter is absorbed, leaving an empty fiat bag: 
the former is usually the case with those on 
the face; the latter with those on the arms 
and thighs ; in this way they decline till 
they are perfectly dried up, which takes 
place from eight to sixteen days (from the 
lime they begin to decline) according to the 
size and number of the pustules ; pits are 
frequently left behind. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
cool, both by going into the air, and thinning 
his cloathing. However, the custom of ex- 
posing to bad weather, extreme cold, and 
pulling off from children the flannels which 
they have been long used to, has occasion- 
ed the tyorst consequences : a medium there- FAMILY ADVISER. 
fore is to be observed. Those who are in 
a good state of health should live chiefly on 
vegetables, what meat they do use should 
by all means be fresh ; but those who are 
weakly should not alter their food, so as to 
weaken themselves, but only choose such as 
they always should, viz. digestible mild food. 
This should be the management until the 
fever commences, when they should use 
■nothing but light spoon aliments, such as 
barley, gruel, panada, custard, jelly, &c.— 
Spirituous drinks should be altogether avoid- 
ed : at the time of the fever such drinks as the 
following may be taken more or less, in pro- 
portion to the height of the fever, viz. lemon- 
ade, cream of tartar dissolved in water and 
sweetened, jelly and water, apple-tea, made 
by pouring boiling water on undressed 
red-streaked apples, sliced very thin ; the 
drink to be sweetened ; these drinks, absti- 
nence, and vegetable food, with the direc- 
tions for keeping the patient cool, may be 
observed until the number of pocks and fa- 
vour of the disease be determined, after 
which they may be gradually relinquished; 
the exposure first, and then the others, and 
the proper habits returned to. 
The first week in May is probably the 
best time for inoculation,. in (he stales of 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; 
farther southward, April ; farther north- 
ward, the latter end of May : but avaricious 76 
PAMILY ADVISER. 
aims have been the cause of adopting an 
earlier season. It is upon the whole, in 
large towns, safest to inoculate before teeth- 
ing, but only because of the danger of taking 
it the natural way ; where that is not to be 
feared, then from the fifth to the twelfth year 
is far preferable ; if any thing be amiss, we 
can then stand some chance of rectifying it 
by suitable treatment, but with infants we 
can only deplore their state, when the com- 
plaint takes an unfavourable turn. 
Treatment. To those who are pretty 
hearty, or of a full habit, between the time 
of inoculation and fever, two doses of Glau- 
ber salts, or cream of tartar, sufficient to 
procure four or five stools and not more, 
may be given : but to those who are lean or 
wreakly, no purgatives should be given, only 
costiveness should be removed by a little 
cream of tartar, or the pills No, 6. If they 
have not a passage every day, this will be 
necessary ; or if they have a passage every 
day, and the stools should be hard and diffi- 
cultly passed, the pills, or a clyster of oil, 
sugar, milk, and a little scraped Castile 
soap, which is probably the best, is to be 
given. 
If at the commencement of the fever, the 
patient feels much oppression at the sto- 
mach, uneasiness and giddiness, it will be 
proper to administer an emetic of two grains 
of tartar emetic, dissolved in a cup of warm FAMILY ADVISER. 
77 
water, or of ten grains of ipccacuana ; at 
the same time he should have fresh air: when 
the fever has commenced, if it runs high, it 
will be proper to give a dose of salts, which 
may be taken at two or three portions : if 
this does not lessen the fever, take four 
grains of tartar emetic, and put them into a 
quart of apple or other tea ; three table- 
spoonfuls of this to be given every hour, till 
the eruption appears, keeping him cool with- 
al. If the eruption appears numerous, and the 
pulse be usually strong, a dose of salts will 
be of use, as it will bring many of the pim- 
ples to nothing; after this nothing more 
will be necessary, but to keep the bowels 
regular with small doses of any mild medi- 
cine. 
When the pocks have dried away, if any 
sore or undulatory motion of the muscles take 
place, a few pills of the following form may 
be given: calomel twelve grains, opium 
three grains, honey enough to form them into 
twelve pills, one of which may be taken 
night and morning. 
If the arm inflames much, pour cold water 
on it daily, for ten minutes together. 
N. B. All the above prescriptions of med- 
icine arc for grown person's. 78 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
THE CONFLUENT SMALL POX. 
SYMPTOMS. In this the fever is more 
violent than in the former, the pulse being 
quicker and more contracted ; a disposition 
to coma, or a deep drowsiness, is almost al- 
ways present with the incipient fever, and a 
delirium is a frequent symptom : infants are 
frequently attacked with tits in the first days : 
vomiting is here a common symptom : early 
in the third day, the pimples break out in 
clusters, and these are frequently preceded 
or accompanied with an efflorescence like 
St. Anthony’s fire. 
When the eruption is completed, it is 
found to be much more numerous in the face 
than on the body ; the pocks are less emi- 
nent ; at the end of the eruption the fever 
does not go off, but only remits, to increase 
with more violence, when the pocks have ac- 
quired their summit; this is called the se- 
condary fever : the pimples soon turn to 
vesicles filled with whitish or brown water, 
instead of yellow matter as in the distinct : 
the pocks are very irregular, and run into 
one another in many places, so as to form 
one large flat pock, covering almost the 
whole face; wherever there is any space be- 
tween them, it rs not florid, but pale and 
Shrivelled, FAMILY ADVISER. 
79 
The swelling of the face, that sometimes 
attends the distinct, is here always present at 
an earlier period, and rises to a greater 
height; the discharge of saliva is generally 
great about the same time; both subside 
about the tenth or eleventh day, counting 
from (he attack of the incipient fever. With 
infants a lax is common instead of a saliva- 
tion. 
The pocks over the body, though distinct, 
are generally flat, and upon the whole, there 
is a great tendency to putrefaction. 
The management of this should be much 
the same as that directed for the distinct, 
except that towards the latter end, when 
the patient grows weak, and symptoms of 
putridity prevail, then the patient should 
have for drink, sixty drops of elixir of vi- 
triol, to one pint of spirits and water, or 
wine and water, and a moderate degree of 
warmth should be kept up. Great atten- 
tion should be given to keep the room clean, 
sweet, and ventilated, as directed for the 
putrid fever. 
Treatment. When the symptoms appear 
as laid down, with considerable fever; give 
one sixth of a grain of tartar emetic in ap- 
ple-tea, or common drink of any kind, every 
hour. From the fifth day* onward, till the 
eruption be completed, give twenty drops of 
* The day is always reckoned from the attaok of 
the incipient fever.  FAMILY ADVISER. 
laudanum, every morning and nighl, taking 
care to remove (he costivencss it occasions, 
by giving cream of tartar, or castor oil daily, 
if necessary. When the secondary fever 
comes on, the same treatment with tartar 
emetic and laudanum should be used, until 
the symptoms of putrefaction and weak pulse 
take place, then all should be dropped, for 
bark and port wine, which may be given 
every hour, so that the patient may take a 
pint of wine and one ounce of bark from 
morning till bed time. 
From the eighth day to the eleventh, when 
the fever is violent, blisters should be laid on 
successively, without any respect to the 
pocks ; the wrist, thighs, back of the neck, 
and breast, are proper places; when the 
swelling in the throat threatens suffocation, 
a blister should be applied over the throat, 
and the throat gargled with a mixture of one 
drachm of elixir of vitriol, to half a pint of 
sage tea and a little honey ; or instead of 
this, with vinegar and water. 
If the fits, that usually attack children, 
happen but once or twice, nothing need be 
done but to keep them cool; but if they are 
frequent, they are likely to destroy the pa- 
tient ; then as large a dose of laudanum as 
the child can take, should be given. 
The bark, with (he vitriol and water, 
should be continued for a considerable lime FAMILY ADVISER. 
81 
after the disease, to strengthen the sys- 
tem, though it should be used in a less 
quantity. 
CHAP. XXVII. 
THE CHICKEN POX. 
THIS disorder appears to arise from a 
specific contagion in the air; like the small 
pox, it never returns. 
Symptoms. The patient is generally, for 
one or two nights, or nights and days, af- 
fected with fever, which almost always is 
slight; at no certain period, though perhaps 
always before the third day, the pocks ap- 
pear on the face, and over the body; they 
are never very numerous, though some- 
times pretty large. In the course of four 
days they are at their summit, when they 
are about the size of a large brister shot, 
and much of the same form, filled with yel- 
lowish or white water. They sometimes 
come out successively instead of a great 
many at once. 
Management. The patient should be 
kept cool, especially when in bed; light 
vegetable food, and cooling acid drinks, 
should be used. 
Treatment. If the fever be worthy at- 
tention, the bowels should be opened with a 
dose of cream of tartar or of salts, every day 
till it ceases, and the acid drinks given plen- 
tifully. FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XXVIII. 
THIS disorder arises from specific con- 
tagion, and never has been known to attack 
the same person twice. 
It usually makes its appearance about 
January, and again ceases at midsummer. 
Nevertheless, it is not altogether adherent 
to any particular times, for it continues 
throughout the year, though less extensively. 
Symptoms. It comes on like a common 
fever, with a cold stage succeeded by a hot 
one: a nausea, anxiety and vomiting, are 
pretty generally attendants. Sometimes at 
the beginning, the fever is sharp and violent, 
but before the eruption it is most generally 
so, which happens about the fourth day; 
with these a hoarseness, cough, difficult 
breathing, swelling of the eyelids, acrid dis- 
charges from the eyes and nose, with sneez- 
ing, take place : generally a drowsiness at- 
tends the beginning. The eruption appears 
first on the face in small points like flea- 
bites, which soon may be observed by sight 
or feeling, in clusters, spreading themselves 
over the whole body ; the face appears a 
little turgid during the first two days of the 
eruption ; after this the eruption changes its 
colour from a scarlet to a brown, and soon 
goes off very entirely, leaving a scurf. The 
THE MEASLES. FAMILY ADVISER, 
83 
fever sometimes goes off, when this desqua- 
mation takes place, but more commonly 
continues with the cough for some time after 
the disorder has gone through its stages, and 
not unfrequently the cough and difficulty of 
breathing increase towards the end, so as to 
mark an inflammation of the lungs. After 
the desquamation, a lax or sweating usually 
lakes place, and continues for some time. 
Management. The patient should avoid 
heat, but on the other hand, should not ex- 
pose himself so much to the cool air, as in 
the small pox. He should live on a low ve- 
getable diet, and cool acid demulcent drinks, 
such as flax-seed tea, with lemon juice : 
barley water boiled with prunes is also very 
good, especially for the cough. 
Treatment. If the fever that precedes 
the eruption is considerable, it will in. adult 
patients, be proper to bleed, but in children, 
a purge or two of salts will be generally suf- 
ficient. From the beginning, the drinks 
mentioned above and syrups may be given 
to allay the cough; but these are seldom 
sufficient; it will therefore be necessary, 
from the lime of the eruption, to give one 
tea spoonful of paregoric, twice a day, and 
two at night in common drink. This treat- 
ment and keeping the bowels open regular- 
ly, with gentle medicine, as salts and manna, 
in small doses, cream of tartar, castor oil, &c. 
should be continued in. When the desqua-  FAMILY ADVISER. 
mation or peeling of the skin takes place, if 
the difficulty of breathing mentioned in the 
description, comes on, with a strong pulse ; 
then the patient should be bled freely, and a 
blister laid afterwards on the side, as in a 
pleurisy, and with these, one of the powders 
No. 1. may be given every two hours, or if 
it be a child, a sufficient quantity of antimo- 
nial wine, to be taken at intervals of two 
hours : during such a state the paregoric 
should be omitted. If the patient is unable 
to bear bleeding, the case then cannot be 
very violent; then purging and blistering 
with the powders may be used : gentle ri- 
ding and bark are proper to restore the pa- 
tient when much reduced. 
CHAP. XXIX. 
THE SCARLET FEVER. 
THIS complaint cannot possibly be sep- 
arated from the putrid sore throat, as the 
affection of the throat, eruption of the skin, 
and low or putrid fever, which are the chief 
symptoms, are attendants on both : added 
to this, the same contagion will affect one 
person with what is judged to be the putrid 
sore throat, and another with the scarlatina. 
It is therefore probable that the scarlatina 
is only an affection of less magnitude, some- 
times owing to the lenity of the general con- 
tagion, and then causing scarlatina universal- FAMILY ADVISER. 
85 
ly, and at other times owing to the diversity 
of constitutions attacked.—Hence, for the 
cures, &c. I refer to what I have said of the 
putrid sore throat, Chap. xi. But it fre- 
quently happens that the scarlatina is so 
slight as to shew no putrid symptoms but 
rather inflammatory : then all that will be 
required will be a blister to the throat and 
keeping the bowels open with cream of tar- 
tar. 
CHAP. XXX. 
st. Anthony’s fire. 
CAUSES. A hereditary disposition there- 
o, or a peculiar delicacy of the membrane 
that suffers the inflammation ; passions of the 
mind, a sudden cooling of the body after 
being heated by the sun, spirituous liquors 
taken freely, hot drinks or hot baths, check- 
ed evacuations, moist air, and perspiration 
any how stopt, generally excite the disease 
in those predisposed. 
Symptoms. It commonly comes on with 
shivering and succeeding heat with fever: 
the pulse is generally quick, sometimes hard 
and full : a confusion of the head and some 
degree of delirium frequently attend, but a 
drowsiness almost always, which sometimes 
increases to a comatose state.—After these 
smyptoms have continued from one to three 
a redness most commonly on the face  PAiMILY ADVISER. 
appears, which increases with a swelling, 
that turns white upon pressing it with the 
finger. This goes on to increase, though it 
commonly abates in one part a little, to in- 
crease in another; in this manner it some- 
times extends all over the head, and swells 
the eye-lids, so as to produce temporary 
blindness. 
It is not an uncommon case for blisters to 
arise on the swelling, filled with yellow or 
whitish serum, which break after a while, 
and leave the part underneath blackish, and 
veryready to turn gangrenous ; the skin be- 
tween these blisters peels off; matter is 
sometimes discharged from the eye-lids : the 
inflammation and fever usually continue 
about ten days, and then go off; when the 
fever goes on violently, and the inflamma- 
tion extends, it is apt to produce an apo- 
plexy. 
These are the symptoms of a perfect dis- 
ease, but slighter affections arc not unfre- 
quent, even with little or no fever. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
cool, in proportion to the greatness of the 
fever; acid drinks and vegetable diet should 
be used throughout. 
Treatment. When the case agrees with 
what is laid down above, half a pint or more 
of blood should be taken away, which may 
be repeated, if the habit allow, and the pulse 
and inflammation require it: after bleeding. FAMILY ADVISER. 
cooling purgatives should be administered ; 
one ounce of Glauber salts may be divided 
into four parts, one of which should be given 
every two hours, mixing it with lemon juice, 
which covers the bad taste. 
This practice of administering salts may 
be followed for some days ; they not only 
open the bowels, but temperate the heat and 
fever; in slighter cases bleeding should 
be laid aside, and the medicines given as 
directed. 
Whenever there are any symptoms of pu- 
trefaction, as a low weak pulse, dark colour- 
ing of the tongue and mouth, acrid and black 
spots underneath where the blisters stood ; 
then all evacuations, (except keeping the 
bowels regular with a little rhubarb) should 
be laid aside, and twelve grains of columbo 
root given every hour 5 when this can be 
kept on the stomach well, and does not have 
sufficient effect, as much bark should be 
given, and the dose increased as necessity 
requires, or as it will sit on the patient: 
wine and water, and vitriol and water, made 
by putting two tea-spoonfuls of elixir of vi- 
triol to a pint of water, may be drank alter- 
nately and freely. 
The patient is almost always wanting 
some topical application, for this physicians 
have thought that meal sprinkled on the 
part, is the only proper application: this, 
wien the inflammation is considerable, sits 88 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
agreeably, and has some effect in softening 
the skin, and if sprinkled on very slightly 
when the blisters discharge, it dries up the 
humour; however patients are not content 
with it, therefore apply either of the follow- 
ing with a rag moistened in it: half a pint 
of strong tea of camomile flowers, or worm- 
wood tops, fifteen grains of white vitriol, 
and a tea-spoonful of laudanum or a strong 
solution of alum. 
Sometimes from neglect, the part suppu- 
rates ; then it should be poulticed with 
bread and milk till it is ripe, when it should 
be opened and dressed with lint spead with 
wax and oil melted together; this need on- 
ly be applied over the sore. 
Bark and vitriol, with fresh air, gentle 
exercise in a carriage in fair weather, will 
be proper to brace up the habit in the end. 
THE ESSERA, OR NETTLE RASH. 
CHAP. XXXI. 
THIS generally attacks those of a deli- 
cate constitution, especially such as have a 
fine skin, the excessive irritability of which 
appears to be a cause of the disease. 
From the above it would appear, that wo- 
men and children are the chief subjects of 
it; which is agreeable to observation. 
Symptoms. It usually comes on in the 
njgtit, producing great restlessness a,nd itch- FAMILY adviser. 
89 
iug. In the morning considerable red emi- 
nences are to be observed on some parts of 
the body, usually about the upper arms, 
neck, and breast ; their forms are irregular, 
some being like the stroke of a whip, others 
like the sting of a musqueto. It is not un- 
frequent for them to disappear in the course 
of the day, and return again at night i the 
time of continuance is various, as they some- 
times continue for a week, and sometimes 
for a year or more. 
They have never been known to have 
any dangerous effect; the itching being all 
that is disagreeable, which at times is so 
troublesome as to prevent sleep. 
Management. The patient should use 
exercise, bathing, and every proper means 
to remove such a delicacy of constitution. 
Cure. This has been too little attended 
to, or perhaps we should ere this have dis- 
covered some simple medicine that would 
remove it. 
I have seen mercury recommended, and 
in a few cases which I have treated, it was 
always attended with success, 
rjQwelve grains of calomel, and as many of 
sulphur of antimony, may be made into a 
dozen pills, one of which may be taken for 
six nights following, after which they may 
be used only twice a week ; if the patient’s 
gums become sore, they should be omitted : 
-dSlhiops mineral is also a proper medicine, 90 
FAMILY ADVISER* 
twenty grains may be used every other 
night for twenty days. 
Perhaps if common sulphur was tried ev- 
ery night, it would have an equally good 
effect. To guard against the returns of it, 
bark may be used; and some weeks after 
using the medicines ‘prescribed, the cold 
bath. 
CHAP. XXXII. 
BLEEDING AT THE NOSE 
THOUGH this complaint attends at any 
age, and may trouble any constitution, yet 
it does not make the disorder I mean to 
treat of, except when it attacks young peo- 
ple, and especially those who are full of 
blood. 
The animal osconorny finds it proper not 
to increase the different parts equally from 
the time of conception, but increases cer- 
tain parts successively; this increase is 
brought about by a determination of blood 
to these parts; hence the different periods 
of life, that we see fluxes of blood making 
their appearance may be easily accounted 
for ; and hence this complaint in the youth- 
ful, and the following complaint immediately 
after that period. 
It requires attention, or it will soon be 
accompanied with very disagreeable cir- 
cumstances. FAMILY ADVISER. 
Symptoms, A head-ach, redness of the 
eyes, florid countenance, and throbbing of 
the temporal arteries, usually precede for a 
while before the effusion, but immediately 
before it a fulness of the face, and itching 
at the nose take place; besides these, fre- 
quently more general symptoms are observ- 
able ; as costiveness, pale urine, coldness 
of the feet, and shivering: this is a descrip- 
tion which suits the most perfect state of the 
complaint. 
The quantity of blood discharged is va- 
rious 
Management. At the time the bleeding 
comes on, the patient should be placed in a 
stream of cold air, and be supported erect; 
he should avoid talking or blowing his nose. 
In the intervals he should avoid heat, 
stooping his head, or walking fast, more es- 
pecially after eating : his exercise should 
be gentle and constant, and this may be 
partly in riding and walking, and partly in 
the occupation of his business, if that be 
mechanical. The cold bath may be used 
daily, in which he may remain some time ; 
this has, besides a bracing property, a ten- 
dency to make the patient lean ; a little 
care should be used in the beginning; no 
cap should be worn on the head, to keep 
the water from that part. He should live 
upon a vegetable diet chiefly, and use cold 
water for his constant drink. 92 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
Cure. In beginning to treat the patient', 
if he has not already lost much blood, a 
few ounces may be taken from him, a little 
before the time of the bleedings coming on, 
and ever afterward a dose of salts may be 
used at the same time; and it may be ob- 
served in general, that it will be necessary 
to keep the bowels very regular. If after 
toe salts have been taken, the disposition 
is not removed, one of the fever powders. 
No. 1, may be used every two hours, for 
two days, and large quantities of lemon juice 
taken between each dose. 
When the bleeding comes on, it may be 
suffered to continue till six ounces have 
been discharged, provided the patient be 
full of blood, but if otherwise, it should be 
slopped immediately, by pouring cold water 
on his head, hands, and testicles, and by 
drinking cold water ; at the same time using 
dossils of lint, dipt in a strong solution of 
alum and water, or in any common astrin- 
gent, and applied up the nose : a piece of 
sponge is sometimes of service : a wrcak so- 
lution of blucstone has sometimes stopped 
the bleeding, after other things have failed. 
But in many cases neither of the above will 
answer, then the patient’s life is in danger, 
and the following simple method may be 
used by any common person, who has the 
least degree of presence of mind ; take a 
needleful of silk, wax it and tic to one end FAMILY ADVISER. 
93 
of it a dossil of well scraped lint, about as 
large as a thumb; get a piece of cat-gut 
string several inches long, grease it a little, 
push this cat-gut through the bleeding nos- 
tril into the mouth, till you observe it come 
out near the throat, lay hold of it with a pair 
of narrow pincers or forceps, or in their 
stead, with a dull pair of scissars, and draw 
it till you have both ends in your hands ; 
tie a knot in the end that you have drawn 
through, and to this knot fasten your silk 
and draw back the cat-gut till you have 
drawn the dossil of lint, against the orifice 
of the passage that leads into the throat, 
then you need only stop up the nostril with 
another dossil of lint, which will shut up the 
passage altogether, and hinder any more 
blood from coming out.—The lint should be 
kept in for three or four days. 
The cat-gut is only for the purpose of 
getting the silk through, which is too limber 
of itself: in pushing the cat-gut through, 
you are not to push it upwmrds, as the nos- 
trils apparently lead, but directly backwards, 
aiming at the upper part of the throat where 
it comes out: the nostrils turn at about half 
an inch after you have pushed it upwards. 
By the stated returns of this complaint, and 
the habit of the patient as well as by the 
quantity, you may easily distinguish it from 
what is termed, a passive flowing of blood 
from the nose. 94 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
In this complaint, the usual topical appli- 
cations for the other kind are sufficient; but 
with this the cold bath may be used, which 
is an effectual remedy, from my own expe- 
rience ; with this, or without it, tincture of 
iron No. 7. may be used. 
CHAP. XXXIII. 
SPITTING OF BLOOD* 
CAUSES. Besides the predisposition 
mentioned in the preceding chapter, we may 
consider, as exciting causes, suppressed 
evacuations, sudden changes of the air from 
heavy to lighter, violent efforts, compres- 
sion in different parts, &c. 
Symptoms. After some general disorder, 
as flatulency, chills, &c. a fulness is often 
felt about the chest. From the blood being 
poured out, an irritation is made, to relieve 
which, the patient hawks or coughs, by 
which means he discharges a little frothy, 
reddish, and somewhat saltish spittle: this 
sensation often returns again, and the spittle 
is thrown out of a deeper red.—ln this 
manner the patient usually discharges the 
blood for some hours or days, when it ceas- 
es for that period. But it sometimes hap- 
pens, that the rupture is more considerable, 
and the pure blood is discharged in such 
quantities, as to excite vomiting : in such a 
case the patient’s life Is in immediate dan- FAMILY ADVISER. 
95 
ger. A cough usually follows the bleed- 
ing, which returns sometimes every week, 
and so on at every period between that and 
a year. 
Management. This should be exactly as 
described for the preceding disorder, only 
that the cold bath should not be used, as we 
have not sufficient experience to recommend 
it, and the cold should be here very mode- 
rate, as when it is severe, it determines the 
blood to the lungs, which is to be avoided. 
Treatment. If the patient be able to bear 
it, blood should be taken away, though not 
in profusion. As soon as the bleeding takes 
place, this should be followed by a dose of 
Glauber salts. And ever afterwards when 
we apprehend from the symptoms before 
described, that the bleeding is about to re- 
turn, we should anticipate it by the repeti- 
tion of the salts, which I have seen attended 
with the best success. 
When the bleeding is copious, besides the 
management of exposing the patient to cool 
air, let him take a tea-spoonful of common, 
salt, and repeat it when necessary. This 
has been often effectual, and may be carried 
in the person’s pocket, when repeated small./ 
bleedings plague him, or ten'grains of alum 
every hour. In the intervals nitre should be 
given to reduce and cool the system, ten 
grains in flax-seed tea may be given three or 
four times a day ; after the commotion has  FAMILY ADVISER. 
ceased, the country air should be used.— 
It is sometimes necessary to take a tea- 
spoonful of paregoric elixir at night, in the 
morning, and at noon, to quell the -cough. 
CHAP. XXXIV. 
CONSUMPTION, 
CAUSES. A hereditary, natural, or ac- 
quired debility of the lungs, may be looked 
upon as causes of this fatal disorder: under 
such circumstances, almost any irritation 
upon those parts will establish the con- 
sumption; and it is somewhat doubtful if 
any cause will do the same, without the pre- 
disposition. 
Symptoms. Cough, pain about the breast, 
spitting of nauseous matter at all times of 
the day, which is sometimes streaked with 
blood ; a fever which comes on at noon, fre- 
quently with shivering, and almost always 
with coldness, which remits towards the af- 
ternoon, to exacerbate or renew its violence 
at night, continuing with the other affections, 
and after a while being followed in its 
second fit towards morning with a copious 
sweat. 
The pulse in this fever, which is a hectic, 
is quick and most generally weak, though in 
its first attack some degree of hardness is to 
be felt. The fever is always kindled by 
taking much food at a time. Towards the FAMILY ADVISER. 
97 
end of the consumption a lax takes place 
which generally carries oft' the patient. 
Management. The patient should live 
upon a light digestible diet; milk, vegeta- 
bles, spoon-meats, puddings, pies, &c. are 
proper ; these should be taken in small 
quantities at a time, and used the oftener, 
on that account. The teas and drinks pre- 
scribed for fevers are the proper drinks to 
be used. 
Exercise in a carriage or sailing, are al- 
most indispensibly necessary ; the country 
air is so far preferable to the town, that the 
former will sometimes alone perfect a cure, 
and the latter resist every means. Cold 
should be guarded against, and for this as 
well as other reasons, a flannel shirt should 
be worn. 
Cure. If the patient is not low and thin, 
he should be bled every week for three or 
four times, taking away about a quarter of 
a pint of blood each time, till all signs of 
increased action or hardness are gone from 
the pulse ; if they give way at the first 
bleeding no more is to be used. After this, 
or when this is not allowable, eight grains 
of ipecacuana should be given every four 
days, or as many times as they appear to 
be beneficial; when this has been done, the 
patient should take twenty drops of elixir of 
vitriol, early in the morning, at ten o’clock, 
and again after the noon fever has abated. 98 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
and before the evening one has come on.— 
To allay the cough take two ounces of pare- 
goric, two grains of tartar emetic, or when 
tartar does not agree, two ounces of the 
spirits of nitre dulcified : two small tea- 
spoonfuls may be used at night, and half that 
quantity taken at any lime in the day when 
it. is troublesome. When the pain in the 
breast is considerable, blisters may be used ; 
a seton should be put in the side in the be- 
ginning. 
The bowels should be kept regular, with 
small doses of castor oil, sulphur, magnesia, 
or cream of tartar. 
The above prescriptions, although the 
best and simplest that can be recommended, 
frequently fail, and when the disease threat- 
ens to resist them, a sea voyage should be 
recommended as the only refuge. 
It is not unfrequent that the consumption 
is combined with other affections, then we 
must have regard to these affections, or no 
cure can be expected. But such cases are 
so complex, that they require the judgment 
of an able physician. FAMILY ADVISER 
99 
CHAP. XXXV. 
A LAXITY of the gut, affected, natural, 
or acquired, /disposes to this complaint, so 
much that slight causes bring it about. 
The following are found to be the usual 
causes, viz, much walking or riding, cos- 
tiveness, long continuance in an erect pos- 
ture, strong purges, suppressed, natural or 
artificial evacuations ; falling down of the 
gut, drinking large quantities of watery li- 
quors, grief, obstruction of the liver, preg- 
nancy, high living, &c. 
Symptoms, The symptoms of this disease 
being not always alike, have made some va- 
riety and distinction of it. Thus there is 
the blind piles, when the tumour is not visi- 
ble ; the common piles, when tumours ap- 
pear without bleeding ; and the bleeding 
piles, when they discharge blood. Howev- 
er, there are general symptoms which are 
common to all 5 as, a pain and swimming in 
the head, stupor, sick stomach with pains in 
the bowels and back, which frequently pre- 
cede, and in some cases a fever also: a 
sense of fulness and itching are the local 
symptoms: these are soon relieved in the 
bleeding piles, when that takes place, and 
frequently the establishment of the tumour. 
THE PILES. 100 
FAMILY ADVISER, 
is attended with an alleviation of the syrup- 
toms. 
Sometimes blood only comes away with 
the stools ; but at other times a considerable 
constant discharge alarms the patient. This 
affection is apt to return at stated intervals, 
and to increase. 
Management. All the causes as far as 
possible are to be avoided, and temperance 
is strictly to be observed by the plethoric ; 
light vegetable food, and cool acid drinks 
are propel during the affection. Much at- 
tention should be given to regularity, and 
especially in keeping the bowels in a pro- 
per state. In lean patients a flannel shirt is 
often necessary. 
Cure. It is frequently the case, that this 
discharge is salutary, and therefore a doubt 
arises in the minds of some people, about 
administering medicines to check it.' Hence, 
whenever the discharge is small, and attend- 
ed with benefit, nothing need be done to 
check it ; but whenever it is profuse, it then 
threatens a greater injury than it is likely to 
relieve ; then, as well as when it returns 
often, it should be checked by applying 
cloths dipped in cold water or vinegar to 
the neck, hands, thighs, and to the part it- 
self; if this does not relieve it, dip a sponge 
in alum and water, or in a decoction of 
galls, and apply it to the part, and if neces- 
sary, give twelve grains of ipecacuana in a FAMILY ADVISER. 
101 
little water immediately. When nothing 
but tumours are present, and they are pain- 
ful or large, wash them with the following 
wash : to half a pint of lead-water add two 
lea-spoonfuls of laudanum. 
This may be used three or four times a 
day. Open the bowels in all cases with 
sulphur, or sulphur and cream of tartar mix- 
ed in equal quantities with honey; two tea- 
spoonfuls may be taken eyery two hours: 
in slight cases this is frequently sufficient 
alone. 
CHAP. XXXVI. 
CAUSES. High living, excess in drink 
and venery, shocks from falls, dancing, pas- 
sions, neglecting abstinence in the time of 
menstruating, inflammatory fevers, other 
evacuations checked, costiveness, cold ap- 
plied to (he feet, frequent miscarriages, dif- 
ficult labours, neglecting to nurse, living too 
warm, drinking much tea or coffee, purg- 
ing, &c. 
Symptoms. An immoderate flowing is 
usually preceded by head-ach, giddiness, 
and difficult breathing, a shuddering imme- 
diately precedes the discharge, with this al- 
so a pain in the back, and feverishness fre- 
quently attend. 
IMMODERATE PLOWING OF THE MENSES. 102 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
After a large discharge, a general debili- 
ty ensues; the pulse becomes weak, the 
stomach sick, respiration difficult upon the 
least motion; the feet cold and swoln, es- 
pecially towards evening, when a fever 
takes place of the hectic kind. Palpita- 
tions, fainting, fearfulness are not uncom- 
mon symptoms : the whites frequently fol- 
low. 
The above symptoms take place more or 
less, sooner or later, according to the pro- 
fusencss and repetition of the discharge. 
Management. The causes of this com- 
plaint discover to us, that it may take place 
in two states of the system, one when it is 
overloaded or plethoric, the other when it is 
debilitated; each of which require separate 
management. 
In the former case, cold, abstinence, and 
cool drinks should be used with vegetable 
diet in the intervals: in the latter good 
nourishing food, port wine, and exercise are 
to be used. In all cases the causes are to 
be removed or obviated ; motion in time of 
flowing is to be strictly avoided. 
Cure. In the intervals the management 
prescribed will be sufficient. 
In the period, the patient should be kept 
cool ; ten grains of alum may be given every 
half hour ; sponges dipped in cool vinegar 
may be applied to the small of the back, and 
to the parts, and if this does not answer, FAMILY ADVISER, 
103 
len grains of ipecacuana may be given m a 
little water; after this give ten drops of • 
elixir of vitriol every hour: to correct the 
laxity that succeeds, ten grains of rust of 
iron may be taken four times a-day aod in 
cases of much debility, the Peruvian bark 
also. 
When the menses return more frequently 
or flow more plentifully than natural, the pa- 
tient should be on her guard, look for the 
causes and obviate them. 
CHAP. XXXVII. 
SYMPTOMS. A discharge of whitish 
mucus flows instead of the menses, or after 
them, and continues longer and longer, till 
it becomes pretty constant. 
Treatment. As when this case takes 
place, debility is generally present, a nour- 
ishing diet may be used, with port wine and 
water, more or less in proportion to the de- 
bility, and gentle regular exercise. 
Cure. The steel, as recommended above, 
is one of the best remedies ; with this, topic- 
al applications should be made with a sy- 
ringe. Decoction of Peruvian bark, oak- 
bark, or galls are proper. 
THE WHITES. 104 
FAMILY ADVISE*, 
CHAP. XXXVIII. 
CAUSES. Cold is one of the most com- 
mon causes, either when applied to the bo- 
dy during menstruation, or when it has at a 
preceding time brought on the complaint 
called a cold ; diseases of much pain or ac- 
tion in other parts, debility, excessive evac- 
uations, low passions of the mind, are also 
causes. 
OBSTRUCTED MENSES. 
As the disorder is so well marked, I need 
not mention the symptoms that ensue in those 
who have once had the menses, but shall 
confine myself to the symptoms that take 
place in girls who have never had them, al- 
though they have passed over the proper 
time. This is called properly a retention of 
the menses. 
The patient after the age of thirteen, but 
how long after is uncertain, is affected with 
a loss of appetite, sluggishness, lassitude 
and debility ; the countenance becomes pale 
or swarthy, and the body universally flaccid, 
the legs swell, especially at night, and the 
belly sometimes swells also, whilst pains af- 
fect the head, back, and other parts ; respi- 
ration is generally laborious. 
Management, It is clear that neither the 
management nor the cure can be conducted 
on a single plan : In the plethoric, and thpsc FAMILY ADVISER. 
105 
who have cold as a cause, low diet should be 
prescribed, with thin drinks, cool air, and 
rest ; but in those emaciated, nourishing 
food, wine and exercise should be strenuous- 
ly enforced. 
Cure. In those of the former case, that 
is, those who are full of blood, or have much 
remaining strength, perhaps nothing will re- 
lieve sooner than blood letting ; with this 
salts may be used, and if the menses do not 
return at the usual period, at that very junc- 
ture let the patient take four grains of calo- 
mel, and as many of aloes, in a little honey, 
and repeat the dose next night if necessary. 
Those who are emaciated, or have a reten- 
tion, should take ten grains of steel every 
six hours, and a couple of doses of bark 
daily, till the period arrives ; and then, if 
necessary, take the boluses as directed,— 
A decoction of madder has been often used 
with success. 
CHAP. XXXIX. 
CAUSES. Obstructed menses, and other 
evacuation suppressed ; enlargement of the 
spleen or liver, erosions of the stomach 
by poisons, small glass, &c. and violent 
straining to vomit. 
Symptoms. Some pain about the stomach-, 
VOMITING OF BLOOD. 106 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
anxiety and vomiting of black grurnous 
blood, without coughing. 
Management. The patient who is sub- 
ject to this, should live regularly and abste- 
miously, and endeavour by every means to 
counteract such causes as admit of assist- 
ance, and use proper medicines for the same 
purpose. In time of a discharge, the patient 
should retire from all close places, into cool 
and fresh air. 
Cure. Whatever may be the cause, we 
are to use the same means to stop an excess- 
ive discharge. Besides the treatment men- 
tioned before, we may use gentle astringent 
medicines, as ten grains of alum dissolved in 
in water, every half hour, till the vomiting 
has ceased some time ; after which a decoc- 
tion of oak-bark may be used for some days, 
in the same quantity, and made in the same 
manner as the decoction of No. 3. 
When an enlargement of the spleen or liv- 
er is the cause, little hope remains of a cure ; 
but the patient should not neglect to try the 
Virginia sulphur springs, which are very 
powerful deobstruents. When suppressed 
evacuations are the cause, the means direct- 
ed for them should be administered ; when 
acrids have been taken into the stomach, 
they should be changed if possible, by their 
proper antidotes, or enveloped in some mild 
mucilage, as mucilage of gum arabic, or in FAMILY ADVISER. 
107 
oil, or syrups. When vomiting is the cause 
a few drops of laudanum in mint water, will 
put a stop to it. 
CHAP. XL. 
DISCHARGE OP BLOOD PROM THE URINARY 
CAUSES. The passage of a stone, hard 
riding, blows on the small of the back, sup- 
pression of the piles, acrid medicines, as can- 
tharides taken internally, or absorbed from 
a blister, or some putrid diseases, as the con- 
fluent small pox. 
Symptoms. A quantity of red or coffee co- 
loured blackish urine is discharged, some- 
times with pieces of clotted blood, like a 
worm, sometimes the blood is diffused through 
the urine, and remains so : at other times it; 
is deposited in the bottom of the pot; some- 
times much pain attends, as when a stone is 
passing along the ureters, at other times there 
is none. 
PASSAGE, 
Management. The patient is to be advis- 
ed to lay in a reclined posture, and to avoid 
all stimulating meats and drinks ; the causes 
are to be removed, before a cure can be ex- 
pected. Barley, rice, panada, gruel, pud- 
dings, and things of this sort, are to be his 
nourishment. 
Cure. A plenty of, mucilaginous drinks 
Zvc to be used, as barley water, flax-seed tea, 108 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
mucilage of gum arabic, mallows tea, &c. 
and if the discharge continues, alum whey 
may be used. In the case of putrid diseas- 
es, vitriol and bark are to be administered 
freely. 
CHAP. XLI. 
COLD. 
CAUSE. Cold applied partially or gen- 
erally to the body, especially after an in- 
crease of heat. 
Symptoms. It frequently makes its ap- 
pearance with a difficulty of breathing thro7 
the nostrils, a sense of fulness and stoppage 
there ; this is followed by a pain in the fore- 
head, stiffness and redness of the eyes and 
discharge from the nose. When the affec- 
tion is any worse, the patient is subject to 
chills and feverishness, which is considera- 
ble towards evening, a hoarseness, sore 
throat, cough, flying or fixed pains of differ- 
ent parts, and not unfrequently some difficul- 
ty of respiring. 
The cough in the beginning is usually dry, 
but as the other symptoms give Avay, it be- 
comes moist, more easy, and attended with 
a discharge of whitish or yellow mucus, 
which is most frequent; this goes off at dif- 
ferent periods, according to the patient’s age> 
glate, &c. FAMILY ADVISER* 
109 
Management. The patient should con* 
fine himself to the house, in a temperate 
room, and live upon vegetables and cool acid 
mucilaginous drinks, as barley water or 
flaxseed tea sweetened, and acidulated with 
lemon juice or vinegar. 
Cure. If the feverishness and difficulty of 
breathing are considerable, bleeding should 
not be omitted ; with or without this, a dose 
of salts should be taken, after ivhich sweat- 
ing should be practised ; one of the powders 
No. I. may be given every hour, washing it 
down with warm whey or tea ; or instead of 
these, ten drops of antimonial wine, and as 
many of paregoric every half hour for eight 
or ten times. The latter is a good medicine 
to take every night to lull the cough, for this 
purpose, thirty drops of the wine, and sixty 
of the elixir may be taken, when the patient 
is disposed to rest. 
If pains remain in the head, a blister to 
the temples is the surest relief; if in the 
limbs a tea-spoonful of the volatile or sim- 
ple tincture of guaiacum may be taken two 
or three times a day, in a little water.— 
Riding in good weather, or sailing, is of 
great service as soon as the patient can go 
about. 119 
FAMILY ADVISER, 
CHAP. XLII. 
INFLUENZA. 
THE cause of this is a specific conta- 
gion, proceeding from some very general 
alteration in the air. There is no doubt of 
its being communicated from one person to 
another. 
Symptoms. The most common symptoms 
are those of the common cold described 
above, attacking a whole town or neighbour- 
hood at once. But that is not its constant 
form ; for sometimes it puts on the appear- 
ance of a pleurisy, with'a strong pulse, at oth- 
er times a pain in the side with a weak pulse, 
whilst in a third case if has produced all the 
symptoms of a low nervous fever. 
Management. This is in general to be di- 
rected as in the common coid: but when it 
has the form of a low fever, wine and water 
should be the constant drink. 
Cure. In some of the most violent cases, 
especially when the patient’s habit has been 
full, it has been necessary and useful to bleed, 
and blister the pained part •, this latter need 
never be neglected, where the pain is fixed. 
Vomits of ipecacuana, antimonial wine, or 
tartar, are always serviceable, and interrupt 
the disorder sooner than any other medicine. 
Gentle sweating with whey, and a little an- 
timonial wine, is never to be neglected. FAMILY ADVISER. 
Ill 
This is to be used after vomiting, when that 
is intended. 
The bowels should be kept regular by 
small doses of castor oil, Glauber salts, cream 
of tartar or jalap. When the cough is trou- 
blesome syrup of squills may be used, one 
tea-spoonful every three hours; or what in 
some cases answers better, the following 
mixture : paregoric elixir one tea-spoonful, 
antimonial wine twenty drops ; this may be 
taken twice or three times in the course of a 
day. Honey and vinegar boiled together 
spermaceti and loaf sugar, extract of liquo- 
rice, &c. are frequently useful to take in the 
mouth every quarter of an hour. 
In the case of a low fever, wine and bark 
are to be given freely, after giving a gentle 
dose of ipecacuana. If the stomach refuses 
bark, elixir of vitriol is to be used in its 
stead, ten or fifteen drops every hour. 
Riding or sailing is here as useful as in 
the former case. 
CHAP. XLIII. 
SYMPTOMS. Sometimes a fever makes 
the attack, at other limes the bowels are pri- 
marily affected ; first, with costiveness and 
flatulency, then with gripes and frequent 
painful efforts to stool, when nothing of a 
FLUX. 112 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
natural sort is discharged, but slime of a 
whitish, bloody, or blackish colour, in con- 
siderable quantities. 
In some few instances a lax has preceded. 
Whatever is voided of the natural kind, is 
generally in small hard balls. 
The stomach in general is disordered, and 
that from the beginning ; but it goes off as 
the complaint proceeds downwards, which 
it generally does, till all is fixed in the lower 
end of the last gut, where it produces that 
troublesome effort of it, called tenesmus.— 
The feverish symptoms continue a consid- 
erable time, remitting and then acceding 
again. 
Whenever the disease takes a putrid turn, 
which it is apt to do, it may be known by 
the feetor and blackness of the discharges, 
a lowness of the pulse and general debility. 
Management. Great attention should be 
paid to cleanliness, by removing the cham- 
ber furniture, and shifting the bed clothes 
often ; the patient Should live upon digesti- 
ble vegetables, as rice, barley, &c. and 
milk preparations, as thickened milk, light 
puddings, chicken wrater, and light broths 
may also be used, if the patient is fond of 
them. And for drinks, teas, jelly and water, 
and apple water; which may be taken milk 
warm. 
Cure. To procure regular natural stools, 
is half the cure ; for w'hich purpose a table- spoonful of castor oil is to be given every 
hour, till it produces that effect; this may be 
repeated every other day, for several times, 
as the patient may require ; after this, if the 
patient is very sick, eight grains of ipeCa- 
cuana may be given ; after which two grains 
of ipeeacuana may be adminstered every 
two hours, so as not to interfere with taking 
the oil, as long as the fever lasts. After the 
use of these medicines for some time, lauda- 
num may be given to relieve the pain, fifteen 
drops morning and night, mixed up with two 
grains of ipeeacuana. 
If the above medicines are not handy, or 
if there is any objection to them, the follow- 
ing may be used; a dose of salts and manna, 
once or twice in the beginning, after which, 
put two grains of tartar emetic, or a table- 
spoonful of antimonial wine in a quart of 
apple tea, and take it in small quantities, 
every quarter of an hour, so as to consume 
the whole in a day; after taking it till the 
fever is removed, then use the laudanum. 
When the complaint has a putrid turn, as 
well as to remove the debility after a com- 
mon case, twelve grains of colurnbo root 
should be taken every two or three hours. 
If the disease leaves a looseness, a decoc- 
tion of logwood ortormentil should be used. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 114 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XLIV, 
THIS disorder most commonly attacks 
the aged, such as have large heads, short 
necks, corpulent habits, and indolent dispo- 
sitions, who have fed high and used much 
strong drink. If, in addition to these, they 
have had a suppression of any evacuation, 
as the piles, they can scarce expect to es- 
cape an apoplexy. 
Symptoms. Sometimes a head-ach and 
swimming of the eyes, with other affections 
of the head precede ; at other times, it sud- 
denly attacks the patient as he reclines his 
head, or makes some effort, with a loss of 
internal and external sense, and almost total 
deprivation of voluntary motion. The pa- 
tient’s face often becomes flushed and swoln, 
his eyes red, his pulse full and slow, his 
breathing somewhat difficult, with snoring. 
The time that this state lasts, is uncer- 
tain ; sometimes the patient comes to his 
senses in a few hours, with a vomiting and 
swreat, at other times he lays days, and fre- 
quently never recovers. 
Management. The patient should be laid 
on a bed with his head raised as high as it 
conveniently can be: his neckcloth should be 
stripped oft', and he should be placed in a 
cool room. If the fit continues long, a little 
APOPLEXY. 115 
water may be poured down his throat, if pos- 
sible, twice or three times a day; when he is 
on the recovery, his diet should be as light 
as possible. 
There are some cases which may be term- 
ed apoplexy, which demand treatment only 
from the surgeon, as when it depends upon a 
fracture of the skull. 
FASIILY ADVISER 
Cure. The patient should be bled as 
freely as his constitution will allow: this 
may be done at different times rather than 
at once. After bleeding, a clyster of Cas- 
tile soap, dissolved in water should be given, 
one drachm of soap to a pint of water, or 
instead of that, two table-spoonfuls of anti- 
monial wine in as much water. These may 
be used every six hours, for several times. 
If these do not bring him to himself, a 
large blister should be applied to the back of 
his neck, and sinapisms made of mustard, 
vinegar, and crumbs of bread, applied to 
the soles of his feet. As soon as the pa- 
tient is able to swallow a pill, six grains of 
aloes, and as much soap made into a bolus 
or pills, should be given him every day, so 
as to keep his bowels in regular motion. 
Gentle exercise should soon be used, and 
increased till the patient is perfectly well : 
proper exercise and abstinence are the only 
securities against a return. When the dis- 
order ends in a palsy, which it sometimes 116 
does, the cure directed for palsy is to be fol- 
lowed. 
Lethargy and Coma, which are species 
of this disorder, are to be treated in the 
same way, having respect to the degree of 
the disorder and the patient’s habit, and 
directing the evacuations in proportion to 
them. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. XLV. 
PALSY. 
CAUSES, Compression of a nerve in 
its origin or course, certain narcotics taken 
internally, exhalations from lead and arsenic 
in their preparations, excessive venery, old 
age, &c. 
Symptoms. A loss of sensation or ability 
of motion in the part affected, which is some- 
times one half of the patient, as the right 
side, or from the hips downwards ; at other 
times, only a small part is affected, as the 
hand, the arm, the leg. 
Management. This is to be according to 
the patient’s habit: If he is full, a low diet 
is to be used; if he is low, a stimulating diet 
and spirituous drinks should be used. The 
causes are, if possible to be removed. 
Cure, In full habits it is often necessary 
to purge with jalap, or aloes, and some- 
times even to let blood: wdicn these have 
been used, and likewise when they have not FAMILY ADVISER. 
117 
been necessary, stimulating medicines are to 
be used. A table-spoonful of mustard-seed 
may be the first, which will give the patient 
a gentle vomiting: after this, any of the fol- 
lowing may be tried, as tney may best suit: 
from one to two tea-spoonfuls of volatile 
tincture of guaiacum in water, three times 
a day ; or ten drops of tincture of cantha- 
rides, three times a day in broth or muci- 
lage ; ten drops of spirit of turpentine in 
honey, three times a day ; infusions of horse 
radish and mustard ; electricity ; frictions ; 
external applications of spirit of sal ammo- 
nic and oil; applications of flies, made by 
putting a lump of blister plaister to twice as 
much common wax and oil plaister; and 
lastly, by drinking the water of Berkley 
springs, which is probably as effectual as 
any. 
CHAP. XLVI. 
CAUSES. Excessive exertions, heat, 
large evacuations, excessive passions, as 
fear, anger, joy, &c. suddenly depriving the 
body of any compression, distension, or 
pain, that it has been for some lime accus- 
tomed to, violent pain, affections of the 
stomach, disagreeable smells, sights, &c. 
Symptoms. Sometimes a langour, an anx- 
iety, a giddiness and dimness precede ; at 
FAINTING.  FAMILY ADVISER. 
other limes the fainting comes on suddenly ; 
the patient turns pale, and sinks away, ap- 
pears dead; the pulse being either imper- 
ceptible, or very low ; the breathing in the 
same state. 
A cold sweat often breaks out, and stands 
in drops upon the patient’s forehead, which 
is as cold as a corpse. After lying a few 
minutes in that state, the patient, begins to 
recover, and vomits, or is sick at the sto- 
mach. 
Management, The patient should be laid 
out on a hard bed, in a stream of cool air. 
If the cause requires attention, it is to be re- 
moved as quick as possible. 
Cure. The patient should have his face 
sprinkled with cold water, and his hands, 
arms, and legs rubbed in the direction of 
the circulation, that is, towards the heart. 
Hartshorn should be applied to the nose and 
temples, and twenty or thirty drops given 
internally. As soon as the patient begins 
to recover, a little good wine should be giv- 
en him, and if much debility remains after- 
wards, it should be removed by bark. 
CHAP. XLVII. 
OYSPEPSY, OR CONFIRMED INDIGESTION. 
CAUSES. The large use of coftee, tea, 
or any warm watery drinks; of tobacco, 
ardent spirits, opium, bitters, spices and acids; putrescent food, over eating, frequent 
unnecessary vomiting or purging ; some dis- 
orders, as intermittent fevers, fluxes, &c.— 
And indolent life, much application of mind, 
excessive venery, long exposure, without 
exercise, to cold moist air. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
Symptoms. The great variety of symp- 
toms in this affection together with the caus- 
es, is the reason that no two persons are iden- 
tically alike affected ; but nevertheless, the 
general or fundamental symptoms are al- 
ways alike ; these I shall set down ; a loss 
of appetite, distension of the stomach with 
wind, eructations after eating especially, 
heart-burns, sometimes a vomiting, frequent 
pains about the stomach, and often a deject- 
ed mind. 
Management. Avoid all the causes, use 
the most digestible meat in small quantities 
at a time, avoid all flatulent vegetables, use 
wine and water, brandy and water, or por- 
ter, if it will sit well on the stomach ; use 
gentle, constant, and varied exercise, taking 
care to avoid exposure in cold or damp 
weather. 
Cure. This is either palliative or radi- 
cal ; the latter is not to be expected in a 
short time, nor at all unless with great atten- 
tion. 
The palliative consists in removing the 
present disagreeable feelings from time to 
time. FAMILY ADVISER. 
The most troublesome 'ymptoms are the 
wind and acid on the stomach, and the cos- 
tiveness ; for the wind and acid, a little 
magnesia, chalk, or lime water, with some 
essence of mint, should be taken occasion- 
ally. 
For the costiveness, the patient should be 
provided with a box of pills made with jalap 
or rhubarb : or with extract of white walnut 
bark, these may be taken occasionally ; rid- 
ing over agrcable country seats is one of the 
most effectual remedies against a dejected 
mind. 
For the radical cure, we are to attempt 
the removal of the debility in the fibres of 
the stomach; for which purpose the waters 
of Berkley springs, or of any chalybeate 
springs, are the most promising ; when these 
cannot be used, any of the following medi- 
cines may be used, as shall best suit. Half 
a wine glass full three times a day, of the 
tincture No. 7, or two tea-spoonfuls of No. 8, 
in a little water, or in spirit and water, three 
limes a day; or twelve grains of columbo 
root three or four times a-day ; or a table? 
spoonful of the tincture ofbark. No. 4. three 
times a day. FAMILY ADVISER. 
121 
CHAP. XLVIII. 
CAUSES. Sudden application of cold 
to the body when warm and much relaxed ; 
lacerations of the tendons or nerves of the 
foot, and of some other parts ; exposure of 
the muscles to the air, after the skin has 
been taken off by a gangrene or otherwise. 
Sy/i<ptoms. A stiffness of the lower jaw, 
and pains about the breast and back, gene- 
rally precede, and increase till the jaw be- 
comes firmly closed, and the muscles of the 
back, or of the fore parts, are violently con- 
stricted so as to bend the patient into a 
bow ; after this state has continued for some 
time, he is seized with convulsions, in 
which he is generally carried off. 
Management. If any substance is lodg- 
ed in the part primarily affected, it should 
be removed immediately : the patient should 
be kept warm, and feel upon such food as 
can be got down. In some cases it would 
be advisable to draw a lower tooth, to make 
a passage for the food : wine and water is 
the most proper drink. 
Cure. It will be proper to remove a toe, 
or any small part, if that be the place of the 
wound, and to dress this, or whatever part 
may be hurl, with a strong suppurating 
salve, as basilicon, (which is composed of 
LOCKED JAW.  FAMILY ADVISER. 
rosin and wax, with a sufficiency of oil to 
soften it) having first sprinkled it with red 
precipitate ; or if these things are not to be 
had, a little warm oil of turpentine. 
The patient’s bowels should be opened 
with castor oil, or with jalap, and kept 
open ; after this he should have one drachm 
of strong mercurial ointment rubbed into his 
thighs and arms, morning, noon, and night, 
till he spits freely ; after this it may be 
used every other day, so as just to keep up 
a spitting for a week or more, if the symp- 
toms continue, A pill of one grain of opium 
may be given frequently to ease the pain. 
If the patient grows weak, he should take 
the bark as frequently as he possibly can, 
and in as great quantities as his stomach 
will bear, without raising his pulse too 
much. It will be proper to continue the 
medicines in smaller quantities, for some 
time after the affection has gone off. 
If the sore is brought in the beginning to 
suppurate, the locked jaw need not be fear- 
ed. 
CHAP. XLIX. 
EPILEPSY, OR COMMON FITS. 
CAUSES. Wounds, and bony protuber- 
ances of the skull: ossification of the mem- 
branes of the brain ; acrimony of the fluids 
from contagion, degeneracy, &c. passions, FAMILY ADVISER. 
123 
as anger, fear ; strong imagination of disa- 
greeable objects, and the sight of such, con- 
gestions of blood in the brain, produced by 
a plethoric state, by long continued sun heat 
on the head; by intoxication, surfeit, &c. 
irritations proceeding from worms : teeth- 
ing ; splinters in the flesh ; fractured bones ; 
stones in the kidney ; the matter of ulcers ; 
poisons, &c. and lastly, large evacuations 
of blood. 
It will readily appear that many of the 
above causes do not produce fits generally; 
and hence there must be a predisposition in 
those in whom they will occasion them.— 
A predisposition consists either in a great 
mobility of the muscular system, or in a re- 
laxed state of the vessels of the brain, which 
allows of their being easily forced beyond 
their power, and admitting of congestion. 
Symptoms. Sometimes the patient feels 
indisposed for some time before the attack, 
with head ach, giddiness, fulness of the head, 
sluggishness, &c. at other times the fit at- 
tacks without warning; the person falls 
down and is variously agitated, sometimes 
one side more than the other ; his longue is 
often thrust out of his mouth, and by that 
means is bit almost or quite through : after 
continuing some minutes in this state, his 
convulsions cease, and he lies some time in 
a sleepy state, and then returns to himself, 
not knowing what has passed. 124 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
Management, It will be proper to hold 
the patient, so as to keep him from hurting 
himself, and to put a piece of thick leather 
between his teeth, to keep him from injuring 
his tongue. It is seldom or never necessa- 
ry to prescribe any diet for the patient, ex- 
cept in the intervals, when it is to be suited 
to his state. If fulness is the cause of the 
fits, or he is of a full habit, a low vegetable 
diet, with hard exercise, should be used; 
but for a contrary state, a nourishing diet 
and constant gentle exercise is to be used. 
The causes should, if possible, be removed 
by operations or medicines suited to the 
cause. 
Cure, In full habits, a bleeding will be 
proper during the fit, or preceding it.— 
However, if they frequently return, it will 
not do to bleed every time, but give a dose 
of salts in its stead, at the time the patient 
expects the return. Besides this, very little 
can be done, except to adhere strictly to the 
management directed, and to have an issue 
put in the back of the neck. 
In those of thin habits, when several fits 
return quickly after one and the other, that 
is in one day, it will be proper to give twen- 
ty drops of laudanum ; to have him bathed 
in warm water, and a warm milk and water 
clyster injected two or three times a day. 
All this may be repeated if necessary, m 
six or eight hours after. TAMIL* ADVISER. 
125 
But the chief thing consists in removing 
the mobility or irritability mentioned in the 
cause. For this, bark, steel, and the cold 
bath are proper: they should be used a 
long while, with proper exercise and diet. 
In fits proceeding from some of the above 
causes, as from irritations, the removal of 
the cause is all that is required. But it is 
lamentable that some of the causes cannot 
be removed; as that from bony protube- 
rances into the brain, &c. for such there is 
no remedy. But it is very p>robable, that 
the number of fits will be greatly lessened 
by temperance, and avoiding extremes on 
either hand. 
CHAP. L. 
ST. VITUS’S DANCE. 
THIS is a convulsive affection, partly 
under the influence of the will : it affects the 
patient’s leg, or arm, or both. It makes him 
limp along, and in taking a cup of wmter, 
or applying it to his mouth, he usually per- 
forms some uncommon gestures, carrying it 
quickly one way and then another, before 
he gets it to his mouth. It is apt to termi- 
nate in palsy. Children from eight to 
twelve are the subjects of it. 
Cure, The patient should live sparingly, 
and be purged if he is full. Besides this, 
cold bathing and a vomit of ipecacuana, 126 
taken two or three times, will be of service. 
Sometimes electricity is of service. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. LL 
PALPITATION OF THE HEART. 
IT is not when this is a symptom, but on- 
ly when it is a primary affection, that it 
belongs to this head. 
Causes. Obstructions in the large blood- 
vessels, excessive irritability or mobility of 
the heart, affections of the mind and exces- 
sive evacuations. 
Management. The patient should live 
on a nourishing diet, if he is weak habitual- 
ly, or has bf,en weakened by disorder: 
much motion, sudden start*, straining, and 
all exposure should be avoided. 
Cure. When it is certain that an ob- 
struction in the large vessels is the cause, 
there can be no cure expected only pallia- 
tive, and that by avoiding all excess and 
extremes. 
In the other cases, strengthening the hab- 
it with bark, steel, wine, and gentle riding, 
are what will prove effectual to remove it; 
and for a temporary medicine, pills of assa- 
foelida, or a few drops of laudanum may be 
used. FAMILY ADVISER. 
127 
CHAP. XLH. 
BY this I do not mean every difficulty of 
breathing, but only that which returns pe- 
riodically, depending upon a certain pecu- 
liar constitution of the lungs. It usually ob- 
serves the changes of weather in its returns, 
and seldom or never goes off entirely. 
Symptoms. It often begins with a light- 
ness across the breast, flatulency, and im- 
pediment in respiration, ivhich continues 
until the patient can scarcely get sufficient 
breath to live. Sometimes a large quantity 
of frothy spit is discharged, at other times 
little or none. Whenever any phlegm is 
discharged, which the patient generally 
makes many efforts to do, it is attended 
with relief. 
ASTHMA. 
Management. The patient use 
light food, such as will not produce flatu- 
lency : his drink should be of the cooling 
kind. 
He should be in a place where there is a 
free admission of air, yet not exposed to 
cold. 
Curt, A vomit of ipecacuana should be 
given in the beginning; after which twenty 
rops of laudanum in a little mint water; 
this may be repeated in six or eight hours, 
if necessary. The bowels should be immediately open- 
ed, and kept open with common clysters. 
If much fever attends the asthma, it may 
be proper to take away some blood, if the 
patient is sufficiently able to bear it; and 
also to lay a blister to the back. Gentle 
riding is proper, after the fit has passed 
over. As tea and coffee are supposed to 
be injurious to asthmatics, they may use 
milk and water in their stead. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. LIU. 
THIS often begins like a common cold, 
but proceeds on till the cough becomes 
more like a convulsion ; the patient’s breath 
is so forced out of his lungs, that it returns 
with a whizzing or hoop ; after which he 
often pukes and finds relief. After some 
time there is a considerable discharge of 
mucus. 
HOOPING GOUGH. 
Management. The patient, if full, should 
live on a low diet for some time ; milk in its 
various preparations is proper, and should 
form the chief of the patient’s diet. Gentle 
riding is of service in good weather. 
Cure. Gentle pukes of ipecacuana, or 
tartar emetic, should be given every two or 
three days for several times : after which, 
small doses of ontimonial wine every night: 
the bowels should be kept open with cream FAMILY ADVISER. 
129 
of tartar, or jalap. When the cough has 
continued for some time, and the patient 
grows weak, he should take bark daily. 
A blister is sometimes necessary, when 
the patient’s breathing becomes much inter- 
rupted, or when the returns of coughing are 
violent and frequent. 
CHAP. LIV. 
CAUSES. Costiveness, cold applied to' 
the belly or feet, indigestible food, acrids, 
&c. 
CHOLIC. 
Symptoms. Pain in the belly, usually 
about the naval, with costiveness, flatulen- 
cy, and often vomiting. 
Cure. When much fever attends, it will 
be prudent to bleed, but when there is noth- 
ing but a quick or frequent pulse, we need 
not order bleeding, but endeavour to open 
the bowels with a common clyster, or with 
a spoonful of castor oil, given every three 
hours, till it operates ; after which ten drops 
of laudanum may be given in some mint wa- 
ter, every hour, for four times if necessary. 
]f the pain does not abate for this, the pa- 
tient should be put into a tub of warm water 
for half an hour. 
If the stomach does not bear the oil, let 
the patient lake, a quarter of an ounce of 
cream of tartar, and fifteen or twenty grains 130 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
of jalap. The opening medicines should be 
often repeated in less doses, to prevent a 
relapse, and remove the costiveness, which 
the laudanum occasions ; salts and manna, 
or manna and senna, are also very good 
purges. 
The patient should use riding, to prevent 
returns, and avoid all food that has a ten- 
dency to flatulency, or to produce coslive- 
ness. 
CHAP. LV. 
CHOLERA MORBUS, OR VOMITING AND PURG- 
ING OF BILE. 
THIS violent disorder happens at the 
end of summer, usually after loading the 
stomach with acid fruits. 
Cure. The patient should take large 
doses of camomile, or balm, or sage tea, 
to wash out the stomach : after which he 
should take ten drops of laudanum, in some 
mint or cinnamon water every half hour, 
for five or six times if necessary. If this 
docs not have the desired effect, a blister 
should be laid on the breast, and a large 
bundle of mint stewed in wine or spirit, laid 
over and about it. The patient should be 
kept as warm as he can, so as not to be 
disagreeable. Great care should be taken 
to avoid the night air, and acid fruits, which FAMILY ADVISER. 
131 
rather promote the secretion of bile, than 
correct it when secreted. 
This same disorder, with very little vari- 
ety, is very common to children in large 
towns. They should be immediately car- 
ried out into the country air, without waiting 
for an alteration of the disorder, and also 
dipt in water fresh front the well. For a 
medicine, they may have, if five years old, 
thirty drops of laudanum put into half of 
the mixture, No. 2. One tea-spoonful of 
this, and one of weak mint water, may lae 
taken every half hour, for three or four 
times : the mint as above may be immedi- 
ately applied to the stomach : but the chief 
dependence is to be put in port wine, given 
every hour and increasing the dose : one 
tea-spoonful is enough to begin with. After 
the disorder has gone off, bark or columho, 
should be taken to strengthen the stomach. 
CHAP. LVI. 
CAUSES. Over-eating, bad food or 
water, large quantities of sweets or acids, 
poisons, over purging, bile in the summer 
time, matter discharged into the intestines, 
cold applied to the belly or feet, teething, 
passions of the mind, &c. 
LAX, OR LOOSENESS. 132 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
Management. The causes, as far as pos- 
sible should be removed, the patient should 
avoid damp or cold air, by dressing warm, 
as with flannel next the skin ; all food that 
has a laxative quality, should be avoided. 
Sago, rice, milk, eggs, light broths, and di- 
gestible meats should be used; for drink, 
wine and water, and warm teas are proper, 
as sage, balm, mint, &c. 
Cure. To perform this, we should keep 
up a free perspiration, by giving three times 
a day half a grain of opium, with one grain 
of ipecacuana: let the patient lie down for 
one hour after taking this. After using this 
prescription for some days, astringents are 
to be used, as ten or fifteen grains of tor- 
mentil root twice a day, or thirry grains of 
gum kino twice a day, or oak bark made in- 
to a decoction, and used in the same quan- 
tities as the Peruvian bark, or six grains of 
alum every two hours. 
CHAP. LVII. 
CAUSES. Passions of the mind, espe- 
cially grief, large evacuations obstructed 
menses, great irregularities, of any kind.— 
These scarce ever fail to bring it on, in those 
subject or predisposed to it. 
Symptoms. Some disorder is generally 
felt in the belly, which is succeeded by the 
HYSTERICS. FAMILY ADVISER. 
133 
sensation of a ball rising up till it gets fixed 
in the throat: with this, the patient is also 
writhed to and fro by convulsions, which 
cease after some minutes, to return again.— 
In the intervals, the patient sometimes lies in 
a sleepy state, at other times comes to her- 
self and talks. In this manner they continue 
for some time. 
Management. The patient should be kept 
from hurting herself during the fit; her food 
should be of the lightest kinds. If she is full, 
nothing but water drinks should be used, but 
if otherwise she should have wine and water: 
exercise is of material consequence to pre- 
vent relapses. 
Cure, When the patient is of a full habit, 
or when the affection proceeds from obstruct- 
ed menses (provided this docs not proceed 
from debility) some blood should be taken 
away, after which the bowels should be open- 
ed with a common clyster. If the convul- 
sions still continue, ten drops of laudanum 
should be given in some sage tea, or mint 
water, which may be repeated three or four 
times if necessary. In lean patients, a tea- 
spoonful of the tincture of assafoetida given 
three or four times a day, is what is general- 
ly used : sometimes a small puke of ipeca- 
cuana will put an end to the fits. Those who 
are in this latter case, should use bark, sUel, 
or bitters, with a nourishing diet, and gentle FAMILY ADVISER. 
exercise, to prevent returns ; whilst those 
who are in the contrary state, should live ab- 
stemiously, keep their bowels open, and use 
much exercise. 
CHAP. LVIII. 
SYMPTOMS. The wound festers, and 
after some time, seldom under a week or 
two, the patient becomes languid and deject- 
ed. He then begins to dread water, and 
cannot swallow it without great agonies and 
convulsions of the face: after some time, 
he cannot bear the sight of it. He doses 
and frequently starts from his slumber; and 
sometimes raves so as to need confinement. 
BITE OF A MAD DOG. 
Cure. The wound should be cut out, if 
it is on a part that admits of it; if not, let it 
be filled with gun powder, and this burned ; 
after which it should be kept open for a 
month, by sprinkling it with red precipi- 
tate, and dressing it with a salve made with 
wax, oil and rosin. But if this has been 
neglected, there is no way left, but to sali- 
vate the patient, by rubbing one drachm of 
mercurial ointment on him every six hours 
till he spits freely ; after which it may be 
applied every other night, so as to keep up 
a plentiful spitting for a week or ten days. 
This, if done in time, will often prevent the 
affection. FAMILY ADVISER. 
135 
CHAP. LIX. 
DROPSY. 
CAUSES, Obstructions of the liver, 
compression of the blood vessels from any 
cause, large evacuations, suppressed natural 
evacuations, cold and moisture long applied, 
hard drinking, general debility, particular 
debility of what is called the lymphatic sys- 
tem, rupture of a lymphatic, &c. 
Symptoms. A suppression of urine, 
drought, swelling of the belly, or the body 
in general, which usually retains the impres- 
sion of the finger; towards the end, fevers 
come on with a looseness, which puts an 
end to the patient’s miserable life. 
Management. The patient should live 
upon light digestible food, and observe the 
greatest regularity ; his drink should be wine 
and water, if he is thin or debilitated: gentle 
exercise should be constantly used. 
Cure. It will be very well in the begin- 
ning, if the patient’s state admits of it, to 
give two or three small purges, composed 
of twenty grains of jalap, with a quarter of 
an ounce of cream of tartar: if this does 
not answer, we should try medicines that 
promote the urinary secretion; for which 
purpose two grains of powdered squills may 
be given twice a day, or half an ounce of 
cream of tartar dissolved in a quart of wa- 136 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
ter, may be taken in the course of the morn- 
ing. An infusion of horseradish and garlic, 
in spirit, has been sometimes of use; also 
strong cider, iron flakes, and mustard-seed 
put together. 
From ten to twenty drops of an infusion of 
tobacco, in a little mint water, twice a day, 
have been used with success : also a tea- 
spoonful of salt-petre in a little gin, twice a 
day. 
If none of the above medicines have the 
desired effect, there is but little chance of 
a recovery. However, after every thing 
else has been tried to no purpose, rubbing 
the belly, when the dropsy affects that part, 
with warm oil for a long while every day, 
before a fire has proved effectual. 
Bitters and steel are always useful, and 
should be taken with the other medicines, 
only at another hour. 
There is a kind of dropsy which affects 
only the cavity of the breast, which is known 
by the noise the water makes, when the pa- 
tient turns over; by is affecting the pulse 
so as to make it irregular in its strokes : by 
its affecting the respiration, and disturbing 
the patient in the night with a sensation of 
oppression. It is to be treated as the other 
dropsies. FAMILY ADVISER. 
137 
CHAP. LX. 
SYMPTOMS. It makes its appearance 
generally between the ninth and twenty- 
fourth month, in the following manner ; the 
child becomes sedate, and grows lean, whilst 
the head grows somewhat out of form ; the 
teeth come out slowly, turn black, and fall 
out: in a little time the child becomes alto- 
gether misshapen, some parts growing whilst 
others pine away ; the stools are liquid and 
after a considerable time a fever comes on, 
which continues till it puts an end to the 
pitiable object. 
But when it is not so bad, the child re- 
covers as he grows, till he recovers all but 
his shape 
Management. The child should not be 
kept longer than usual at the breast, he 
should have a portion of meat for his diet, 
much tea should be avoided; he should be 
carried out every day for exercise, when 
the weather permits, and great attention 
should be paid to keeping him clean. 
Cure If the weather is not very cold, 
let the child be dipped every morning in 
water immediately from the well: give him 
a tea-spoonful of the tincture No. 7. three or 
four times a day, and let him take two or, 
three grains of rhubarb, when costive. 
RICKETS. 138 
Bark is also a good medicine, if the child 
can be prevailed on to take it. 
If there is much acid on the stomach, give 
a little crabs eyes, or magnesia. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
CHAP. LXI. 
CAUSES. Concretions of the bile, stop- 
ping up the duct, tumours, spasms of the gut 
into which the bile is emptied, as in cholic 
and obstructions of the liver. 
JAUNDICE. 
Symptoms, An universal yellowness, 
which begins in the white of the eyes, whit- 
ish stools, and pains about the right side, 
and sometimes a swelling at the same place. 
Management, The patient should live 
mostly on vegetables, except when very 
thin. Gentle exercise should be constantly 
used ; the drink should be wine and water, 
when in the above state, but if full, nothing 
but water should be used. The patient 
should carefully avoid cold and moisture. 
Cure. A gentle emetic should be tried, 
and if it is of service, or does not do harm, 
it should be repealed; this is best suited 
where there are gall stones : but if the liver 
be obstructed, the patient should take one 
grain of calomel every night and morning, 
till his gums feel sore. When much pain attends, twelve or fifteen drops of laudanum 
may be given twice a day. 
Bitters are often useful; also, elixir of vi- 
triol, to forty drops a day. Soap has some- 
times been useful, taken in pills ; but the 
chief dependence is to be put in diet and 
exercise. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
139 
When there is any fever, the saline mix- 
ture, No. 2, should be used as there directed. 
PRESCRIPTIONS. 
FEVER POWDERS, NO. 1. 
Take one hundred grains of clean salt- 
petre, and one grain of tartar emetic ; beat 
the salt fine, and mix the tartar well with it; 
divide it into five powders. 
One of these is generally given every two 
hours, in a cup of water or tea. 
Take two tea-spoonfuls of salt of tartar 
or salt of wormwood, dissolve it in six table 
spoonfuls of water, and add lemon or lime 
juice to it, or pure vinegar gradually, until 
it ceases to bubble ; sweeten it.—Two ta- 
ble-spoonfuls every hour is generally the 
dose, 
SALINE MIXTURE, NO. 2. 140 
DECOCTION OF BARK, No. 3. 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
To one ounce of bark, add half a gallon 
of water, and boil it in about two or three 
hours to three gills: strain it through a 
coarse rag whilst hot. 
Dose; Two table-spoonfuls every two 
hours. 
Pour a quart of Port or Madeira wine on 
two ounces of bark ; in six days it will be 
fit for use. 
TINCTURE OF BARK, NO. 4. 
Dose: A small wine glass full from two 
to six times a day. 
To one pint of milk add of lard or oil, mo- 
lasses, and Glauber or table salt, each one 
table-spoonful; warm it to the heat of blood, 
and use it at once. 
MILD CLYSTER, KO. 5. 
COMMON LAXATIVE PILLS, NO. 6. 
Take thirty-six grains ot aloes, and twen- 
ty-four of Castile soap: make them into 
twelve pills with a little honey ; one or two 
are a dose. 
TINCTURE OF STEEL, OR IRON, NO. 7. 
On a handful of the flakes that fly off 
round the anvil (in a blacksmith’s shop) 
pour a quart of port wine : let it stand a 
few weeks, and then use half a wine glass 
full, once, or twice, or three times a day. FAMILY ADVISER. 
141 
BITTERS, NO. 8. 
On an ounce of gentian root, finely cut, 
and half an ounce of orange peel, pour a 
pint of good brandy : let them stand five 
days, and then use about two tea-spoonfuls 
in a little water, three times a day. 
DOSES. 
For a grown 
person 
a youth of 12 
a child of 3 
a babe 
Laudanum. 
Drops. 
10 to 25 
4 to 8 
2 to 4 
1 to l i 
Tart. Emet. 
Grains. 
2 to 4 
I i to 2* 
1 to li 
Ipecacuana. 
Grains. 
8 to 18 
6 to 10 
4 to 6 
1 to 2 
Chalybeate. That which is impregnated with 
iron., 
Coma. A disordered state like sleep* 
Congestion. A collection of humours. 
Contusion. Pressure, squeeze, crush. 
Constricted. Drawn together, bound. 
Debility. Feebleness, weakness. 
Decoction. That which is made by boiling. 
Delirium. A confusion of the internal senses. 
Demulcent. Softening. 
Desquamation, A peeling off. 
Exacerbate. Sharpening up, increase. 
Efflorescence. An appearance of ruddy spots. 
Exhalation. Vapour, fume. 
Eminence. Raised above a level. 
Eructation. A belching. 
Fauces, The posterior cavity of the mouth. 
EXPLANATION OF DIFFICULT WORDS.  FAMILY ADVISER. 
Flaccid. Relaxed, loose. 
Gestation. Passive exercise, as riding; 
Grumous. Clodded. 
Intermittent. With an interval. 
Laceration. Tear, rent. 
Mucilaginous. Jelly-like, slimy, viscous. 
Narcotic. That which destroys sense and 
stupifies, 
Nausea. Sickness at the stomach. 
Obesity. Fatness, 
Ossify. To turn to bone. 
Palliative. That which mitigates, lessens. 
Peripneumonia. Inflammation round the 
lungs. 
Pustules. Pimples with matter in them. 
Radically. From the root, the bottom. 
Remit. To lessen or cease partially. 
Respiration. The act of breathing. 
Sedate. Given to inactivity, quiet. 
Sloughs. Mortified spots. 
Spheroidal. Like a sphere. 
Suppurate. rl o turn to matter. 
Topical. Confined to a place or part. 
Torpor. Slowness. 
Turgid. Swelled, bloated. 
Undulate. To proceed like waves. 
Ventilated, Exposed to the wind. 
Vesicles. Pimples with water in them, like 
bladders. CONTENTS 
OF THE 
FAMILY ADVISER. 
APOPLEXY .... PAU4 
Asthma - - - - - 127 
Bleeding at the nose 90 
Bite of a mad dog - - - 134 
Catarrh. See cold and influenza 
Croup or Hives - - - - 30 
Chicken Pox - - - e 81 
Consumption - - - 97 
Cold - 108 
Cholic ..... 129 
Cholera Morbus, or vomiting and purging of bile, 130 
Discharge of ulood from the urinary passage 107 
Dyspcpsy, or Indigestion - - - 118 
Dropsies - - - - - 135 
Doses - - . - - 141 
Essera, or Nettle Rash 88 
Epilepsey, or common Fits - . - 122 
Fever; in general .... 5 
Fever inflammatory ... - 6 
N rvous - - - - 10 
Putrid ' .... 14 
Remittent - . - - 19 
Hectic - - - - 26 
Scarlet .... 84 
Flux - - - -11 L 
Fainting - - - - - 117 
Gout ..... 63 
Gout, Regular 66 
4tinic 68 
Retrocedent - - - - 70 
Mi placed 71 
Hives ... - 39 
Hooping Cough - - 128 144 
CONTENTS. 
Hysterics - 132 
Inflammation of the eye 29 
of the Brain - - - 31 
of the Stomach . - - 50 
• of the Intestines » - 52 
of the Liver - - - 53 
of the Kidneys 56 
influenza - - - - - 110 
Jaundice - 138 
Locked Jaw - - - - 121 
Lax or Looseness - - - . - 131 
Mumps 41 
Measles - - - - 82 
Menses, Profuse - 101 
Obstructed - - - 104 
Obstructed Liver 55 
Pleurisy, true 42 
Bastard - - - 45 
Piles - - - - - 99 
Palsy - - - - - 116 
Palpitation of the Heart - - - 126 
Prescriptions .... 139 
Putrid Sore Throat - - - - 37 
Quinsey 34 
Rheumatism, Intercostal - - - 48 
Acute - - - 67 
Chronic - - - 59 
Rickets - - - - 4L - 137 
Sciatica - . - - 59 
Small Po*, Distinct - - - - 73 
Confluent - - - 78 
St. Anthony’s Fire - - - 85 
Spitting of Blood 94 
St. Vitus’s Dance - - - 125 
Tooth Ach . - - - - 60 
Vomiting of Blood - 105 
Whites - 103 
PINTS'. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC: 
OR 
AN EASY AND NATURAL METHOD OF 
CURING MOST DISEASES. 
BY JOHN WESJjEY, M. Jl. 
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto. 
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION, CORRECTED. 
New- York: 
PUBLISHED BY J. SOULE AND T. MASON, FOR THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 
John C. Totten, printer; 
1818. PREFACE, 
HEN man came first out of the hands of the 
great Creator, clothed in body as well as in soul, 
with immortality and incorruption, there was no place 
for physic, or the art of healing. As he knew no sin, 
so he knew no pain, no sickness, weakness, or bodily 
disorder. The habitation wherein the angelic mind, 
the Divinse particula Auras abode, though originally 
formed out of the dust of the eartn, was liable to no 
decay. It had no seeds of corruption or dissolution 
within itself. And there was nothing without to in- 
jure it : heaven and earth and all the hosts of them 
were mild, benign and friendly to human nature. The 
entire creation was at peace with man, so long as man 
was at peace wdth his Creator. So that well might 
“ the morning stars sing together, and all the sons of 
God shout for joy.” 
2. But since man rebelled against the Sovereign of 
heaven and earth, how entirely is the scene changed ! 
The incorruptible frame hath put on corruption, the 
immortal has put on mortality. The seeds of weak- 
ness and pain, of sickness and death are now lodged in 
our inmost substance ; whence a thousand disorders 
continually spring, even without the aid of externa! 
violence. And how is the number of these increased 
by every thing round about us! The heavens, the 
earth, and all things contained therein, conspire to 
punish the rebels against their Creator. The sun 
and moon shed unwholesome influences from above; 
the earth exhales poisonous damps from beneath; (he 
beasts of the fields, the birds of the air, the fishes of 
the sea are in a state of hostility: the air itself that 
surrounds us on every side, is replete with the sh fts 
of death : yea, the food we eat, daily saps the founda- 
tion of the life which cannot be sustained wi'hout it. 
So has the Lord of all secured vhe execution of his 
decree—“ Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt re- 
turn.” 4 
PREFACE, 
3. But can there nothing- be found to lessen those 
inconveniences, which cannot be wholly removed? 
To soften the evils of life, and prevent in part Ihe 
sickness and pain to which we are continually expo- 
sed ? Without question there may. One grand pre- 
ventive of pain and sickness of various kinds, seems 
intimated by the great Author of nature in (he very 
sentence that entails death upon us : “ In the sweat 
of thy face shalt thou cat bread, till thou return to 
the ground.” The power of exercise both to pre- 
serve am restore health, is greater than can well be 
conceived; especially' in those who add temperance 
thereto ; who if they do not confine themselves alto- 
gether to eat either “ bread or the herb of the field” 
(which God does not require (hem to do) yet steadily 
observ- both that kind and measure of food, which ex- 
perience shews to be most friendly to strength and 
health. 
4 It is probable, physic, as well as religion, was in 
the first ages chiefly traditional: every father deliver- 
ing down to his sons, what be bad himself in like 
manner received, concerning the manner of healing 
both outward hurls, and the diseases incident to each 
climate, and the medicines which were of the great- 
est efficacy for the cure of each disorder. It i» cer- 
tain, this is the method wherein the art of healing is 
pro«erved among the Americans to this day. Their 
diseases are exceeding few ; nor do they often occur 
by reason of their continual exercise, and (till of late) 
universal temperance. Bu< if anv are sick or bitten 
by a serpent, or torn by a wild beast, the fathers im- 
mediately tell their children what remedy to apply. 
And it is rare that the patient suffers long; those 
medicines being quick, as well as generally infal- 
lible. 
5. Hence it was, perhaps, that the ancients, not on- 
ly of Greece and Pome, but even of barbarous nations, 
usually assigned physic a divine original And in- 
deed it was a natural thought, that He who had taught 
it to the very beasts an i birds, the Cretan Stag, the 
Egyptian Ibis, could not he wanting to teach man, 
Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altar. Yea, sometimes even by those meaner creatures ; for 
it was easy to infer, “If this will heal that creature, 
whose flesh is nearly of the same texture with mine, 
then in a parallel case it will heal me.” The trial was 
made : the cure was wrought; and experience and 
physic grew up together. 
6. As to the manner of using the medicines here 
set down, 1 should advise, as soon as you know your 
distemper (which is very easy, unlecs in a complication 
of disorders, and then you would do well to apply to 
a physician that fears God) First, use the fir-t of the 
remedies for that disease, which occurs in the ensu- 
ing collection; (unless some other of them be easier 
to be had, and then it may do just as well.) Second- 
ly, after a competent fimej if it takes no effect, use 
the second, the third, and so on. I have purposely 
set down (in most cases) several remedies for each dis- 
order ; not only because all are not equally easy to 
be procured at all times, and in all places: but like- 
wise the medicine that cures one man, will not always 
cure another of (he same distemper. Nor will it 
cure the same man at all times. Therefore it was 
necessary to have a variety. However, 1 have sub- 
joined tlie letter (I) to those medicines which some 
think infallible. Thirdly, Observe all the time the 
greatest exactness in your regimen or manner of liv- 
ing. Abstain from all mixed, all high-seasoned food. 
plain diet, easy of digestion ; and this as sparing- 
ly as you can, consistent with ease and strength.— 
Drink only water, if it agrees with your stomach : if 
not, good, clear, small beer. Use as much exercise 
daily, in the open air, as you can without weariness. 
Sup at six or seven on the lightest food ; go to bed 
early and rise betimes. To persevere with steadi- 
ness in this course, is often more than half the cure. 
Above all, add to the rest (for it is not labour lost) 
that old, unfashionable medicine, prayer And have 
faith in God who “ killeth and maketh alive, who bring- 
eth down to the grave, and bringeth vp.” 
7. For the sake of those who desire through the 
blessing of God to retain the health which they have 
recovered, I have added, a few plain, easy rules, chief- 
ly transcribed from Dr. Cheyne. 
PREFACE. 6 
PREFACE. 
1. 1. The air we breathe is of great consequence to 
our health. Those who have been long abroau in 
easterly or northerly winds, should drink some thin 
and warm liquor going to bed, or a draught of toast 
and water. 
2. Tender people should have those who lie with 
them, or are much about them, sound, sweet, and 
healthy. 
‘.•5. Every one that would preserve heallh, should 
be as clean and sweet as possible in their houses, 
clothes, and furniture. 
li. 1. The great rule of eating and drinking is, To 
suit the quality and quantity of the food to the 
strengdi of our digestion ; to take always such a sort 
and such a measure of food, as sits light and easy on 
the stomach. 
2. All pickled, or smoked, or salted food, and ail high- 
seasoned, are alone unlit for aliment. 
3. Nothing conduces more to health, than absti- 
nence and plain food, with due labour. 
4. For studious persons, about eight ounces of ani- 
mal food, and twelve of vegetable, in twenty-four 
hours, are sufficient. 
5. Water, though the wholesomest of all drinks, yet 
if used largely in time of digestion, is injurious. 
6. Strong, and more especially spirilous liquors; are 
a certain, though slow poison, unless well diluted and 
cautiously used. 
7. Experience shews, there is very seldom any dan- 
ger in leaving them off all at once; unless in time of 
particular diseases, as of debility. 
8. Strong liquors do not prevent the mischiefs of a 
surfeit, nor carry it off so safely as water. 
9. Malt liquors (except clear small beer, or small 
ale, of a due age) are exceeding hurtful to tender per- 
sons. 
10. Coffee and tea are extremely hurtful to persons 
who have weak nerves. 
111. 1. All persons should eat very light suppers ; and 
that two or three hours before going to bed. 
2. To go to bed about nine, and rise at five should 
be a general practice. 
IV. 1. A due degree of exercise is indispensably ne- 
cessary to health and long life. PREFACE. 
2. Walking* is the best exercise for those who are 
able to bear u; riding for those who are not. The 
open air, tv hen the weather is fair, contributes much to 
the be*.: ,flt of exercise. 
3. We may strengthen any weak part of the body by 
constant exercise. Thus the lungs may be strength- 
ened by moderate speaking; the digestion and the 
nerves by ruling ; the arms and hams, by strongly rub- 
bing them daily. 
4. The studious ought to have stated times for ex- 
ercise, at leas' two or three hours a-day: the one 
half of this before dinner, the other before going to 
bed. 
5. They should frequently shave, and frequently 
wash their feet in cold water. 
8. Those who read or write much, should learn to 
do it chiefly standing; otherwise it will impair their 
health. 
7. The fewer clothes any one uses, by day or night, 
the hardier he will be; but the habit must be begun in 
youth. 
8. Exercise, first, should be always on an empty sto- 
mach ; secondly, should never be continued to weari- 
ness ; thirdly, after it. we should take care to cool by 
degrees ; otherwise we shall take cold. 
9. The flesh brush is a most useful exercise, especi- 
ally to strengthen aay part that is weak. 
10. Cold bathing is of great advantage to health : 
it prevents abundance of diseases. It promotes per- 
spiration, helps the circulation of the blood, and pre- 
vents the danger of taking cold Tender people 
should pour water upon the head before they go in, and 
walk in swiftly. To jump in wuh the head foremost is 
too great a shock to nature. It is best to use it imme- 
diately after rising. 
V. i. Costiveness cannot long consist with health. 
Therefore care should be taken to remove i! at the be- 
ginning by a gentle medicine : and when it is remov- 
ed to prevent its return, by soft, cool, open diet; as of 
vegetables, acid or sweet. 
2. Obstructed perspiration (vulgarly called catch- 
ing cold) is one great source of diseases. Whenever 
there appears the least sign of this, let it be removed 
by gentle sweats or purges. VI. 1. The passions have a greater influence on 
health than most people are aware of. 
2. AH violent and sudden passions dispose to, or ac- 
tually throw people into acute diseases. 
3. The slow and lasting passions, such as grief and 
hopeless love, bring on chronic diseases, and low fe- 
vers. 
8 
PREFACE. 
4, Till the passion which caused the disease is 
calmed, medicine is applied in vain. 
5. The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of 
all miseries, so in particular it effectually prevents all 
the bodily disorders the passions introduce, by keeping 
the passions themselves within due bounds. And by 
the unspeakable joy, and perfect calm, serenity and 
tranquility it gives the mind, it becomes the most pow- 
erful of all the means of health and long life. 
London, June 11,1747. TO THE 
MEMBERS OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
Friends and Brethren, 
The grand interest of your souls will 
ever lie near our hearts ; but vve cannot be 
unmindful of your bodies. In several parts 
of this extensive country, the climate, and 
in others the food, is unwholesome ; and 
frequently, the physicians are few, some of 
them unskilful, and all of them beyond the 
reach of your temporal abilities. A few 
small publications excepted, little has been 
done by physical books, in order to remove 
these inconveniences, and even those have 
been written in Europe, and do therefore 
partake of the confined ideas of the writers, 
who could not possibly be fully acquainted 
with the peculiarities of the various diseases 
incident to a people that inhabit a country 
so remote from theirs. 
Simple remedies are, in general, the most 
safe for simple disorders, and sometimes do 
wonders under the blessing of God. In this 
view we present to you now, the Primitive 
Physic, published by our much honoured 
friend John Wesley. But the difference be- 10 
ADDRESS, 
ing in many respects great between this 
country and England, in regard to climate, 
the constitution of patients, and even the 
qualities of the same simples,—we saw it 
necessary for you, to have it revised by 
physicians practising in this country, who at 
our request have added cautionary and ex- 
planatory notes where they were necessary, 
with some additional receipts suitable to the 
climate. 
In this state we lay the publication before 
you, and earnestly recommend it to you. 
As we apply all the profits of our books to 
charitable purposes, and the promoting the 
work of God, we think we have some right 
to intreat you (except in particular cases) 
to buy only our books, which are recom- 
mended by the Conference, and signed with 
our signatures : and as we intend to print 
our books in future within the states, and on 
a much larger scale than we have hitherto 
done, we trust we shall be able soon to sup- 
ply you with as many of the choicest of our 
publications, as the time and temporal abili- 
ties of those of you, who do not live a life of 
study, will require. 
We remain, dear brethren, as ever, 
Your faithful pastors, 
THOMAS COKE, 
FRANCIS ASBURY. A 
COLLECTION OF RECEIPTS. 
We would inform our readers, that the receipts 
and notes inclosed in brackets, as this is, are insert- 
ed by the physicians who revised the copy for this 
impression : and also, that the prescriptions mark- 
ed * are better than the others.] 
1. Abortion * (to prevent.) 
*Women of a weak or relaxed habit should 
use solid food, avoiding great quantities of 
tea, and other weak and watery liquors.— 
They should go soon to bed, and rise early ; 
and take frequent exercise, but avoid fa- 
tigue. 
If of a full habit, they ought to use a spare 
diet, and chiefly of the vegetable kind, 
avoiding strong liquors, and every thing 
that may tend to heat the body, or increase 
the quantity of blood. 
In the first case, take daily half a pint of 
a decoction of lignum vitas: boiling an 
ounce of it in a quart of water for five min- 
utes. 
*[ln the first case, the cold bath used two or three 
times a week, from the beginning1 to the sixth month 
of pregnancy, is deemed effectual. In the latter 
case, bleeding at the arm in the fourth and seventh 
months may be used.]  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
In the latter case, give half a drachm of 
powdered nitre, in a cup of water gruel, ev- 
ery five or six hours: in both cases she 
should sleep on a hard mattrass, and be kept 
cool and quiet. The bowels should be kept 
regular by a pill of white walnut extract. 
2. For an Ague.* 
Go into the cold bath just before the cold 
fit. 
Nothing tends more to prolong an 
ague, than indulging a lazy indolent dispo- 
sition, The patient ought, therefore, be- 
tween the fits, to take as much exercise as he 
can bear ; and to use a light diet, and for 
common drink, zome ant? water is the 
most proper, 
*When all other means fail, give blue 
vitrol, from one grain to two grains, in the 
absence of the fit, and repeat it three or 
four times in twenty-four hours. 
Or, boil yarrow in new milk, till it is len- 
der enough to spread as a plaster. An 
hour before the cold fit, apply this to the 
wrists, and let it be on till the hot fit is over. 
If another fit comes, use a fresh plaster. 
This often cures a quartan : 
*Or put a tea-spoonful of salt of tartar in- 
to a large glass of spring water, and drink 
* An ague is an intermitting fever, each fit of which 
is preceded by a cold shivering, and goes off in a 
sweat. it by little and little. Repeat the same 
dose the next two days, before the time of 
the fit. 
*Or a large spoonful of powdered Camo- 
mile flowers: 
*Or a tea-spoonful of the spirits of harts- 
horn in a glass of water: 
Or, eat a small lemon, rind and all. 
*ln the hot fit, if violent, take eight or ten 
drops of laudanum : if costive, with an An- 
derson’s pill, 
*Dr. Lind says, an ague is certainly cur- 
ed by taking from ten to twenty drops of 
laudanum, with two drachms of syrup of 
poppies, in any warm liquid, half an hour 
after the heat begins. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
It is proper to take a gentle vomit, 
and sometimes a purge, before you use any of 
these medicines. If a vomit is taken two 
hours before the ft is expected, it generally 
prevents that fit, and sometimes cures an ague, 
especially in children. It is also proper to 
repeat the medicine, (whatever it be) about a 
week after, in order to prevent a relapse. Do 
not take any purge soon after. The daily 
use of the fiesh brush, and frequent cold 
bathing, are of great use to prevent relapses. 
have been cured by wearing a 
waistcoat, in which bark was quilted. 
[Those fevers which abate their violence 
at times, that there appears an absence of 14 
the fever for a certain period between two 
fits, are called intermittcnts, says Galen.— 
The length of the period determines the 
name, as quotidian, tertian, double tertian, 
quartan. The spring intermittcnts seldom 
need the grand specific remedy, viz. the 
Peruvian bark, in this climate, as by admin- 
istering a vomit of twenty grains of ipeca- 
cuana, or of eight grains of the former, and 
one of tartar emetic mixed fora grown per- 
son, the succeeding heat of the season ef- 
fects the cure, and often without medicine. 
The fall intermittcnts seldom put on a regu- 
lar form at first in adults, but arc generally 
remitting fevers ; but even though they ap- 
proach nearer to a continual fever, the pa- 
tient seldom needs bleeding, and perhaps 
never in regular intermittcnts. In either 
case a vomit as before mentioned, the first 
opportunity in remitting, and two hours be- 
fore the fit in an intermitting fever, with 
warm diluting drinks in the time of the fit, 
and when intermitting regularly, the bark 
may be applied, after the operation of the 
vomit, and the fit is over.—Children gene- 
rally need only to be purged before the use 
of the bark, with jalap or rhubarb : the 
dose of these may be thirty grains for a 
grown person, and half the quantity for one 
of nine years old, and in proportion. After 
the fever regularly intermits, and the sto- 
mach has been cleansed and the body kept 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
15 
open, the Peruvian bark may be given, (un- 
less some inflammation or obstruction pre- 
vent) immediately after the fit, two ounces, 
and often one is generally sufficient, thus : 
Divide an ounce of powder of the bark into 
twelve doses ; let the sick man or woman 
take, one every two hours between the fits, 
and continue them after the return of the 
next; or, boil an ounce of the bark in a pint 
and a half of water gently down to a pint, 
strain off the liquid, and lake a wine glass 
full every two hours ; or—To an ounce of 
the bark in powder add four or five spoon- 
fuls of proof spirit and a pint of boiling wa- 
ter, let them infuse two or three days : to 
use as the former. But it is best in sub- 
stance when it can be taken.] 
3. St. Anthony’s Fire.* 
*Take a glass of tar water, warm, in 
bed, every hour, washing the part with (he 
same. 
Tar water is made thus.—Put a gal- 
lon of cold water to a quart of Norway 
*St. Athony’s fire is a fever attended with a red 
painful swelling-, full of pimples, which afterwards 
turn into small blisters, on the face or some other part 
of the body. The sooner the eruption is, the less the 
danger. Let your diet be only water gruel or barley 
broth, with roasted apples. 16 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
tar. Stir them together with a flat slick for 
Jive or six minutes. After it has stood cov- 
ered for three days, pour ojf the zuater clear, 
bottle and cork it. 
Or, take a decoction of elder leaves as a 
sweat; applying to the part a cloth dipt in 
lime water, mixed with a little camphorated 
Spir ts of wine. 
Lime water is made thus,—lnfuse a 
pounu vf good quick lime in six quarts of 
spring water for twenty-four hours. Decant 
and keep it for use. 
*or, take two or three gentle purges.— 
No acute fever bears repeated purges bet- 
ter than this, especially when it affects the 
head : meantime boil a handful of sage, two 
handfuls of elder leaves (or bark) and an 
ounce of alum in two quarts of forge water, 
to a pint. Wash with this every night.— 
See extract from Dr. Tissot. 
If the pulse be low and the spirits sunk, 
nourishing broths and a little negus may be 
given to advantage ; dressing the inflamma- 
tion with greasy ointments, salves, &c. is 
very improper. 
Bathing the feet and legs in warm water 
is serviceable, and often relieves the patient 
much. In Scotland the common people cov- 
er the part with a linen cloth covered with 
meal. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
17 
4. The Apoplexy.* 
*To prevent, use the cold bath, and drink 
only water. 
In the fit put a handful of salt into a pint 
of cold water, and if possible pour it down 
the throat of the patient. He will quickly 
come to himself. So will one who seems 
dead by a fall. But send for a good physi- 
cian immediately. 
If the lit be soon after a meal, vomit and 
bleed. 
*A seton in the neck, with low diet, has 
often prevented a relapse. 
*There is a wide difference between the 
sanguineous and serous apoplexy; the lat- 
ter is often followed by a palsy. The 
former is distinguished by the countenance 
■appearing florid; the face swelled or puffed 
up : and the blood vessels, especially about 
the neck and temples, are turgid : the pulse 
beats strong: the eyes are prominent and 
fixed ; and the breathing is difficult and per- 
formed with a snorting. This invades more 
suddenly than the serous apoplexy. Use 
large bleedings from the arm or neck ; bathe 
the feet in warm water; cupping on the 
back of the head, with deep scarification. 
The garters should be tied very tight to 
*An apoplexy is a total loss of all sense and volun- 
tary motion, commonly attended with a strong pulse, 
Lard breathing and snorting 18 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
lessen the motion of the blood from the low- 
er extremities. 
*A scruple of nitre may be given in water, 
every three or four hours. 
*When the patient is so far recovered as 
to be able to swallow, let him take a strong 
purge ; but if this cannot be effected, a clys- 
ter should be thrown up with plenty of fresh 
butter, and a large spoonful of common 
salt in it. 
In the serous apoplexy, the pulse is not so 
strong, the countenance is less florid, and 
not attended w’ith so great a difficulty of 
breathing. Here bleeding is not so neces- 
sary, but a vomit of three grains of emetic 
tartar may be given, and afterwards a purge 
as before, and a blister applied to the back 
of the neck. 
'This apoplexy is generally preceded 
by an unusual heaviness, giddiness, and drow- 
siness. 
5. Canine Appetite.* 
“ If it be without vomiting, is often cured 
by a small bit of bread dipt in wine, and ap- 
plied to the nostrils.” Dr. Schomberg. 
6. The Asthma.f 
Take a pint of cold water every morn- 
*An insatiable desire of eating-. 
•j An Asthma is a difficulty of breathing returning at 
intervals, from a disorder in the lungs. In the com- 
mon (or moist) asthma, the patient spits much. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
ing, washing the head therein immediately 
after, and using the cold bath once a fort- 
night : 
Or, cut an ounce of stick liquorice into 
slices ; Steep this in a quart of water four 
and twenty hours, and use it, when you are 
worse than usual, as common drink. I have 
known this give much ease. 
Or, half a pint of tar-water twice a day. 
Or, live a fortnight on boiled carrots only. 
It seldom fails ; 
Or, take from ten to twenty drops of elisir 
of vitriol, in a glass of water, three or four 
times a day. 
Elixir of vitriol is made thus. Drop 
gradually four ounces of strong oil of vitriol 
into a pint of spirits of wine, or brandy ; let 
it stand three days, and add to it ginger 
sliced, half an ounce, and Jamaica pepper, 
whole, one ounce. In three days more it is 
ft for use. 
Or, into a quart of boiling water, put a 
tea-spoonful of balsamic aether; receive the 
steam into the lungs, through a fumigator, 
twice a day. 
Balsamic aether is made thus. Put 
four ounces of spirits of wine, and one ounce 
of balsam of tolu into a vial, with one ounce 
of cether. Keep it utcll corked. But it will 
not keep above a week. 
For present relief, vomit with twelve 
grains of ipecacuana. 20 
PRIMITIVE PHVSIC. 
7. A Dry or Convulsive Asthma. 
Juice of radishes relieves much: so does 
a cup of strong coffee ; or garlic, either raw 
or preserved, or in syrup : 
Or, drink a pint of new milk morning 
and evening. This has cured an inveterate 
asthma. 
Or, beat fine saffron small, and take eight 
or ten grains every night.—Tried. 
Take from three to live grains of ipccacu- 
ana every week. Do this, if need be, fora 
month or six weeks. Five grains usually 
vomit. In a violent fit,.take filteen grains. 
In any asthma, the best drink is apple- 
water; that is, boiling water poured on sli- 
ced apples. 
The food should be light and easy of di- 
gestion. Ripe fruits baked, boiled, or roast- 
ed, are very proper; but strong liquors of 
all kinds, especially beer or ale, are hurt- 
ful. If any supper is taken, it should be 
very light. 
*AII disorders of the breast are much re- 
lieved by keeping the feet warm, and pro- 
moting perspiration. Exercise is also ol 
very great importance ; so that the patient 
should take as much every day as his 
strength will bear. Issues are lound in 
general to be of great service. 
Dr. Smyth, in his Formula, recommends 
mustard whey as common drink, in the PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
21 
moist asthma; and a decoction of the mad- 
der root to promote spitting. 
The decoction is made thus.—Boil 
one ounce of madder, and two drachms of 
mace, in three pints of water, to two pints, 
f/ien strain it, and lake a tea-cupful three or 
four times a day. 
8. To cure Baldness. 
Rub the part morning and evening, with 
onions, till it is red, and rub it afterwards 
with honey. Or, wash it with a decoction 
of box-wood: Tried. Or, electrify it daily. 
9. Bleeding at the Nose (to prevent.) 
Dissolve two scruples of nitre in half a 
pint of water, and take a tea-cupful every 
hour, if the patient is plethoric. 
*To cure it, apply to the neck behind and 
on each side, a cloth dipt in cold water: 
Or, put the legs and arms in cold water: 
Or, wash the temples, nose, and neck, 
with vinegar. 
Or snuff up vinegar and water. 
*Or foment the legs and arms with it: 
Or steep a linen rag in sharp vinegar, burn 
it, and blow it up the nose with a quill: 
*Or, apply tents made of soft lint dipped 
in cold wmter, strongly impregnated with a 
solution of alum, and introduced within the 
nostrils quite through to their posterior aper- 
tures  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, dissolve an ounce of alum powdered, 
in a pint of vinegar; apply a cloth dipt in 
this, to the temples, sleeping the feet in warm 
water. 
In a violent case, go into a pond or river. 
Tried.—See extract from Dr. Tissot. 
10. Bleeding of a Wound. 
Make two or three tight ligatures towards 
the lower part of each joint: slacken them 
gradually: 
Or, apply tops of nettles bruised : 
Or, strew on it the ashes of a linen rag, 
dipt in sharp vinegar and burnt: 
Or, take ripe puff-balls, break them warily, 
and save the powder. Strew this on the 
wound and bind it on. /•—This will stop 
the bleeding of an amputated limb. 
[Or, take of blue vitriol and alum, each an 
ounce and a half, boil them in a pint of wa- 
ter till the salts are dissolved, then filter the 
liquid and add a drachm of the oil of vitriol: 
a soft rag maybe dipped in this, and appli- 
ed up the nose; or any bleeding we can 
come at.—Buchan. Or, use the agaric of 
the oak.l 
11. Spitting of Blood.* 
Take two spoonfuls of juice of nettles ev- 
ery morning, and a large cup of decoction of 
nettles at night for a week: Tried. 
*[Eat a table-spoonful of fine common salt every 
morning' fasting, or a tea-spoonful every three hours, 
until the bleeding stops.] PRIMITIVE PHBSIC. 
Or, three spoonfuls of sage-juice in a little 
honey. This presently stops either spitting 
or vomiting blood : Tried. 
Or, twenty grains of alum in water every 
two hours. 
12. Vomiting of Blood. 
Take two spoonfuls of nettle juice. 
This also dissolves blood coagulated 
in the stomach.)—Tried. 
Or, take as much salt-petrc as will lie up- 
on half a crown, dissolved in a glass of cold 
water, two or three times a day. 
13. To Dissolve Coagulated Blood. 
Bind on the part for some hours, a paste 
made of black soap and crumbs of white 
bread: 
Or, grated root of byrdock spread on a 
rag : renew this twice a-day. 
14. Blisters, 
On the feet, occasioned by walking, are 
cured by drawing a needle full of worsted 
through them, clip it off at both ends, and 
leave it till the skin peels of. 
15. Biles. 
Apply a little Venice turpentine : 
Or, an equal quantity of soap and brown 
sugar well mixt. 24 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Ora plaster of honey and wheat flower: 
*Or of figs : 
Or, a little saffron in a white bread poul- 
tice. 
—Tis proper to purge also. 
16. Hard Breasts. 
Apply turnips roasted till soft, (hen mash- 
ed and mixed with a little oil of roses.— 
Change this twice a-day, keeping the breast 
very warm with flannel. 
17. Sore Breasts and Swelled. 
*Apply lead water. 
Or, boil a handful of camomile, and as 
much mallows in milk and water. Foment 
with it between two flannels, as hot as can 
be borne, every twelve hours. It also dis- 
solves any knot or swelling in any pert, 
where there is no inflammation. 
18. A Bruise. 
Immediately apply treacle spread on 
brown paper: Tried. 
Or, apply a plaster of chopt parsley mixt 
with butter : 
Or, electrify the part. This is the quick- 
est cure of all. 
19. To prevent swelling from a Bruise. 
apply a cloth, five or six 
fold dipt in cold water, and new dipt when 
it grows warm : Tried. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
25 
20. A Burn or Scald. 
If it be but skin deep, immediately plunge 
the part in cold water, keep it in an hour, 
if not well before. Perhaps four or five 
hours : Tried. 
Or electrify it. If this can be done pre- 
sently it totally cures the most desperate 
burn. 
Or, if the part cannot be dipt, apply a 
cloth four fold, dipt in cold water, changing 
it when it grows warm. 
21. A deep Burn or Scald. 
*Apply inner rind of elder well mixt with 
fresh butter. When this is bound on with a 
rag, plunge the part into cold water. This 
will suspend the pain till the medicine heals. 
©r, mix lime-water and sweet oil, to the 
thickness of cream, apply it with a feather 
several times a-day. This is the most effec- 
tual application I ever met with. - 
Or, put twenty-five drops of Goullard’s 
extract of lead, to half a pint of rain-water; 
dip linen rags in it, and apply them to the 
part affected. This is particularly service* 
able if the burn is near the eyes. 26 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
22. A Cancer.* 
four grains of white arsenic in 
a pint of water, one table-spoonful every 
morning in molasses or milk must be taken. 
23. Chilblains (to prevent.) 
*Wear socks of Chamois leather, or silk. 
Bathe the feel often in cold water, and 
when this is done, apply a turnip poultice. 
24. Children. 
weakness, dip them in cold water, every 
morning, at least till they are eight or nine 
months old. 
No roller should ever be put round their 
bodies, nor any stays used. Instead of them, 
when they are put into short petticoats, put 
a waiscoat under their frocks. 
Let them go barefooted and bare-headed 
till they arc three or four years old at least. 
’Tis best to wean a child when seven 
months old, if it be disposed to rickets. It 
should lie in the cradle at least a year. 
No child should touch any spirituous or 
fermented liquor before two years old.— 
Their drink should be water. Tea they 
*To prevent the rickets, tenderness, and 
*A cancer is a hard, round, uneven, painful swell- 
ing', of a blackish or leaden colour, the veins round 
which seem ready to burst. It comes commonly with 
a swelling as big as a pea, which does not at fny.t give 
much pain, nor change the colour of the skin. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
should never taste till ten or twelve years 
old. Milk, milk-porridge, and water-gruel 
are the proper breakfasts for children. 
25. Chin-Cough, or Hooping-Cough. 
Rub the feet thoroughly with hog’s lard, 
before the fire, at going to bed, and keep 
the child warm therein : Tried. 
Or, rub the back, at lying down, with old 
rum. It seldom fails : 
Or, give a spoonful of juice of penny-roy- 
al, mixt with brown sugar candy, twice 
a-day : 
Or, half a pint of milk, warm from the 
cow, with the quantity of a nutmeg of con- 
serve of roses dissolved in it every morning. 
Or, dissolve a scruple of salt of tartar in 
a quarter of a pint of clear water : add to 
it ten grains of finely powdered cochineal, 
and sweeten it with loaf sugar. 
Give a child within the year, the fourth 
part of a spoonful of this, four times a-day, 
with a spoonful of barley-water after it.— 
Give a child two years old half a spoonful: 
a child above four years old a spoonful.—■ 
Boiled apples put into warm milk may be 
his chief food. This relieves in twenty-four 
hours, and cures in five or six days. 
*Or, take two grains of tartar emetic, and 
hall a drachm of prepared crab’s claws 
powdered: let them be mixt very well to- 
gether. 28 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
One grain, one grain and a half, or two 
grains of this composition, may be added to 
live or six grains of magnesia, and given in 
a small spoonful of milk and water in the 
forenoon, between breakfast and dinner, to 
a child a year old. 
*At night, if the fever is very high, half 
the former dose of this powder may be giv- 
en, with from five to ten grains of nitre. 
In desperate cases, change of air will 
have a good effect. 
26. Cholera Morbus, i. e. Flux and Vom- 
iting of Bile.* 
*Boil a chicken an hour in two gallons 
of water, and drink of this till the vomiting 
ceases : 
Or, decoction of rice, or barley, or toast- 
ed oaten-bread. 
*lf the pain is very severe, steep the belly 
with fl-annels dipt in spirits and water. 
*The third day after the cure, take ten or 
fifteen grains of rhubarb. 
27. Chops in Women’s Nipples. 
Apply balsam of sugar: 
*[ After tbe bowels are well emptied by large and 
frequently repeated draughts of the Ist and 2d prescrip- 
tions under this head, instant relief, in an extreme low 
fainty state, may be obtained by taking from 25 to 30 
drops of liquid laudanum in a glass of mint tea. This 
is a dose for grown persons; if under 15 years of age, it 
must be proportioned accordingly.] *Or apply butter of wax, which speedily 
heals them. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
29 
28. Chopt Hands (to prevent.) 
Wash them with flour of Mustard. 
*Or, in bran and water boiled together. 
29. (To Cure.) 
Wash them with soft soap, mixt with red 
sand : Tried. 
Or, wash them in sugar and water: Tried. 
30. Chopt Lips. 
Apply a little sal prunelhe. 
31. A Cold. 
Drink a pint of cold water, lying down in 
bed: Tried. 
Or, a spoonful of treacle in half a pint of 
water; Tried. 
Or, to one spoonful of oatmeal, and one 
spoonful of honey, add a piece of butter, the 
bigness of a nutmeg : pour on gradually 
near a pint of boiling water : drink this ly- 
ing down in bed. 
32. A Cold in the Head. 
Pare very thin, the yellow rind of an or- 
ange. Roll it up inside out, and thrust a 
roll into each nostril. 
33. The Cholic (in the Fit.) 
Drink of camomile tea : 30 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, take from thirty to forty grains of yel- 
low peel of oranges, dried and powdered in 
a glass of water. 
*Or, take from five to six drops of oil of 
aniseed on a lump of sugar. 
*Or, apply outwardly a bag of hot oats : 
*Or steep the legs in hot water a quarter 
of an hour: 
*Or, take as much Daffy’s elixir as will 
presently purge. This relieves the most vi- 
olent cholic in an hour or two. 
dCF’Daffy’s Elixir is made thus :—Sena 
two ounces, jalap one ounce, coriander seed 
half an ounce : Geneva, or proof spirit, three 
pints : let them digest seven daps : strain and 
add loaf sugar four ounces. 
34. The Dry Cholic (to prevent.) 
Drink ginger tea. 
35. Cholic in Children.* 
Give a scruple of powdered aniseed in 
their meat: Tried. 
Or, small doses of magnesia. 
*Or a drachm of anisated tincture of rhu- 
barb, every three hours till it operates. 
subject to daily and severe cholic pains, 
should take the breast sparingly, and chiefty be fed on 
simple t hicken broth. Strong mallows root tea taken 
frequently, is an excellent "medicine in this com- 
plaint.] PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
31 
36. Bilious Cholic.* 
Drink warm lemonade: 
Or, give a spoonful of castor oil.t 
37. An Habitual Cholic. 
*Wear a thin, soft flannel on the part. 
38. An Hysteric Cholic.J 
Mrs. Watts, by using the cold bath two 
and twenty times in a month, was entirely 
cured of an hysteric cholic, fits, and convul- 
sive motions, continual sweatings and vomit- 
ing, wandering pains in her limbs and head, 
with total loss of appetite. 
*Take 10, 15, or 20 drops of balsam of 
Peru on fine sugar: if need be twice or 
thrice a-day. 
Or, in extremity, boil three ounces of 
burdock-seed in water, which give as a 
clyster : ; y ' 
*Tliis is generally attended with vomiting a green- 
ish or frothy matter, with feverish heat, violent t-.irst, 
a bitter taste in the mouth, and little ami high colour- 
ed urine. 
•jrTake one table-spoonful of Castor oil, mixed with 
a spoonful of lemon juice or sharp vinegar sweetened, 
every hour until it purges. This is a safe, easy, and 
effectual purge, not only in all those complaints where 
the bowels are the seat of disease, hut also in the in- 
termitting and remitting bilious fevers incident to 
warm climates.] 
Jls attended with a violent pain about the pit of the 
stomach, with great sinking of the spirits, and often 
with greenish vomitings. 32 
*or, twenty drops of laudanum in any pro- 
per clyster; which gives instant ease. 
[ln this disorder there often is such a vom- 
iting, that no medicine for the present can 
be contained on the stomach long enough 
to be advantageous. A little warm water 
may be given at first; then cover the sick 
with an extraordinary quantity of bed- 
clothes ; when she becomes warm, the vom- 
iting ceases ; then a grain of opium may be 
taken, and if the complaints are not relieved 
thereby in half an hour, it may be repealed. 
A day or two after, a warm purge should be 
taken : Tried.] 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Use the cold bath daily for three or four 
tveeks. 
39. A Nervous Cholic.* 
40. Cholic from the Fumes of Lead, or 
White Lead, Verdigrease, &c. 
In the fit, drink fresh melted butter, and 
then vomit with warm water : 
*To prevent or cure. Breakfast daily bn 
fat broth, and use oil of sweet almonds fre- 
quently. 
Smelters of metals, plumbers, &c. may 
be in a good measure preserved from the 
*This, some term the dry belty-ach. It often con- 
tinues several days with little urine and obstinate 
costiveness. 
A cholic with purging-, some term the watery gripes. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
33 
poisonous fumes that surround them, by 
breathing through cloth or flannel mufflers 
two or three fold, dipt in a solution of sea 
salt, or salt of tartar, and then dried. These 
mufflers might also be of great use in many 
similar cases. 
41. Windy Cholic. 
Parched peas, eaten freely, have had the 
most happy effects, when all other means 
had failed. 
42. To prevent the ill effects of Cold. 
The moment a person gets into a house 
with his hands or feet quite chilled, let him 
put them into a vessel of water, as cold as 
oan be got, and hold them there till they be- 
gin to glow. This they will do in a minute 
or two. This method likewise effectually 
prevents chilblains. 
43. A Consumption. 
One in a deep consumption, was advised 
to drink nothing but water, and eat noth- 
ing but water-gruel, without salt or sugar. 
In three months time, he was perfectly 
well. 
Take no food but new butter-milk,churned 
in a bottle, and white bread. I have known 
this successful. 
Or, use as common drink, spring water 
and new milk, each a quart *, and sugar can- 
dy two ounces.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, boil two handfuls of sorrel in a pint 
of whey. Strain it, and drink a glass thrice 
a-day ; Tried. 
Or, turn a pint of skimmed milk with half 
a pint of small beer. Boil in this whey 
about twenty ivy-leaves, and two or three 
sprigs of hyssop. Drink half over night, 
the rest in (he morning. Do this, if need- 
ful for two months daily. This has cured in 
a desperate case; Tried. 
Or take a cow-heel from the tripe-house 
ready dressed, two quarts of new milk, two 
ounces of hartshorn shavings, two ounces 
of isinglass, a quarter of a pound of sugar- 
candy, and a race of ginger. Put all these 
in a pot, and set'them in an oven after the 
bread is drawn. Let it continue there till 
the oven is near cold ; and let the patient 
live on this. I have known this cure a deep 
consumption more than once. 
Or, every morning cut up a little turf of 
fresh earth, and lying down, breathe into 
the hole for a quarter of an hour. I have 
known a deep consumption cured thus. 
“ Mr. Masters of Evesham, was so far 
gone in a consumption, that he could not 
stand alone 1 advised him to loose six 
ounces of blood every day for a fortnight, if 
he lived so long ; and then every other day ; 
then every third day ; then every fifth day, 
for the same time. In three months he was 
well.” (Dr. Dover.) Tried. This precrip- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
lion will not be safe in any case but where 
the pulse continues pretty strong, and there 
are signs of inflammation. 
Or, throw frankincense on burning coals, 
and receive the smoke daily through a pro- 
per tube into the lungs: Tried. 
Or, take in for a quarter of an hour, 
morning and evening, the steam of white 
rosin and beesAvax, boiling on a hot fire 
shovel. This has cured one avlio was in the 
third stage of a consumption. 
Or, the steam of sweet spirit of vitriol 
dropt into warm water. 
Or, take morning and evening, a lea- 
spoonful of while rosin powdered and mixt 
with honey. This cured one in less than a 
month, who Avas very near death. 
Or, drink thrice a day lavo spoonfuls of 
juice of water-cresses. This has cured a 
deep consumption. 
In the last stage, suck an healthy Avoinau 
daily. Tried by my father. 
*For diet, use milk and apples, or water- 
gruel made Avith fine flour. Drink cyder- 
Avhey, barley-Avater sharpened Avith lemoa 
juice, or apple-water. 
So long as the tickling cough continues, 
chew well and swallow a mouthful or lavo, of 
a biscuit, ora crust of bread twice a-day. 
If you cannot savulloav it, spit it out. This 
will always shorten the fit, and tvould often 36 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
prevent a consumption. See extract from 
Dr. Tissot, page 37. 
44. Convulsions. 
Use the cold bath : 
*Or, take a tea-spoonful of valerian root 
powdered, in a cup of water, every even* 
ing. 
*Or, half a drachm of misselto powdered, 
every six hours, drinking after it a draught 
of strong infusion thereof. 
43. Convulsions in Children. 
Scrape piony roots fresh digged. Apply 
what you have scraped oft' to the soles of the 
feel. It helps immediately. Tried. 
46. Convulsions in the Bowels of Chil- 
dren. 
Give a child a quarter old, a spoonful of 
the juice of pellitory of the wall, two or three 
limes a-day. It goes through at once, but 
purges no more. Use the syrup if the juice 
cannot be had. 
47, Corns (to prevent.) 
Frequently wash the feet in cold water. 
48. Corns (to Cure.) 
Apply fresh every morning the yeast of 
small beer, spread on a rag : 
Or, after paring them close, apply bruis- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
ed ivy-leaves daily, and in fifteen days they 
will drop out: Tried. 
Some corns are cured by a pitch plaster. 
All are greatly eased by steeping the 
feet in hot water wherein oat meal is boil- 
ed. This also helps dry and hot feet. 
Rise early every morning : 
Or, boil in a pint and a half of broth, half 
a handful of mallow leaves chopt; strain 
this and drink it before you eat any thing 
else. Do this frequently, if needful. 
Or, breakfast twice a week or oftener, on 
water-gruel with currants : Tried. 
*Or, take the bigness of a large nutmeg 
of cream of tartar mixt with honey, as often 
as you need. 
*Or, take daily two hours before dinner, 
a small tea cupful of stewed prunes : 
Or, use for common drink, water, or tre- 
acle beer, impregnated with fixed air: 
Or, live upon bread made of wheat flour, 
with all the bran in it. 
Or, boil an ounce and a half of tamarinds 
i.n three pints of water to a quart. In this 
strained, when cold, infuse all night two 
drachms of sena, and one drachm of red rose 
leaves. Drink a cup every morning when 
costive.—Sec Dr. Tissot. 
49. Costiveness. 
50. A Cough. 
Make a hole through a lemon and fill it 38 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
with honey; roast it and catch the juice. 
Take a tea spoonful of this frequently; 
Tried. 
[Or, take a table-spoonful of molasses 
each night and morning, and drink, in com- 
mon, molasses and water : Tried.] 
Or, take Spanish liquoviceltwo ounces, 
salt of tartar half an ounce ; boil the liquo- 
rice in three pints of water to a quart. Add 
the salt to it when it is blood warm. Drink 
two spoonfuls of this every two hours. It 
seldom fails: Tried. I have known this 
cure an inveterate moist asthma. 
Or, at lying down keep a little stick- 
liquorice like horse-radish between the 
cheek and the gums. I believe this never 
fails. 
Or, peal and slice a large turnip, spread 
coarse sugar between the slices, and let it 
stand in a dish till all the juice drains down. 
Take a spoonful of this whenever you 
cough. 
*Or, take a spoonful of syrup of horc- 
hound, morning and evening : Tried. 
Or, take! from fifteen to twenty drops of 
elixir of vitriol, in a glass of water, thrice 
a-day. This is useful when the cough is at- 
tended with costiveness, and relaxation of 
the stomach and lungs. 
Or, powder an ounce of spermaceti fine. 
Work it in a marble mortar with the yolk PRIMITIVE PRVSIC. 
of a new laid egg; mix them in a pint of 
white wine and take a small glass every 
three hours. 
Or, Vlrink water w'hitened with oatmeal 
four times a-day. 
Or, keep a piece of barley-sugar, or sugar- 
candy constantly in the mouth. 
51. Violent Coughing from a sharp and 
thin Rheum. 
Work into old conserve of roses, as much 
as you can of pure frankincense powdered 
as fine as possible. Take a bolus of this 
twice or thrice a-day. It eases presently, 
and cures in two or three weeks. 
Or, take half a grain of the inspissated 
milky juice of sowthistle, once or twice a- 
day. It has the anodyne, and antispasrao- 
dic properties of opium, without its narcot- 
ic effects Or, it may be made into lauda- 
num. in the same manner that opium is, and 
five or six drops taken on a lump of sugar, 
thrice a-day. The milky juice of all the 
sowthistles, dandelions, and lettuces, have 
nearly the same virtues. 
*Or use milk diet as much as possible. 
52. The Cramp (to prevent.) 
Tie your garter smooth and tight under 
your knee at going to bed : I never knew 
this fail. 
Or, take half a pint of tar-water, morn- 
ing and evening; *Or, be electrified through the part that 
uses to be affected. This generally pre- 
vents it for a month : sometimes for a twelve- 
month. 
Or, to one ounce and a half of spirits of 
turpentine, add flour of brimstone and sul- 
phur vivum of each half an ounce ; smell to 
it at night, three or four times. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC# 
53. The Cramp (to Cure.) 
*Chafe the part with Hungary water : 
Or, hold a roll of brimstone in your hand. 
1 have frequently done this with success. 
54. A Cut. 
Keep it closed with your thumb a quarter 
of an hour. Then double a rag five or six 
times, dip it in cold water, and bind it on : 
Tried. 
55. Deafness. 
Be electrified through the ear : Tried. 
Or, use (he cold bath : 
Or, put a little salt into the ear : 
Or, drop into it a tea-spoonful of salt 
water : 
*Or, three or four drops of onion juice, at 
lying down, and stop it with a little wool. 
56. Deafness from Wax. 
*Syringc (he car with warm water: 
Tried. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
41 
57. Deafness with a dry Ear. 
*Mix brandy and sweet oil; clip black 
wool in this, and put it into the ear. When 
it grows dry, wash it well in brandy : dip it 
and put it in again. 
68. Delivery. 
After delivery in child-birth, (he mother’s 
milk is the only proper purge for the child. 
Let it begin to suck ten or twelve hours after 
the birth. 
69. A Diabetes.* 
D rink wine boiled with ginger, as much 
and as often as your strength will bear. Let 
your drink be milk and water. All milk- 
meats are good : 
*Or, drink three or four times a-day, a 
quarter of a pint of alum posset, putting 
three drachms of alum to four pints of milk. 
It seldom fails .to cure in eight or ten days. 
(Dr. Mead.) 
60. The Dropsy.f 
Use the cold bath daily, after purging : 
* A diabetes is a frequent and large discharge of pale 
and sweetish urine, attended with a constant thirst, 
and a wasting of the whole body. 
f A dropsy is a preternatural collection of water in 
the head, breast, belly, or all over the body. It is 
attended with a continual thirst. The pari swelled 
pits if you press it with your fingers. The urine is 
pale and little. *or, rub the swelled parts with sallad-oil 
by a warm hand, at least an hour a-day.— 
This has done wonders in some cases : 
Orf cover the whole belly with a large 
new sponge dipt in strong lime water, and 
then squeezed out. This bound on often 
cures, even without any sensible evacuation 
of water. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, apply green dock-leaves to the joints 
and soles of the feet, changing them once 
a-day. 
Or, mix half an ounce of amber with a 
quart of wine vinegar. Heat a brick (only not 
red hot) and put it into a tub. Pour them 
upon it, and hold the parts swelled over the 
smoke, covering the tub close to keep in the 
smoke. The water will come out incredibly, 
and the patient be cured ; Tried. 
Or, eat a crust of bread every morning 
fasting; Tried. 
Or, mix a pound of the coarsest sugar 
with a pint of juice of pellitory of the wall, 
bruised in a marble mortar. Boil it as long 
as any scum rises. When cool, bottle and 
cork it. If very bad, take three spoonfuls at 
night, and two in the morning, it seldom 
fails : Tried. 
Or, make tea of roots of dwarf elder.— 
It works by urine. Every twelve or four- 
teen minutes (that is, after every discharge) 
drink a tea-cupful.—l have known a dropsy 
cured by this in twelve hours time. One was cured by taking a drachm of ni- 
tre every morning in a little ale. 
Tar water drank twice a-day has cured 
many ; so has an infusion of juniper ber- 
ries roasted, and made into a liquor like cof- 
fee : 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
43 
Or, three spoonfuls of the juice of leeks, or 
elder leaves : Tried. 
*Or, half a pint of decoction of butcher’s 
broom (intermixing purges twice or thrice a 
week.) The proper purge is ten grains of 
jalap, with six of powdered ginger. It may 
be increased or lessened according to the 
strength of the patient. 
Or, of the decoction of the tops of oak- 
boughs. This cured an inveterate dropsy 
in fifteen days : 
Or, take sena, cream of tartar, and jalap, 
half an ounce of each. Mix them and take 
half a drachm every morning in broth. It 
usually cures in twenty days. This is 
nearly the same with Dr. Ward’s powder. 
I suppose he took it from hence. lie says 
it seldom fails either in the watery or windy 
dropsy. 
Or, steep half an ounce of jalap in a 
gill of Geneva for twelve hours. Draw it 
off. Divide it into three parts, and lake 
it every other morning. Then put a large 
spoonful of syrup of marsh mallows into 
half a pint of stale beer, and when it has 
boiled a little, cool it, and drink it at lying 44 
down in bed. Do this three times. This 
has cured many. 
Or, be electrified: this cures dropsies 
supposed incurable. 
amazingly little is yet known even 
of the human body ! Have not dropsical per- 
sons been continually advised to abstain from 
drink as much as possible ? But how can 
7ve. reconcile this with the following undeni- 
able facts, published in ike medical transac- 
tions ? 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Jane Roberts, aged twenty, was at last 
constrained to take to her bed by a confirm- 
ed ascites anasarca. In this desperate case, 
she drank as much as she would, first of small 
beer; and when that failed, of thin milk.— 
After awhile her skin cracked in many 
places : and she continued drinking and 
leaking till she was quite well. 
A middle aged man in the west of Eng- 
land, drank every day five or six quarts of 
cyder: and without any other medicine was 
totally cured in a few weeks time of a dropsy 
long supposed to be incurable. 
A farmer aged seventy, in a confirmed as- 
cites, was given over for dead. Being des- 
perate, he drank three quarts of cold water, 
every four and twenty hours. His whole 
food meantime was sea-biscuit, sometimes 
with a little butter. For sixteen days he 
seemed worse. Then he discharged for 
near a week a vast quantity of water, and PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
45 
was soon free from his disease, which never 
returned. 
61. Drowned. 
Rub the trunk of the body all over with 
hot salt. It frequently recovers them that 
seem dead.—See extract from Dr. Tissot, 
page 150. 
And blow into the lungs. 
62. The Ear-ach, without Inflammation. 
Rub the ear hard a quarter of an hour: 
Tried. 
*Or, be electrified : 
Or, put in a roasted fig, or onion, as hot as 
may be: Tried. 
Or, blow the smoke of tobacco strongly 
into it. 
But if the ear-ach is caused by an in- 
flammation of the uvula, it is cured in two 
or three hours, by receiving into the mouth 
the steam of bruised hemp-seed, boiled in 
water. 
63. Ear-ach from Cold. 
Boil rue, or rosemary, or garlic, and let 
the steam go into the ear through a funnel. 
64. Ear-ach from Heat. 
Apply cloths four double and dipt in cold 
water, changing them when warm, for half 
an hour. 65. Hard Wax in the Ear, 
Is best dissolved by warm water. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
66. Eyes bleared. 
Drop into them the juice of crab-apples. 
67. A Blood-shot Eye. 
*Apply linen rags dipt in cold water twro 
or three hours : 
Or, blow in white sugar-candy, finely 
powdered: 
Or, apply boiled hyssop as a poultice.— 
This has a wonderful efficacy. 
68. A Bruise in the Eye. 
Apply as a plaster, conserve of roses. 
69. Clouds flying before the Eye. 
Take a drachm of powdered betony eve- 
ry morning. 
*Or, be electrified. 
70. Blindness, 
Is often cured by cold bathing ; 
Or, by electrifying : Tried. This has 
cured even a gutta serena of twenty-foilr 
years standing. 
71. Dull Sight. 
Drop in two or three drops of juice of 
rotten apples often. 
72. Films. 
Mix juice of ground ivy with a little ho- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
ney, and two or three grains of bay salt,— 
Drop it in morning and evening. 
73. Hot or Sharp Humours. 
Apply a few drops of double-refined su- 
gar, melted in Brandy : Tried. 
Or, boil a handful of bramble-leaves with 
a little alum, in a quart of spring-water, to a 
pint. Drop this frequently into the eye.— 
This likewise cures cankers or any sores. 
Or, lay a thin slice of raw beef on the nape 
of the neck : Tried. 
74. Eyes or Eye-lids Inflamed. 
Apply as a poultice, boiled, roasted or 
rotten apples, warm. 
*Or, wormwood tops with the yolk of an 
egg : This will hardly fail. 
*Or, beat up the while of an egg with 
two spoonfuls of white rose-water, into a 
white froth. Apply this on a fine rag. 
changing it so that it may not grow dry, till 
the eye or eye-lid is well: Tried. 
*Or, dissolve an ounce of fine gum arabic 
in two or three spoonfuls of spring water : 
put a drop into the inner corner of the eye, 
from the point of a hair pencil, four or five 
times a-day. At the same time take as 
much salt-petre as will lie upon a six-pence, 
dissolved in a glass of wTater, three or four 
times a-day; abstaining from all strong 48 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
liquids as much as possible, till cured.— 
White bread poultices applied to the eyes in 
an inflamed state, frequently occasion total 
blindness. 
*After the inflammation is subsided, if 
weakness still remains, dip a finger in the 
white copperas eye-water, and rub round 
the eye three or four times a-day—(QX’All 
acrid eye-waters, and powders, put into the 
eyes when they are inflamed, horribly in- 
crease both the pain and inflammation. 
75. A Lachrymal Fistula.* 
Apply a poultice of fine leaves of rue : 
Or, wash the eye morning and evening 
with a decoction of quince-leaves. 
76. Pearl in the Eye. 
Apply a drop of juice of celandine with a 
feather thrice a-day : 
*Or, dissolve a little sal ammoniac in 
rose-water. Keep this three days in a cop- 
per vessel. Drop it twice a-day into the 
eye. 
Or, reduce separately, to the finest pow- 
der possible, an equal weight of loaf-sugar, 
cream of tartar, and bole artnoniac; mix 
them together, and put a little into the eye. 
(without blowing it in) three or four limes 
a-day. 
*This disorder in the inner corner of the eye, cau- 
ses the tears to flow involuntarily. When it is confirm- 
ed, only a surgeon can cure it PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
49 
77. Sore-Eyes. 
Drink eye-bright tea, and wash the eyes 
with it. 
78. An excellent Eye-water. 
*Put half an ounce of lapis calaminaris 
powdered, into half a pint of French white 
wine, and as much white rose-water, drop a 
drop or two into the corner of the eye. It 
cures soreness, weakness, and most diseases 
of the eyes. I have known it cure total 
blindness. 
79. Another. 
*Boil very lightly one tea-spoonful of 
white coperas scraped, and three spoonfuls 
of white salt in three pints of spring water. 
When cold, bottle it, in large vials without 
straining. Take up the vial softly, and put 
a drop or two in the eye morning and eve- 
ning:. 
It answers the intention of almost all 
the preceding medicines ; it takes away red- 
ness or any soreness whatever; it cures pearls, 
rheums, and often blindness itself. 
80. Another. 
Stamp and strain ground-ivy, celandine, 
and daisies, an equal quantity : add a little 
rose-water and loaf-sugar. Drop a drop or 
two at a time in the eye, and it takes away 
all manner of inflammation, smarting, ilch-  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
ing, spots, webs, or any other disorder what- 
soever, yea though the sight were almost 
gone. 
81. An Eye-water, which was used by 
Sir Stephen Fox, when he was sixty years 
of age, and could hardly see with the help 
of spectacles ; but hereby in some lime he 
recovered his sight, and could read the 
smallest print without spectacles, till above 
eighty. 
Take six ounces of rectified spirits of 
wine, dissolve it in one drachm of camphire, 
then add two small handfulls of dried elder 
flowers. In twenty-four hours after it is in- 
fused, it is ready for use. Take out a lit- 
tle in a tea-spoon : dip your finger in it, 
and bathe your forehead over your eyes, 
and each temple with it several times, morn- 
ing and night, and twice more in the day 
constantly. Mean time dip, a soft rag in 
dead small beer, new milk warm, and daub 
each eye a dozen times gently, morning and 
evening. 
If it is a watery humour, you may with 
your finger wet the eye-lids two or three 
times a-piece: but be sure to shut your 
eyes, for it makes them smart and burn ex- 
cessively. If you have the tooth-ach or 
swelled face, rub it well in on the part, and it PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
51 
will take away the pain. It will cure any 
bruise also, if used immediately : Tried. 
It will cure any inflammation in the eyes. 
82. Weak Eyes. 
*Wash the head daily with cold water : 
Tried. 
[Or take of white vitriol half a drachm, 
rose water six ounces to dissolve it, and fil- 
ter the water ; to touch the eye often. The 
temples and around the eye may be touched 
with camphorated spirits. 
the eyes are inflamed, the patient 
should be blooded or purged; and if neces- 
sary, blisters behind the ears, or a seton to 
the back of the neck.] 
83. Fainting, on letting Blood, 
Is prevented by taking before it some 
good broth : 
*Or, by lying on the bed during the ope- 
ration. 
84. The Falling Sickness.* 
Be electrified: Tried. 
*Or, use the cold bath for a month daily : 
Or, take a tea-spoonful of piony-root dri- 
ed and grated fine, morning and evening for 
three months: 
*ln the Falling Sickness the patient falls to the 
ground, either quite stiff, or convulsed all over, utter- 
ly senseless, gnashing of his teeth, and foaming at the 
mouth. 52 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
* Or, half a spoonful of valerian root pow- 
dered.—lt often cures in twic e taking ; 
Or, half a pint of tar-water, morning and 
evening, for three months : 
Or, a glass of juice of piilitory of the wall, 
every morning: Tried. 
Or, take five or six drops of laudanum, 
fasting, for six or seven mornings. This 
has cured many: 
*Or, use an entire milk diet for three 
months : it seldom fails. 
Or. leaves of assarabacca powdered,— 
... T his is the famous Major’s snuff. 
One who is subject to the falling sickness, 
may prevent a fit if he feels it coining, by 
this simple experiment. Let him always 
carry with him a piece of metal as broad as 
he is able to hold between his teeth, when 
his jaws are stretched to the utmost. When 
he feels the fit approaching, let him imme- 
diately put this between his teeth, so as to 
keep his jaws at their utmost stretch. In 
about a minute this will bring him quite to 
himself, and prevent the fit for that time. 
If one put this metal between the teeth of 
one that is in the fit, and force them open, 
til! his jaws are at the utmost stretch, the 
fit will immediately go off, and the patient 
very soon recover. 
85. The falling of the Fundament. 
Boil a handful of red rose-leaves in a PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
quarter of a pint of red wine : dip a cloth 
in it and apply it as hot as can be borne,— 
Do this till all is used.* 
86. A falling down of the Womb, 
May be cured in the manner last men- 
tioned : 
*Or, wear a pessory of cork, and take 
twice a-day a tea-cupful of the decoction of 
the bark, with ten drops of elixir of vitriol. 
87. Extreme Fat. 
*Use a total vegetable diet. I know one 
who was entirely cured of this, by living a 
year thus: she breakfasted and supped oa 
milk and water (with bread) and dined on 
turnips, carrots and other roots, drinking 
water. 
88. A Fever. 
[ln the beginning of any fever, if the stom- 
ach is uneasy, vomit ; if the bowels, purge ; 
if the pulse be hard, full, or strong, bleed.] 
Drink a pint and a half of cold water ly- 
ing down in bed: I never knew it do hurt. 
*Or, thin water-gruel sweetened with ho- 
ney, with one or two drachms of nitre in each 
quart. 
*[Oi! org&ase the ends of the fingers well, and re- 
duce it immediately by a gentle continued pressure on 
the part. This can always easily be done as soon as 
the accident happens.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
The best of all jalaps in a fever is 
this : Toast a large thin slice of bread, 
without burning ; put it hot into a pint of 
cold water: then set it on the fire till it is 
prelt}' hot. In a dry heat it may be given 
cold, in a moist heat, warm ; the more large- 
ly the better :—Tried. 
Or, for a change use pippin or wood sor- 
rel tea, or pippin posset drink: or wood 
sorrel posset-drink. 
[To prevent catching any infectious fe- 
ver, do not breathe near the face of the sick 
person, neither swallow your spittle while 
in the room. Infection seizes the stomach 
first.] 
*Ur, use Dr. Boerhaavc’s fever powder, 
viz. eight ounces of nitre, a quarter of an 
ounce of camphire, half a quarter of an 
ounce of saffron, and eight grains of cochi- 
neal. These are to be powdered, raixt to- 
gether and kept dry in a bottle. Ten grains 
taken on going to bed abates feverish heat, 
and procures rest. Ten grains are to be 
taken every three or four hours for a con- 
tinued fever. 
89. A High Fever, 
Attended with a delirium and vigilia, has 
been cured by plunging into cold water;, 
which is a safe and sure remedy in the be- 
ginning of any fever. 
Such a delirium is often cured by apply- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
ing to the top of the head, a treacle plaster : 
Tried. 
90. A Fever with Pains in the Limbs. 
Take twenty drops of spirits of hartshorn 
in a cup of water twice or thrice in twenty- 
four hours : 
Or, drink largely of cinquefoil tea. 
91. Rash Fever. 
Drink every hour a spoonful of juice of 
ground-ivy. It often cures in twenty-four 
hours.—Use the decoction when you have 
not the juice. 
92. A Slow Fever. 
Use the cold bath for two or three weeks 
daily. 
[ln putrid or nervous fevers, though they 
do not intermit, yet after proper evacua- 
tions, the bark may be advantageously giv- 
en, thus : Take of the powder of the bark 
two ounces, orange-peel an ounce and a 
half, Virginia snake-root three drachms, 
English saffron four scruples, cochineal two 
scruples ; infuse them in twenty ounces of 
best distilled spirits: and the sick may 
take from a drachm to half an ounce occa- 
sionally in his lucid intervals.— Huxham.— 
Tried.] 
Boil a handful of rue and wormwood in 
93. A Worm Fever. 56 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
water; foment the belly with the decoction, 
and apply the boiled herbs as a poultice; 
repeat the application night and morning. 
This frequently brings away worms from 
children, who will take no interna] medi- 
cine : and is likewise serviceable, if the fe- 
ver be of the putrid kind. 
94. A Fistula. 
Wash muscle shells clean : burn them to 
powder; sift them fine; mix them with 
hog’s lard ; spread it on clean washed leath- 
er, and apply it. This cured one that was 
thought to be at the point of death. 
Or, have a vessel so contrived that you 
may sit with the part in cold water a quar- 
ter of an hour every morning. 1 have known 
a gentleman of seventy years cured hereby. 
Or, put a large stone of unslackcd lime 
into four quarts of water, let it stand one 
night; take four ounces of roch-alum, and 
four ounces of white coperas, calcine them 
to dryness, then powder them as fine as pos- 
sible ; take three pints of the above water, 
and put the powder into it, and boil it for 
half an hour, then let it cool and bottle it 
for use. Let the fistula be syringed with 
this often, a little warm : and make a tent 
to fit the place, and dip it in the water, and 
apply it twice a-day. Cover it over with a 
plaster of diaculum. 
’This cures the piles. PRIMITIVE PHVSIC. 
This water will destroy the qallosity of 
the edges of the fistula which otherwise 
would prevent its healing, and if managed 
as above, will heal it up at the same time; 
but an operation is the only certain means. 
95. To destroy Fleas and Bugs. 
Cover the floor of the room with leaves 
of alder, gathered while the dew hangs up- 
on them: adhering to these, they are killed 
thereby. 
Or, powder stavesacre, and sprinkle it on 
the body, or on the bed. 
96. Flegm. 
To prevent or cure, take a spoonful of 
warm water, the first thing in the morning. 
97. Flooding (in Lying-in.) 
Cover the body with cloths dipt in vine- 
gar and water, changing them as they grow 
warm. Drink cooling acid liquors. 
This is a complaint which is never to be 
thought little of. Sometimes a violent flood- 
ing comes on before delivery; and the only 
way to save both the mother and child, is to 
deliver the woman immediately : which be- 
ing done, the flooding will generally cease. 
Sometimes a slight flooding comes on some 
weeks before labour; and here, if the pa- 
tient be kept cool, her diet light, and small 
doses of nitre often repeated (an ounce di- 58 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
vided into thirty parts, and one given every 
four hours) she will frequently go her full 
time and do well: but if it should become 
excessive, delivery should be effected as 
soon as may be. 
*lf a flooding should come on after a de- 
livery, the patient should be laid with her 
head low, kept cool, and be in all respects 
treated as for an excessive flux of the men- 
ses. Linen cloths which have been wrung 
out. of vinegar and water, should be applied 
to the belly, the loins, and the thighs.— 
These must be changed as they grow dry ; 
and may be discontinued as soon as the 
flooding abates. Sometimes the following 
mixture will do great things, viz. syrup of 
poppies two ounces ; acid elixir of vitriol 
one drachm. Mix and take two table- 
spoonfuls every hour. But large doses of 
nitre given often (a scruple every hour) is 
generally the most efficacious. But when 
all other things seem to have no effect, cold 
water dashed upon (he patient’s belly will 
stop the flooding immediately. 
98. A Flux. 
Receive the smoke of turpentine cast on 
burning coals. This cures also the bloody 
flux, and the falling of the fundament. 
Or, put a large brown toast into three 
quarts of water, with a drachm of cochineal 
powdered, and a drachm of salt of worm- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
wood. Drink it all in as short a time as 
you conveniently can. 
This rarely fails to cure all fluxes, 
cnoiera morbus, yea and inflammations of 
the bowels : Tried. 
Or, take a spoonful of plantane-seed 
bruised, morning and evening, till it stops : 
*Or, ten grains of ipecacuana, three morn- 
ings successively. It is likewise excellent 
as a sudorific. 
Or, boil four ounces of rasped logwood, or 
fresh logwood chips, in three quarts of wa- 
ter to two ; strain it and drink a quarter of a 
pint, sweetened with loaf sugar, warm, twice 
a-day. It both binds and heals : 
Or, take a small tea-cupful of it every 
hour; this is to be used in the end of the 
complaint. 
Or, boil the fat of a breast of mutton in a 
quart of water for an hour. Drink the broth 
as soon as you can conveniently. This will 
cure the most inveterate flux. Tried.—See 
extract from Dr. Tissot, page 124. 
99. A Bloody Flux. 
[ls attended with a fever, griping, or great 
pain in the intestines.—As this fever is na- 
ture’s effort to discharge some offensive mat- 
ter by stool, therefore often it will be neces- 
ry to assist her by bleeding and purging; or 
laxative medicines; or else it will be unsafe 60 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
to stop the flux, but when the former medi- 
cines have been used with mutton broth : 
the drink may be water boiled with one 
fourth milk, and drank cold. In old dyssen- 
teries, fruit and milk may be a proper diet: 
Tried.] 
Or, take a large apple, and at the top 
pick out all the core, and fill up the place 
with a piece of honey-comb (the honey be- 
ing strained out) roast the apple in embers 
and eat it, and this will stop the flux imme- 
diately : 
Or, grated rhubarb, as much as lies on a 
shilling, with half as much of grated nutmeg, 
in a glass of white wine, at lying down eve- 
ry other night: Tried. 
Or, take four drops of laudanum, and ap- 
ply to the belly a poultice of wormwood 
and red roses boiled in milk. 
In a dysentery, the worst of all fluxes, 
feed on rice, saloup, sago, and sometimes 
beef tea, but no flesh. 
To slop it lake a spoonful of suet melted 
over a slow fire. Do not let blood. 
A person was cured in one day, by 
feeding on rice-milk, and sitting a quarter 
of an hour in a shallow tub, having in it 
warm water three inches deep.—See ex- 
tract from Dr. Tissot, page 125. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
61 
100. To prevent (or stop a beginning) 
Gangrene. 
Foment continually with vinegar, in which 
dross of iron (either sparks or duikers) has 
been boiled. 
101. The Gout in the Stomach. 
“ Dissolve two drachms of Venice trea- 
cle in a glass of mountain wine. After drink- 
ing it go to bed. You will be easier in two 
hours, and well in sixteen.” (Dr. Dover.) 
Or, boil a pugil* of tansey in a quarter of 
a pint of mountain. Drink it in bed.— 
1 believe this never fails. 
*To prevent its return, dissolve half an 
ounce of gum guaiacuin in two ounces of sal 
volatile. Take a tea-spoonful of this every 
morning in a glass of spring-water. 
This helps any sharp pain in the 
stomach. Dr. Bcerhaaxe. 
N. B. I knew a gentleman who was cured 
many times by a large draught of cold wa- 
ter. 
102. The Gout in the Foot or Hand. 
Apply a raw, lean beef-steak. Change it 
once in twelve hours, till cured : Tried. 
pugil is as much as you can take up between 
your thumb and two fore fingers. 62 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
103. The Gout in any Limb.* 
Rub the part with warm treacle, and then 
bind on a flannel smeared therewith.— 
Repeat this, if need be, once in twelve 
hours. 
Th is has cured an inveterate gout in 
thirty-six hours. 
Or, drink a pint of strong infusion of elder- 
buds, dry or green, morning and evening. 
This has cured inveterate gouts. 
Or, at six in the evening, undress, and 
wrap yourself up in blankets. Then put 
your legs up to the knees in water, as hot 
as you can bear it. As it cools let hot wa- 
ter be poured in, so as to keep you in a 
strong sweat till ten. Then go into a bed 
well wanned, and sweat till morning. I 
have known this cure an inveterate gout, in 
a person above sixty, who lived eleven years 
after. The very matter of the gout is fre- 
quently destroyed, by a steady use of Myn- 
sicht’s elixir of vitriol. 
[Or, take gum guaiacura four ounces, salt 
petre two ounces, dissolve them fourteen 
days in two pounds of Jamaica spirits ; take 
two spoonfuls morning and evening. But 
*Regard them not who say, the gout ought not to 
be cured. They mean it cannot. I know it cannot 
by their regular prescriptions. But I have known it 
cured in many cases without any ill effects following 
1 have cured myself several times. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
the grand medicine will be temperance and 
exercise.] ' 
104. The Gravel. 
Eat largely of spinach ; 
Or, drink largely of warm water sweeten- 
ed with honey : 
Or, of pellitory of the wall tea, so sweet- 
ened : 
Or, infuse an ounce of wild parsley seeds 
in a pint of white wine for twelve days.— 
Drink a glass of it fasting, three months.— 
To prevent its return, breakfast for three 
months an agrimony tea. It entirely cured 
me twenty years ago, nor have 1 had the 
least symptom of it since. 
105. The Green Sickness.* 
Take a cup of decoction of lignum guaia- 
cum, (commonly called lignum vitae) morn- 
ing and evening : 
Or, grind together into a fine powder 
three ounces of the finest steel-filings, and 
two ounces of red sugar candy. T ake from 
a scruple to half a drachm every morning.— 
I See Dr. Tissot. 
106. To kill Animalcula that cause the 
Gums to waste away from the Teeth. 
Gargle thrice a-day with salt and water. 
"[ls known by a depraved appetite, shortness of 
breath, pallid countenance, soft swelling'of the body, 
palpitation of the heart and retention of the menses.] 64 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
107. To make the Hair grow. 
Wash it every night with a strong decoc- 
tion of rosemary. Dry it with flannel:— 
Tried. 
108. The Hcad-aeh. 
Rub the head for a quarter of an hour: 
Tried. 
Or, be electrified ; Tried. 
Or, apply to each temple the thin yellow 
find of a lemon, newly pared off': 
*Or, pour upon the palm of (lie hand a lit- 
tle brandy and some zest* of lemon, and hold 
it to the forehead : 
Or, a little aether : 
Or, if you have taken cold, boil a hand- 
ful of rosemary in a quart of water. Put 
this in a mug, and hold your head (covered 
with a napkin) over the steam as hot as you 
can bear. Repeat (his till the pain ceases : 
Tried. 
Or, snuff up the nose camphorated spirits 
of lavender: 
Or, a little juice of horse-radish. 
109. A Chronical Head-ach. 
Keep your feet in warm water a quarter 
of an hour before you go to bed, for two or 
three weeks : Tried. 
*Zest is the juice of the peel squeezed out PRIMITIVE PHYSIC.. 
65 
Or wear tender hemlock leaves under the 
feet, changing them daily : 
*Or, order a tea-kettle of cold water to be 
poured on your head, every morning, in a 
slender stream : 
Or, take a large tea-cupful of carduus 
tea, without sugar, fasting, for six or seven 
mornings: Tried. 
110. A Head-ach from Heat. 
Apply to the forehead cloths dipt in cold 
water, for an hour : Tried. 
111. A Nervous Head-ach. 
Dry and powder an ounce of marjoram 
and half an ounce of assarabacca: mix 
them and take them as snuff, keeping the 
ears and throat warm. This is of great use 
even in a cancer : but it will suffice to take 
a small pinch every other night, lying down 
in bed. 
112. A Violent Head-ach. 
Take of white wine vinegar and water, 
each three spoonfuls: with half a spoonful 
of Hungary water. Apply this twice a-day 
to the eye-lids and temples. 
Use cold bathing. 
Or, apply to that part of the head shaved, 
a blister. 
113. A Hemicrania.* 
*This is a head-ach which affects but one side of 
the head. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
114. Stoppage in the Head.* 
Snuff up the juice of primrose, keeping the 
head warm. 
115. The Heart-Burning.* 
Drink a pint of cold-water : Tried. 
Or, drink slowly decoction of camomile 
flowers. 
Or, chew five or six pepper-corns a little : 
then swallow them : 
Or, chew fennel or parsley and swallow 
your spittle.—Sometimes a vomit is needful. 
Or, a piece of Spanish liquorice. 
116. The (Hiccough to prevent.) 
Infuse a scruple of musk in a quart of 
mountain wine, and take a small glass eve- 
ry morning 
117. (To Cure.) 
Swallow a mouthful of water, stopping 
the mouth and ears : Tried. 
Or, take any thing that makes you sneeze : 
Or, two or three preserved danisms : 
*Or three drops of oil of cinnamon, on a 
lump of sugar : Tried. 
Or, ten drops of chemical oil of amber 
dropt on sugar, and then mixed with a little 
water. 
:,:A sharp gnawing pain in the orifice of the sto- 
mach. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
67 
118. Hoarseness. 
Rub the soles of the feet before the fire, 
with garlic and lard well beaten together, 
over night. The hoarseness will be gone 
next morning. Tried. 
Or, take a pint of cold water lying down : 
Or, swallow slowly the juice of radishes; 
Or, half a pint of mustard-whey, lying 
down : 
Or, a tea-spoonful of conserve of roses, 
every night: Tried. 
Or, dry nettle roots in an oven. Then 
powder them finely, and mix with an equal 
quantity of treacle. Take a tea-spoonful 
of this twice a-day : 
Or boil a large handful of wheat-bran in 
a quart of water; strain and sweeten it 
with honey. Sip of it frequently. 
119. Hypochondriac and Hysteric Dis- 
orders. 
Exercise and a little good wine. Five 
grains of assafeetida, twice a-day. 
Or, cold bathing.* 
120. The Jaundice. 
Wear leaves of celandine upon and un- 
der the feet. 
Or, take a small pill of Castile soap eve- 
ry morning for eight or ten days : Tried, 
*ln the absence of an attack. 68 
PRIMITIVE PIIYSICi 
Or, beat the white of an egg thin : take it 
morning and evening in a glass of water. I. 
Or, half a pint of strong decoction of net- 
tles : Or, of burdock leaves. 
Or, boil three ounces of burdock-root, in 
two quarts of water to three pints. Drink 
a tea-cupful of this every morning. 
121. Jaundice in Children. 
*Take half an ounce of fine rhubarb, pow- 
dered. Mix with it thoroughly, by beating, 
two handfuls of good well cleansed currants. 
Of this give a lea-spoonful every morning. 
122. The Iliac Passion.* 
*Apply warm flannels soaked in spirits of 
wine : 
Or, hold a live puppy constantly on the 
belly. (Dr. Sydenham.) 
Or, immerge up, to the breast in a warm 
bath : 
Or, take, ounce by ounce, a pound and a 
half of quicksilver.—See Dr.Tissot page 120. 
Inflammations in general are more cer- 
tainly abated by smart purging than by 
bleeding.! 
*ln this violent kind of cholic the excrements are 
supposed to be thrown up by the mouth in vomiting. 
f [Besides the use of the first, second and third pre- 
scriptions under this head, take castor oil, as directed 
in the note to Billious Cholic. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
69 
123. An Imposthume. 
*Put the white of two leeks in a wet cloth, 
and so roast them in ashes, but not too much. 
Stamp them in a mortar with a little hog’s 
grease. Spread it thick, plaster-wise, and 
apply it, changing it every hour, till ail the 
matter comes out. /. 
124. The Itch * 
Wash the parts affected with strong ruin: 
Tried. 
Or, anoint them with black soap. 
*Or, steep a shirt half an hour in a quart 
of water, mixed with half an ounce of pow- 
dered brimstone. Dry it slowly, and wear 
it five or six days. Sometimes it needs re- 
pealing : Tried. 
Or, beat together the juice of two or three 
lemons, with the same quantity of oil of ro- 
ses. Anoint the parts affected. It cures in 
two or three times using. 
125. The King’s Evil.f 
Take as much cream of tartar as lies on a 
sixpence, every morning and evening : 
*This distemper is nothing1 but a kind of very small 
lice, which burrow under the skin. Therefore ifnward 
medicines are absolutely needless. Is it possible any 
physician should be ignorant of this? 
fit commonly appears first, by the thickness of (he 
lips, or a stubborn humour in the eyes, then come 
hard swellings, in the neck chiefly ; then running 
sores. 70 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, drink for six weeks half a pint of a 
strong decoction of devil’s-bit: Tried. 
Or, use the diet drink, as in the article 
Scorbutic Sores. I have known this cure 
one whose breast was as full of holes as an 
honey comb: 
Or, set a quart of honey by the fire to 
melt. When it is cold, strew into it a pound 
and a half of quick-lime beat very fine, and 
sifted through a hair-sieve Stir this about 
till it boil up of itself into a hard lump.— 
Beat it when cold, very fine, and sift it as be- 
fore. Take of this as much as lies on a shil- 
ling, in a glass of water, every morning, fast- 
ing, an hour before breakfast, at four in the 
afternoon, and at going to bed : 
Or, make a leaf of dried burdock into a 
pint of tea. Take half a pint twice a-day, 
for four months. 1 have known this cure 
hundreds. 
The best purge for the king’s evil, is tinc- 
ture of jalap, which is made thus:—Jalap in 
powder, three ounces: Geneva, or proof 
spirits, one pint. Let them infuse seven 
days. A tea-spoonful or two is sufficient 
for a child ten years old, in a morning, fast- 
ing : and repealed once a week, so as to 
keep the stomach and bowels clean, will fre- 
quently cure the king’s evil. But all vio- 
lent purges, or w'hen repeated 100 often, are 
pernicious. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
71 
126. Lameness from a fixed Contrac- 
tion of parts.* 
Beat the yolk of a new-laid egg very thin, 
and by a spoonful at a time, add and beat 
up with it three ounces of water. Rub this 
gently into the parts fora few minutes, three 
or four times a-day. 
127. Legs Inflamed. 
Apply fuller’s earth spread on brown pa- 
per. It seldom fails : 
Or, bruised turnips. 
128. Legs sore and running. 
Wash them in brandy, and apply alder 
leaves, changing them twice a-day. This 
will dry up all the sores, though the legs 
were like an honey-comb: Tried. 
Or poultice them with rotten apples:— 
Tried. But take also three or four oure-es. 
129. Leprosy.f 
Use the cold bath : 
Or, wash in the sea often and long : 
Or, mix well an ounce of pomatum, a 
*[Anoint the part well with sweet oil, and rub it in 
with the baud, continuing- the friction for half an hour 
or an hour, every night and morning, until well. 
Or, bind the caul of a newly killed animal, close on 
the part; to be repeated if necessary.] 
-fin this disease, the skin in many parts is covered 
with rough, whitish, scaly pustules ; and if these are 
rubbed off, kind of scaly scurf. 72 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
drachm of powdered brimstone, and half an 
ounce of sal prunellae ; and anoint the parts 
so long as there is need : 
Or, add a pint of juice of house-leek, and 
half a pint of verjuice, to a pint and a half 
of posset-drink. Drink this in twenty-four 
hours :—lt often cures the quinsy, and white 
swellings on the joints : 
Or, drink half a pint of celery-whey, morn- 
ing and evening. This has cured in a most 
desperate case: 
Or, drink for a month a decoction of bur- 
dock leaves, morning and evening ; Tried. 
130. Lethargy* 
Snuff strong vinegar up the nose : 
Or, rake half a pint of decoction of wa- 
ter-cresses, morning and evening. 
131. Lice (to kill.) 
Sprinkle Spanish snuff over the head. 
Or, wash it with a decoction of amaranth. 
132. For one seemingly killed with 
Lightning, a Damp, or suffocated. 
him immediately into cold water: 
*Or blow strongly with bellows down his 
throat. This may recover a person seem- 
*[A lethargy is a constant inclination to dose, or be 
asleep, witn little or no fever. 1 PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
73 
ingly drowned. It is still better if a strong 
man blows into his mouth. 
133. Lues Venerea. 
Take an ounce of quicksilver every morn- 
ing, and a spoonful of aqua sulphurala in 
a glass of water, at five in the afternoon.— 
1 have known a person cured by this, when 
supposed to be at the point of death, who 
had been infected by a foul nurse, before 
she was a year old. 
J insert (his for the sake of such in- 
nocent sufferers. 
134. Lunacy. 
Give a decoction of agrimony four times 
a-day: 
Or, rub the head several times a-day 
with vinegar; in which ground-ivy leaves 
have been infused : 
*or, lake daily an ounce of distilled vin- 
egar : 
Or, boil juice of ground-ivy with sweet 
oil and white wine into an ointment. Shave 
the head, anoint it therewith, and chafe it 
in warm every other day for three weeks. 
Bruise also the leaves and bind them on the 
head, and give three spoonfuls of the iuice 
warm every morning. 
'This generally 
cures melancholy. 
The juice alone, taken twice a-day, will 
cure : 74 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Or, electrify : Tried. 
135. Raging Madness.* 
Apply to the head cloths dipt in cold wa- 
ter : 
*or, set the patient with his head under 
a great water-fall, as long as his strength 
will bear : Or, pour water on his head out of 
a tea-kettle : 
Or, let him eat nothing but apples for a 
month : 
Or, nothing but bread and milk : Tried. 
136. The Bite of a Mad Dog. 
Plunge into cold water daily, for twenty 
days and keep as long under it as possible. 
This has cured even after the hydrophobia 
was begun.! 
Or, mix ashes of trefoil with hog’s lard, 
and anoint the part as soon as possible.— 
Repeat twice or thrice at six hour’s dis- 
tance. 
This has cured many: and 
particularly a dog bit on (he nose by a mad 
dog. 
Or, mix a pound of salt with a quart of 
water. Squeeze, bathe, and wash the wound 
*lt is a sure rule, (hat all madmen are cowards and 
may be conquered by binding- only, without beating. 
(Dr. Mead.) He also observes, that blistering the head 
does more harm than good. Keep the head close 
shaved, and frequently wash it with, vinegar. 
fif this be really a nervous disorder, what wonder if 
it should be cured by cold bathing. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
with this for an hour. Then bind some' 
salt upon it for twelve hours. 
The author of this receipt was hit 
six times hy mad dugs, and always cured him- 
self by this means. 
Or, mix powdered liver wort, four 
drachms : black pepper two drachms ? di- 
vide this into four parts, and take one in 
warm milk for four mornings fasting. Dr. 
Mead affirms he never knew this faii: but it 
has sometimes failed. 
Or, take two or thrccspoonfuls of the juice 
of rib-wort, morning and evening, as soon 
as possible after the bite. Repeat this for 
two or three changes of the moon. It has 
not been known to fail. 
[To prevent the disorder in those who 
have been bitten:—Cauterize the wound, 
and dress it twice a day with digestive, and 
once a day with mercurial ointment. Tis- 
sot. Wash the wound well, and dress it 
every day with salt. Keep the wound open 
forty days.] 
137. The Measles.* 
’lmmediately consult an honest phy- 
sician. 
*Drinkonly (hin water-gruel, or milk and 
water, the more the belter : or toast and wa- 
ter, 
*This distemper is always preceded by a violent 
cough, often fourteen days ‘before the red spots come 
out.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
If (.be cough be very troublesome, take 
frequently a spoonful of barley-water, sweet- 
ened with oil of new almonds newly drawn, 
mixed with syrup of maiden-hair. 
* After the measles, take three or four 
purges and for some weeks take care of 
taking cold, use light diet, and drink bar- 
ley water, instead of malt-drink. See ex- 
tract from Dr. Tissot, page 82. 
138. Menses Obstrueted 
Be electrified : Tried. 
Or, take half a pint of strong decoction of 
penny-royal, every night at going to bed : 
Or, boil live large heads of hemp, in a 
pint of water, to half. Strain it, and drink 
it at going to bed, two or three nights. It 
seldom fails: Tried. 
*Or take from three to four grains of 
calomel, in a pill, for two or three nights, 
taking care not to take cold. It purges: 
Tried. 
Lei any of these medicines he used at the 
regular times as near as can be judged.— 
See Dr. T issot. 
139. Menses Profuse. 
Drink nothing but cold water, with a 
spoonful of fine flour stirred in it. At that 
time drink a glass of the coldest water you 
can get, and apply a thick cloth dipt in cold 
water; PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
77 
Or, put the feet into cold water : 
Or, apply a sponge dipt in red wine and 
vinegar: 
Or, bleed in the arm. Stop the orifice 
often with the finger, and then let it bleed 
again : 
Or, boil four or five leaves of the red 
holy-oak in a pint of milk, with a small 
quantity of sugar. Drink this in the morn- 
ing ; if the person can afford it, she may 
add a tea-spoonful of balm of Gilead. This 
does not often fail : 
*Or reduce to a fine powder half an 
ounce of alum, with a quarter of an ounce 
of dragon’s blood. In a violent case, take 
a quarter of a drachm every half hour. It 
scarce ever fails to stop the flux before half 
an ounce is taken. This also cures the 
whites. 
[lf the strength will admit, take a little 
blood from the arm; the body should be 
kept loose. Let her take a tea-cupful of 
alum-whey every three or four hours—made 
thus : Put two drachms of powdered alum 
into a pint of milk, boil it till the curd is 
well separated, then strain off the whey and 
bottle it. The like medicine in floodings, 
and in the whites has been found often use- 
ful : Tried,] 
140. To resolve coagulated Milk. 
Cover the woman with a table-cloth, and PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
hold a pan of hot water, just under her 
breast; then stroke it three or four minutes. 
Do this twice a day, till it is cured. 
141. To increase Milk. 
Drink a pint of water going to bed : 
Or, drink largely of pottage made with 
lentils. 
142. To make Milk agree with the sto- 
mach. 
If it lie heavy, put a little salt in it; if it 
curdle, sugar. For bilious persons mix it 
with water. 
143. A Mortification (to stop.) 
*Apply a poultice of flour, honey, and 
water, with a little yeast. 
[A gangrene is when any part of the body, 
from the violence of the inflammation is 
not actually dead, but is in a state of dying. 
Galen. 
The inflammation should be abated by 
bleeding, if the fever admit, and by cool- 
ing, opening medicines: the parts around 
touched with vinegar, lime-water, or cam- 
phorated spirits, and scarified. Apply a 
poultice of biscuit of fine wheat flour boiled 
with milk to the gangrened part, and take 
the bark freely. 
13. N, No oily substance should ever touch 
a bone, sound or unsound, but foul bones PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
79 
should be dressed with spirits, as tinc- 
ture of myrrh. &c.] 
144. Nervous Disorders. 
When the nerves perform their office too 
languidly, a good air is the first requisite. 
The patient also should rise early, and as 
soon as the dew is off the ground, walk: 
let his breakfast be mother of thyme tea, 
gathered in June, using half as much as we 
do of common tea. When the nerves are 
too sensible, let the person breathe a pro- 
per air, let him eat veal, chickens, or mut- 
ton. Vegetables should be eat sparingly; 
the most innocent is the French bean ; and 
the best root, the turnip. Avoid all sauces. 
Sometimes he may breakfast upon a quarter 
of an ounce’of the powder of valerian root 
infused in hot water, to which he may add 
cream and sugar. Tea is not proper. When 
the person finds an uncommon oppression, 
let him take a large spoonful of the tincture 
of valerian root. 
_ This tincture should he made thus : 
Cut to pieces six ounces of wild valerian 
root, gathered in June, and fresh dried.— 
Bruise it by a few strokes in a mortar, that 
the pieces may be split, but it should not be 
beat into powder : put this into a quart of 
strong while wine ; cork the bottle and let it 
stand three weeks, shaking it every day ; then 
press it out and filer the tincture through pa» 
per.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
N. B. The true wild valerian has no bad 
smell: if it has, cats have urined upon it, 
which they will do if they can come at it. 
But I am firmly persuaded, there is no 
remedy in nature for nervous disorders of 
every kind, comparable to the proper and 
constant use of the electrical machine. 
145. Nettle Rash.* 
Rub the part strongly with parsley. 
146. Old Age. 
Take tar water morning and evening : 
Tried. 
Or, decoction of nettles : either of these 
will probably renew the strength for some 
years : 
Or, be electrified daily : 
Or, chew cinnamon daily, and swallow 
your spittle. 
147. An old stubborn Pain in the Back. 
Steep root of water-fern in water, till the 
water becomes thick and clammy. Then 
rub the parts therewith morning and even- 
ing. 
Or, apply a plaster, and take daily bal- 
sam of capivi. 
*A slight fever (which sometimes lasts for weeks 
or months) attended with -tching and smarting, and 
an eruption just like that occasioned by nettles. In 
Georgia we called It the prickly beat. PRIMITIVE PHVSIC. 
81 
148. The Palsy.* 
Be elecrlficd daily for three months, from 
the places where the nerves spring, which 
are brought to the paralytic part. If the 
parts beneath the head are affected, the 
fault is in the spinal marrow. If half the 
body, half the marrow is touched. 
Or, use the cold bath if you are under fifty, 
rubbing and sweating after it. 
Or, shred white onions and bake them 
gently in an earthen pot, till they are soft : 
spread a thick plaster of this, and apply it to 
the benumbed part, ail over the side, if need 
be. I have known this cure a person of sev- 
enty-five years old. 
Or, take tar-water, morning and even- 
ing: 
Or, boil white and red sage, a handful of 
each in a quart of white wine. Strain and 
bottle it. Take a small glass morning and 
evening. 
_ This helps all nervous disorders. 
Or, take a tea-spoonful of powdered sage 
lying down in bed. 
149. Palsy of the Hands. 
Wash them often in decoction of sage, as 
hot as you can bear : 
Or, boil a handful of elder-leaves, or two 
*A palsy is the loss of motion or feeling', or both, in 
any particular part of the body. 82 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
or three spoonfuls of mustard-seed in a quart 
of water. Wash often in this, as hot as may 
be. 
150. Palsy of the Mouth. 
*After purging well, chew mustard-seed 
often : 
Or, gargle with juice of wood-sage. 
151. Palsy from working with White 
Lead or Verdigrease. 
Use warm baths and a milk diet. 
152. The Palpitation, or Beating of the 
Heart. 
Apply outwardly a rag dipt in vinegar. 
Or, be electrified : tried. 
Or, take a decoction of mother’s wort 
every night. 
153. Phlegm (see Flegm.) 
154. The Piles (to prevent.) 
Wash the parts daily with cold water. 
155. The Piles (to cure.) 
Apply warm treacle : 
Or, a poultice of boiled brook lime. It 
seldom fails : 
Or, varnish. It perfectly cures both the 
blind and bleeding piles : Tried. 
Or, fumigate with vinegar, wherein red PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
83 
hot flints have been quenched. This sob 
tens even schirrous tumours. 
[Take flour of sulphur half an ounce : 
cream of tartar half an ounce ; conserve of 
roses an ounce, with syrup enough to make 
an electuary; take the bulk of a nutmeg 
thrice a-day, and touch the parts with the 
following linament. Take burnt cork two 
ounces; digestive ointment, half an ounce ; 
linseed oil enough to make it into a lina- 
ment : Tried.] 
156. The inward Piles 
Swallow a pill of pitch, fasting. One pill 
usually cures the breeding piles : 
Or, eat a large leek, boiled ; 
Or, take twice a-day, as much as lies on 
a shilling, of the thin skins of walnuts, pow- 
dered. 
157. Violent bleeding Piles. 
Lightly boil juice of nettles, with a little 
sugar: take two ounces. It seldom needs 
repeating. 
158. The Pleurisy.* 
Use a decoction of nettles ; and apply the 
boiled herb hot, as a poultice. 1 never 
knew it fail. 
Or,' a plaster of flour of brimstone and 
white of an egg: Tried.—Sec Dr. Trssot, 
page 38. 
*A pleurisy is a fever attended with a violent pain in 
the side and a pulse remarkably hard.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
In disorders of this kind, Dr. Huxbarn 
advises, “ Sip almost continually thin whey, 
barley-water, or hyssop tea, sharpened with 
lemon juice, or vinegar and water. If the 
spitting stop suddenly, take a little vomit. 
Likewise camphorated vinegar, with syrup 
of elder or raspberries is good. To appease 
the cough take often, a little at a time of 
roasted apples, of strawberries, raspberries 
or currants.” 
[There is also a bastard pleurisy, which 
is an inflammation of the muscles among 
the ribs attended with little or no fever.— 
In the true pleurisy the'pain is greatest in 
inspiration, and is most perceived when the 
unaffected side is lain on, attended with a 
constant fever, short cough, and sometimes 
a spitting of blood; these symptoms do 
not attend the bastard pleurisy. This last 
disorder seldom needs bleeding, as does the 
true pleurisy ; the work is better done by a 
vomit and acidulated barley-water. Cut 
the pleurisies in North America do not ad- 
mit of such large bleedings as in Europe, 
nor can the patients bear such large doses 
of medicines : the diet in the true pleurisy 
should be slender, cool, and diluting: a 
bladder filled with warm milk and water, ap- 
plied to the side, may be renewed when 
cool; he may drink a decoction of seneca 
rattle-snake root, &c. 
There are also pains in the sides which are mostly from flegm, and are carried off 
by warm diluting drinks, where bleeding 
would be hurtful, especially in the fall of the 
year.] 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
159. To one Poisoned. 
*Let one poisoned by arsenic, dissolve a 
quarter of an ounce of salt of tartar in a 
pint of water, and drink every quarter of an 
hour as much as he can, till he is well. 
*Let one poisoned by opium, take thirty 
drops of elixir of vitriol, every quarter of an 
hour, till the drowsiness or wildness ccases. 
*Or take a spoonful of lemon-juice every 
half hour. 
*Let one poisoned with mercury subli- 
mate, dissolve an ounce of salt of tartar in 
a gallon of water, and drink largely of it.— 
This will entirely destroy the force of 
the poison, if it be used soon. 
Nothing cures the African poison, but a 
decoction of the roots of the sensitive plant. 
160. Polypus in the Nose. 
*Powdcr a lump of alum, and snuff it up 
frequently. Then dissolve powdered alum 
in brandy: dip lint therein, and apply it at 
going to bed. 
161. A Prick or a Cut that festers. 
Apply turpentine. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
162. Ptyalism.* 
A very violent and stubborn disorder of 
ibis kind was cured by chewing perpetually 
a Hide dry bread, and swallowing it with the 
spittle. 
163. An easy Purge. 
Drink a pint of warmish tvater fasting 
walking after ; 
Or, a soft egg with a tea-spoonful of salt: 
Or, infuse from half a drachm to two 
drachms of damask rose-leaves dried, in 
half a pint of warm water, for twelve hours 
and take it: 
*or, infuse three drachms erf sena, and a 
scruple of salt of tartar, in half a pint of riv- 
er-water for twelve hours. Then strain 
and take it in the morning. 
Wild ash is a plant of the very same na- 
ture as sena. Its leaves taken in (he same 
quantity purge full as well, and do not gripe 
as sena does. It is therefore preferable to 
that which is brought from Turkey or Italy. 
The wild-ash is called in the north 
of England, round tree, quicken, quick- 
beam, or wiggan tree, the leaves should be 
gathered when the tree is in flower. 
164. A stronger Purge. 
Drink Haifa pint of strong decoction of 
dock-root: 
*A continual spitting. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
87 
#or, two drachms of the powdered root 
of monks rhubarb, with a scruple of ginger. 
165. The Quinsy.* 
Apply a large white-bread toast, half an 
inch thick, dipt in brandy, to the crown of 
the head, till it dries : 
Or, bleed, purge, and blister. 
166. Quinsy of the Brcast.f 
Take from eight to twenty drops of laud- 
anum, lying down in bed : 
Or, make an issue in the thigh. 
To prevent. Wear washed wool under 
the feet. 
To cure. Use the cold bath with rub- 
bing and sweating : 
Or, apply warm steams 
Or, rub in warm treacle, and apply to the 
part brown paper smeared therewith : 
change it in twelve hours : Tried. 
Or, drink half a pint of tar-water, morn- 
ing and evening : 
Or, steep six or seven cloves of garlic, in 
half a pint of while wine. Drink it lying 
167. The Rheumatism.t 
*The quinsy is a fever attended with difficulty of 
swallowing-, and often of breathing-. 
fTliis is known by a sudden unaccountable pain 
and difficulty of breathing, seizing a person in the 
night, or on any violent motion. 
{Rheumatic pains are generally most violent as 
S'/on as yoa are warm in bed.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
down. It sweats and frequently cures at 
once. 
*Or, take two cloves of garlic, and one 
drachm of gum amraoniacum: beat them, 
together in a marble mortar, with a little 
water, so as to make three boluses, take 
one of (hem night and morning, and drink 
sassafras tea freely ; 
*Or, mix flour of brirostone with honey, 
in equal quantities. Take three spoonfuls 
at night, two in the morning, and one after- 
wards, morning and evening, till cured— 
This succeeds oftener than any remedy I 
have found ; * 
Or, live on new milk-whey and white 
bread for fourteen days. This has cured 
in a desperate case : 
Or, pound the green stalks of English rhu- 
barb, in May or June, with an equal quan- 
tity of lump-sugar. Take the quantity of a 
nutmeg of this three or four times a-day.'— 
This seldom fails.—See Dr. Tissot, page 61. 
In a stubborn rheumatism, let your diet 
be barley-gruel, with currants, roasted ap- 
ples, fresh whey, and light pudding. 
[Rub an ounce of camphire, with two 
ounces of Florence oil, in a mortar, till the 
camphire be entirely dissolved, to rub the 
parts affected.—Buchan.] 
*Take of Florence oil, an ounce; spirit 
of hartshorn, half an ounce; shake them 
fogcthcr. Pringle says, a flannel moisten- 89 
ed with this, and applied to the pained part 
in rheumatism, or to the throat in quinsy, 
is generally efficacious.] 
PRIMITIVE PHVSIC. 
168. To restore the Strength after a 
Rheumatism. 
Make a strong broth of cow-heels, and 
wash the parts with it warm twice a-day. 
It has restored one who was quite a crip- 
ple, having no strength left either in his leg, 
thigh, or loins. 
*Or, mix gum guaiacum (in powder) 
with honey or treacle : take two or three 
lea-spoonfuls, (or as much as you can hear 
without purging) twice or thrice a-day.— 
This is the best medicine 1 have met with 
for the chronic rheumatism : 
*Or, dissolve one ounce of gum guaiacum 
in three ounces of spirits of wine. Take 
sixty or eighty drops on loaf sugar two or 
three times a-day,—This is Dr. Hill’s es- 
sence of bardana. 
*Or, drop thirty drops of volatile tinc- 
ture of guaiacum on a lump of sugar, and 
lake this in a glass of water every four hours. 
It usually cures in a-day : Tried. 
169. Rickets.* (to prevent or cure.) 
’■'Wash the child every morning; in cold 
water. 
*[fn the rickets the child is emaciated, except the 
head, knees, and belly, which are swelled, and the 
ribs are depressed.] PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
170. Ring-worms.* 
Apply rotten apples : or pounded garlic : 
Or, rub them with the juice of house-leek : 
Or, wash them with hungary water cam- 
phorated : 
Or, twice a-day with oil of sweet almonds 
and oil of tartar mixed. 
171. ARupture.f 
Foment with hot aqua vitae for two hours. 
Or, take agrimony, spleen-wort, Solo- 
mon’s-seal, strawberry-roots, a handful of 
* Vulgarly called tetters. 
f[A rupture, if old and irreducible, is to be sub- 
mitted to, and can only be alleviated by suspension in 
a bag-truss made of soft linen. If recent, its reduc- 
tion should be attempted instantly by gentle continu- 
ed pressure on the part: this is best done by the per- 
sons own hands, while his body is thrown into a re- 
cumbent posture. If this does not succeed, try the 
last article under this head, and if the rupture still 
cannot be replaced, but a considerable degree of pain 
comes on, with sickness at the stomach, and fever, 
draw a pint of blood from the arm, and if the person’s 
strength will at all admit it, repeat it again in six 
hours, taking one table-spoonful of castor oil every 
hour until it works, continue the use of the above- 
mentioned article, and inject a pint of the decoction 
of mallows or camomile in milk and water, strained 
and well sweetened with brown sugar, as a clyster. 
If after twelve or fourteen hours, all these methods 
fail either to return the rupture or procure stools, 
and the pain and sickness at the stomach rather in- 
crease, with a beginning restlessness, (he case be- 
comes highly alarming and dangerous, and no time is each; pick and wash them well ; stamp 
and boil them two hours, in two quarts of 
white wine in a vessel close stopt. Strain 
and drink a large glass of this every morn- 
ing and an hour after drink another. It 
commonly cures in a fortnight. A good 
truss mean time is of great use. 
“ I place,” says Dr. Riviere, “ a broad 
plank sloping from the side of the bed to 
the ground. On this 1 lay the patient upon 
pillows, with his head downward. Then I 
foment the part for half an hour, with cloths 
four times doubled, steeped in cold water, 
gently touching it with my fingers. After- 
wards I bind on it, many times doubled, a 
cloth shaped like a triangle, wet in cold 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
to be lost; steep a quarter of an ounce of strong to- 
bacco in a pint of boiling water an hour, strain it of!' 
and inject it as a clyster. This may cause great sick- 
ness and faintness, so as to alarm the by-standers not 
a little, but is not dangerous, and will frequently suc- 
ceed when every thing else fails. 
After the rupture is reduced, a well-fitted steel truss 
should afterwards be always worn, and the omission 
of it for an hour while in an erect posture may bo 
fatal. 
It is strongly recommended, in every recent case of 
this kind, to call in a physician of experience as early 
after the accident as possible, as a chit urgical opera- 
tion ma}' be absolutely necessary to save the person’s 
life. The above directions are intended chiefly for 
those who cannot be benefitted by the immediate at- 
tendance of a physician of skill and reputation, no 
other should be trusted to in a case of so much impor- 
tance. 92 
water. The gut is generally restored to its 
place fn a few hours. Jf not, 1 repeat the 
operation twice c-day, and in two or three 
days the disease is cured.” 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
172. A Rupture in Children. 
Keep its bowels open with rhubarb and 
apply a soft band. 
173. A Scald Head. 
Apply daily while wine vinegar : Tried. 
Or, a little blue ointment. 
After the cure, give two or three gentle 
purges. 
If a proper regard was paid to cleanli- 
ness in the head and apparel of children, the 
scald head would seldom be seen. 
174. The Sciatica,* 
Is certainly cured by a purge taken in a 
few hours after it begins : 
Or, use cold bathing, and a sweat, togeth- 
er with the flesh-brush twice a-day : 
Or, boil nettles till soft. Foment with 
the liquor, then apply the herb as a poul- 
tice,— I have known this cure a sciatica of 
forty-five years standing : 
Or, apply nettles bruised in a mortar : 
Or, a mud made of powdered pitcoal and 
warm water. This frequently cures sores, 
*The sciatica is a violent pain in the hip, chiefly in 
the joint of the thigh-bone. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
weakness of limbs, most disorders of the 
legs, swelling and stiffness of the joints.— 
It cured a swelling of the elbow-joint, though 
accompanied with a fistula, arising from a 
caries of the bone. See Dr. Tissot, p. 6G- 
175. Inflammation and Swelling of the 
Scrotum. 
Apply lead water. 
176. A Scorbutic Atrophy.* 
Use cold bathing :—Which also cures all 
scorbutic pains. 
177. Scorbutic Gums. 
*Wash them daily with a decoction of 
Peruvian bark, adding a little tincture of ro- 
ses, with a solution of myrrh, 
*[Wash them with cold water, then with 
tincture of red roses, with as much sweet 
spirit of salt mixed with it as can be con- 
veniently borne; Booerhaave. Or, wash 
them with tincture of myrrh : Tried.] 
178. Scorbutic Sores. 
A diet-drink—Put half a pbund of fresh 
shaved lignum guaiacum (called by the 
block-makers lignum vitas) and half an 
ounce ofsena, into an earthen pot that holds 
six quarts •, add five quarts of soft water, 
*Such a degree of the scurvy as causes the flesh to. 
waste away mie a consumption 94 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
and lute the pot close. Set this in a kettle 
of cold water, and put it over a fire till it 
has boiled three hours. Let it stand in the 
kettle till cold. When it has stood one night, 
drink daily half a pint, new milk warm, in 
the morning, fasting, and at four in the af- 
ternoon. Wash with a little of it. In three 
months all the sores will be dried up: 
Tried. 
179. The Scurvy.* 
Live on turnips for a month : 
Or, lake tar-water morning and evening 
for three months : 
Or, three spoonfuls of nettle juice every 
morning: Tried. 
Or, decoction of burdock. Boil three 
ounces of the dried root in two quarts of 
water to three pints. Take half a pint 
daily, unless it purges too much, if so, take 
less. A decoction of the leaves (boiling 
one leaf four minutes in a quart of watei) 
has the same effect: 
Or, take a cupful of the juice of goose- 
grass, in a morning, fasting, for a month : 
it is frequently called ha riff, or cleavers.— 
Last year I knew many persons cured by it. 
*The scurvy is known by heaviness of body, weari- 
ness, rottenness of gums, and yellow, lead, or violet- 
coloured spots on the legs or arms. 
N, B. A scurvy attended with costiveness, (which 
is most common) is termed a hot scurvy : one attended 
with looseness, a cold scurvy. PRIMITIVE PIIVSIC. 
or, pound into a pulp of Seville oranges, 
sliced, rind and all, and powdered sugar, 
equal quantities. Take a tea-spoonful three 
or four times a-day : Tried. 
Or, squeeze the juice of half a Seville 
orange into a pint of milk over the fire.— 
Sweeten the whey with loaf sugar, and 
drink it every morning, new milk warm. To 
make any whey, milk should be skimmed, 
after it is boiled. 
*Or, pour three quarts of boiling water, 
on a quart of ground malt: stir them well, 
and let the mixture stand covered close, for 
four hours : strain it oil' and use this as 
common drink : in hot weather, brew this, 
fresh every day. It will hardly fail. 
Or, take morning and evening, a spoon- 
ful or two of lemon juice and sugar. “■ It 
is a precious remedy and well tried.”—Dr. 
Macbride. 
Water and garden cresses, mustard and 
juice of scurvy-grass, help in a cold scurvy. 
Wh en there is a continual salt taste in the 
mouth, take a pint of lime-water morning 
and evening. 
180. A Broken Shin. 
Bind a dry oak-leaf upon it; 
Or, put on a bit of white paper moistened 
with spittle. It will stay on till the place is 
well: Tried. 
This cures a cut also.  PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
181. Shingles.* 
•Drink sea water every morning for & 
week ; toward the close, bathe also : 
Or, apply pounded garlic. 
[lt is necessary that the body should be 
purged and kept loose, then touch the part, 
twice a-day with the following: Take mus- 
tard-seed powdered fine, and best writing 
ink, as much as will make it into a lina- 
mcnt: Tried.] 
182. Sickishness in the Morning. 
Eat nothing after six in the evening : 
Or, drink half a pint of water impregna- 
ted with fixed air. 
183. Sinews shrunk. 
Rub them with warm oil. 
Apply pounded all-heal,—lt seldom needs 
repeating. 
Or, a bit of white paper with spittle. 
184. Skin rubbed off. 
185. Small Pox. 
Drink largely of toast and water. 
Or, let your whole, food be milk and wa- 
ter mixed with a little white bread : Tried. 
Or, milk and apples. 
Take care to have a free, pure, and coo 4 
*A kind of ring-worm, which encircles the body 
like a belt of a hand’s breadth. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
97 
'air. Therefore open the casement every 
day : only do not let it chill the patient. 
“ There may be pustules a second time 
coming out and ripening like the small pox, 
but it is barely a cutaneous disorder. 
“In violent cases bleed in the foot; bathe 
the legs in warm water, twice or thrice a- 
day, before and at the eruption ; and apply 
boiled turnips to the feet. Never keep thp 
head too hot. 
*“ In very low depressed cases wine may 
be given ; and if the pustules lie buried in 
the skin, a gentle vomit. In many cases a 
gentle purge of manna, cream of tartar d* 
rhubarb. 
“ In the crude ichorose small pox, a dish 
of coffee now and then, with a little thick 
milk in it, has often quieted the vexatious 
cough. 
“ After the incrustation is formed, change 
the sick, but let it be with very dry warm 
linen.” Dr. Huxham. 
186. A long running Sore in the Back, 
Was entirely cured by eating betony in 
every thing : 
Or, take every morning two or three 
spoonfuls of nettle juice, and apply nettles 
bruised in a mortar, to the part. This cures 
any old sore or ulcer. I. 98 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
187. A Sore Leg. 
Bind a diaculum plaster, an inch broad, 
round the leg, just above the sore, and fo- 
ment it morning and evening, with hot wa- 
ter. 
Any sore is healed by a plaster of mut- 
ton-suet : even though it fester or breed 
proud-flesh* 
188. A Sore Mouth. 
Apply the white of an egg beat up with 
loaf-sugar: 
Or, gargle with the juice of cinquefoil : 
*Or, boil together a pound of treacle., 
three yolks of eggs, an ounce of bole armo- 
niac, and the quantity of a nutmeg of alum, 
a quarter of an hour. Apply this to the 
sore part: Tried. 
189. A Sore Throat. 
Take a pint of cold water lying down in 
bed: Tried. 
Or, apply a chin-stay of roasted figs : 
*Or, a flannel sprinkled with spirits of 
hartshorn to the throat, rubbing hungary- 
water on the top of the head : Tried. 
Or, snuff a little honey up the nose. 
An old sore throat was cured by living 
wholly upon apples and apple-water. 
*Lay nitre and loaf-sugar mixed on the 
tongue. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
99 
190. A Putrid Sore Throat. 
Lay on the tongue a lump of sugar dipt in 
brandy ; Tried. 
[This fatal disorder, especially among 
young children, begins with an ague and 
sore throat, sometimes a gangrene is be- 
gun in the palate, or near it in twelve 
hours, and it sometimes kills in 24 hours : 
a vomit should be given as soon as the 
disorder is known, and occasionally repeat- 
ed, the body kept loose; a gargle used of 
barley-water and honey (or honey of roses) 
and salt petre ; and when the gangrene is 
discovered, the mouth-water should be made 
as strong as the patient can bear it, with 
volatile spirit of sal armoniac, or some other 
volatile spirits; and the little patient of- 
ten have his mouth washed with it, and so- 
licited to drink barley-water, and take a 
paration of the bark : Tried.] 
191. A Sprain. 
*Hold the part in very cold water for two 
hours : Tried. 
*Or, apply cloths dipt therein, four times 
doubled, for two hours, changing them as 
they grow warm : 
*Or, bathe it in good crab-verjuice : 
*Or, boil bran in wine-vinegar to a poul- 
tice. Apply this warm, and renew it once in 
twelve hours. 100 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
192. A venomous Sting. 
Apply the juice of honey-suckle leaves : 
Or, a poultice of bruised plantane and ho- 
ney : 
Or, fake inwardly, one drachm of black 
currant-leaves powdered. It is an excellent 
counter-poison. 
193. The Sting of a Bee. 
Apply honey* 
194. Sting of a Nettle. 
Rub the part with juice of nettles. 
Rub the part with the bruised leaves of 
house-leek, water-cresses, or rue : 
Or, apply treacle, or sweet oil: 
Or, bruised onions, or garlic. 
196. Sting of a Bee or Wasp in the eye. 
195. Sting of a Wasp. 
Apply carduus bruised with the white of 
an egg : renew it if it growrs dry. 
197. Sting in the Gullet. 
Beat wrell together, with a spoon, .some 
honey and sweet oil with a little vinegar; 
swallow a spoonful every minute till ease is 
procured. 
198. A Stichin the Side. 
Apply treacle spread op a hot toast:— 
Tried. 199. Accidental Sickness, or pain in the 
Stomach. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
101 
Vomit with a quart of warm water. 
200. Pain in the Stomach from bad di- 
gestion. 
Take fasting, or in the fit, half a pint of 
camomile tea. Do this five or six morn- 
ings : 
Or, drink the juice of half a large lemon 
immediately after dinner, every day. Dr. 
Mead. 
*Or, from twenty to forty drops of elixir 
of vitriol in sage tea, twice or thrice a-day : 
Or, in the fit a glass full of vinegar : 
*Or take two or three tea spoonfuls of 
stomachic-tincture, in a glass of water, thrice 
a-day. 
ynC(lire is mac]e thus : Gentian- 
root sliced, one ounce ; orange peel dried, 
half an ounce; cochineal fifteen grains; of 
proof brandy, one pint; in three or four 
days it is fit for use. This is useful in all 
di orders that arise from a relaxed sto- 
mach. 
201. Choleric hot Pains in the Stomach. 
Take half a pint of decoction of ground- 
ivy with a‘tea-spoonful of the powder of it, 
five or six mornings. I. 102 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
202. Coldness of the Stomach. 
Taks a spoonful of the syrup of the juice 
of carduus benedictus, fasting, for three or 
four mornings: /. 
Or, chew a leaf of carduus every morning, 
and swallow the spittle ; Tried. 
203. Pain in the stomach, with cold- 
ness and wind. 
Swallow five or six corns of white pepper, 
for six or seven mornings : Tried. 
204. Stone (to prevent) 
Eat a crust of dry bread every morning : 
Tried. 
Or, drink a pint of warm water daily, 
just before dinner. After discharging o*e 
stone, this will prevent the generating of 
another. Stoop down and raise yourself up 
again. If you feel pain, as if cut thro’ the 
middle, the pain is not from the stone, but 
rheumatism; beware of costiveness. Use 
no violent diuretics. Mead is a proper 
drink. 
Or, slice a large onion ; pour half a pint 
of warm water upon it. After it has stood 
twelve hours, drink the water. Do this 
every morning till you are well. 
205. In a raging Fit. 
Beat onions into a pulp and apply them 
as a poultice, to the back, or to the groin PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
103 
It gives speedy ease in the most racking 
pain : Tried. 
Or, apply heated parsley. 
206. Stone (to ease or cure.) 
Boil half a pound of parsnips in a quart 
of water. Drink a glass of this, morning 
and evening, and use no other drink all the 
day. It usually cures in six weeks. 
Or, take morning and evening, a tea- 
spoonful of onions, calcined in a fire shovel 
into white ashes, in white wine. An ounce 
will often dissolve the stone.” 
Or, take a tea-spoonful of violet-seed 
powdered, morning and evening. It both 
wastes the stone, and brings it away. 
Or, drink largely of water impregnated 
with fixed air.* 
Those who have not a convenient appa- 
ratus, may substitute the following method ; 
Dissolve fifteen grains of salt of tartar in six 
spoonfuls of water, to which add as much 
water, acidulated with oil of vitriol, as will 
neutralize the salt. They are to be gradu- 
ally mixed with each other, so as to prevent 
the effervescence or dissipation of the fixed 
air, as much as possible. 
207. Stone in the Kidneys. 
Boil an ounce of common thistle-root, 
[*Some have been much relieved by drinking- a pint 
of cold water fasting in the morning, and again at 
bed-time.] 104 
and four drachms of liquorice, in a pint of 
water. Drink half of it every morning. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
208. Stoppage in the Kidneys. 
Take decoction, or juice, or syrup of 
ground-ivy, morning and evening : 
Or, half a pint of tar-water. 
Or, twelve grains of salt of amber in a 
little water. 
209. The Stranguary. 
Sit over the steam of warm water 
Or, drink largely of decoction of turnips 
sweetened with clarified honey : 
Or, of warm lemonade : Tried. 
*Or, dissolve half an ounce of salt-pctre 
in a quart of water ; drink a glass of it eve- 
ry hour. 
210. Sunburn (smarting.) 
Wash the face with sage tea. 
211. Afresh surfeit. 
Take about a nutmeg of the green tops of 
wormwood. 
212. To stop profuse sweating. 
*Mix an ounce of tincture of Peruvian 
bark, with half an ounce of spirit of vitriol. 
Take a tea-spoonful morning and night, in 
a glass of water. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
105 
213. Swelled Glands in the Neck. 
*Take sea-water every other day. 
214. Indolent Swellings, 
Are often cured by warm steams. 
215. Soft and flabby Swellings. 
Pump cold water on them daily : 
Or, use constant frictions ; or proper 
bandages. 
216. A white swelling (on the Joints.) 
Hold the part half an hour every morning 
under a pump or cock. This cures also 
pains in the joints. It seldom fails : Tried. 
Or, pour on it daily a stream of warm, 
water : 
Or, a stream of cold water one day, and 
warm the next, and so on by turns : 
Use these remedies at first, if possible. 
It is likewise proper to intermix gentle pur- 
ges, to prevent a relapse : 
Or, boiled nettles. 
217. To dissolve white or hard swellings. 
Take white roses, elder flowers, leaves of 
fox-glove, and of St. John’s wort, a handful 
of each : mix them with hog’s lard, and 
make an ointment. 
Or, hold them morning and evening in PRIMITIVE PHYSIC* 
the steam of vinegar, poured on red hot 
flints. 
218. To fasten the Teeth 
Put powdered alum, the quantity of a 
nutmeg, in a quart of spring water, for 
twenty-four hours. Then strain the water, 
and gargle with it: 
Or. gargle often with phillerea leaves 
boiled with a little alum in forge-water. 
*Rub them with ashes of burnt bread. 
220. To prevent the Tooth-Ach. 
•Wash the mouth with cold water every 
morning, and rinse (hem after every meal. 
219. To clean the Teeth. 
221. To cure the Tooth-ach. 
Be electrified through the teeth ; Tried. 
Or, apply to the aching tooth an artificial 
magnet : 
Or, rub the cheek a quarter of an hour : 
Or, lay roasted parings of turnips, as hot 
as may be, behind the ear : 
Or, put a leaf of betony, bruised, up the 
nose : 
Or, lay bruised or boiled nettles to the 
cheek : Tried. 
Or, lay a clove of garlic on the tooth : 
Or. hold a slice of apple, slightly boiled, 
between the teeth : Tried. 
Or, dissolve a drachm of crude sal am- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
107 
moniac in two drachms of lemon juice; wet 
cotton herein and apply it: 
Or, keep the feet in warm water, and rub 
them well with bran, just before bed-time : 
Tried. 
The first twenty teeth generally last 
till the sixth or seventh year: After that 
till the fourteenth or fifteenth year, they 
fall out one by one, and are succeeded by 
others. 
The shedding of the teeth is wisely in- 
tended, and brought about in a singular 
manner. Their hardness will not admit of 
distention like other parts of the body.— 
Hence after an enlargement of the jaw- 
bone, the original teeth are no longer able 
to fill up the cavities of it. They must 
stand unsupported by each other, and leave 
spaces between them. Under the first teeth 
therefore is placed a new set, which by con- 
stantly pressing upon their roots, rob them 
of their nourishment, and finally push them 
out of their sockets. 
222. Tooth-ach from cold air, 
Keep the mouth full of warm water. 
Rub the tops of the teeth with a dry 
towel. 
223. Teeth set on edge. 
There is no such thing as worms in PRIMITIVE PHYSIC > 
the teeth. Children’s using coral, is al- 
ways useless, often hurtful. 
“ Forcing the teeth into order is always 
dangerous. Filing is generally hurtful. 
“All rough and cutting powders destroy 
the teeth : so do all common tinctures. 
“Sweetmeats are apt to hurt the teeth, 
if the mouth be not rinsed after them.— 
Cracking nuts often breaks off the enamel: 
so does biting thread in two. 
*“ Constant use of tooth-picks is a bad 
practice : constant smoking of tobacco des- 
troys many good sets of teeth.” Mr. Beard- 
more 
224. Extreme Thrist (without a Fever.) 
Drink .spring water, in which a little sal 
prunellas is dissolved. / 
Apply pelitory of the wall beaten up in- 
to a poultice, changing it morning and even- 
ing. 
22-5. Pain in the Testicles. 
226. Testicles inflamed. 
Boil bean-flour in three parts water, one 
part vinegar. 
227. To draw out. Thorns, Splinters, 
and Bones, 
Apply nettle-roots and salt: 
Or, Turpentine spread on leather. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
109 
228. Thrush.* 
Mix juice of celandine with honey, to the 
thickness of cream. Infuse a little pow- 
dered saffron : let this simmer a while and 
scum it: apply it (where needed) with a 
feather. At the same time give eight or 
ten grains of rhubarb; to a grown person, 
twenty * 
Or, take an ounce of clarified honey ; 
having scummed off all the dross from it, 
put in a drachm of roch alum, finely pow- 
dered, and stir them well together. Let 
the child’s mouth be rubbed well with this, 
five or sis times a-day, with a bit of rag 
lied upon the end of a stick; and even tho’ 
it be the thorough thrush, it will cure it in a 
few days. 1 never knew it fail. 
[As they generallyproceed from too Lot 
a regimen, or the child being deprived of 
its mother’s milk, or from acid humours, 
flie child should be purged. Five grains of 
rhubarb and thirty of magnesia alba may 
be rubbed together, and divided into six do- 
ses, one of which should be given every four 
hours. Then lake fine honey, an ounce ; 
borax, a drachm ; burnt alum half a drachm ; 
rose-water, two drachms; mis them to touch 
the parts with : Buchan.] 
229. Tonsels swelled. 
Wash them with lavender-water. 
White Ulcers in the mouth. 110 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC, 
230. Torpor; or numbness of the limbs. 
Use the cold bath, with rubbing and 
and sweating. 
231. Twisting of the guts. 
Use injection of tobacco smoke. 
232. Tympany ; or, Windy Dropsy, 
Use the cold bath with purges intermixed ; 
Or, mix the juice of leeks and of elder. 
Take two or three spoonfuls of this, morn- 
ing and evening: Tried. 
Or, eat a few parched peas every hour. 
233. A Vein or Sinew cut. 
Apply the inner green rind of hazel fresh 
scraped. 
234. The Vertigo, or swimming in the 
Head. 
*Take a vomit or two : 
*Or, use the cold bath for a month : 
Or, in a May morning, about sun rise, 
snuff up daily the dew that is on the mal- 
low-leaves : 
Or, apply to the top of the head, shaven, 
a plaster of flour of brimstone, and white 
of eggs: Tried. 
Or, take every morning half a drachm of 
mustard -seed; 
Or, mix together, one part of salt of tar- tar. with three parts of cream of 
Take a tea-spoonful in a glass of water, ev- 
ery morning, fasting. This is serviceable 
when the vertigo springs from acid, tough 
phlegm in the stomach. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
235. Vigilia, Inability to Sleep. 
Apply to the forehead, for two hours, 
cloths four times doubled, and dipt in cold 
water. I have known this applied to a ly- 
ing-in woman, and her life saved thereby. 
Or, take a grain or two of camphire. 
Assafcetida, from ten to thirty grains, 
likewise will in most cases answer. 
236. Bite of a Viper or Battle-Snake. 
Apply bruised garlic : 
Or, rub the place immediately with com- 
mon oil: 
Query, would not the same cure the bite 
of a mad dog ? Would it not be worth while 
to make the trial on a dog ? 
[Or, take a quantity of hore-hound, bruise 
it well in a mortar, and squeeze out the 
juice ; likewise plantane in like manner a 
table-spoonful of these liquids mixed togeth- 
er, in equal quantities, is to be taken every 
three hours till (he infection is done, and the 
beaten herbs are for a poultice to the part, 
having first cleansed it well: 
Or, apply the liver and guts of the ser- 
pent to the wound. Good in the bite of any 
serpent.] 112 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
237. To prevent the Bite of a Viper. 
Rub the hands with the juice of radishes. 
238. An Ulcer. 
Dry and powder a walnut-leaf, and strew 
it on, and lay another walnut-leaf on that *. 
Tried. 
Or, boil walnut-tree leaves in water with 
a little sugar. Apply a cloth dipt in this, 
changing it once in two days. This has 
done wonders. 
Or, foment morning and evening with a 
decoction of walnut-tree leaves, and bind 
the leaves on. This has cured foul bones : 
yea, and a leprosy : Tried. 
239. Ulcer in the Bladder or Kidneys. 
Take a decoction of agrimony, thrice a 
day : 
Or, decoction, powder, or syrup of horse- 
tail. 
240. Ulcers in the Gum or Jaw. 
Applj honey of roses sharpened with 
spirit of vitriol : 
Or, fill the white of eggs boiled hard,and 
slit, with myrrh and sugar candy powder- 
ed. Tie them up, and hang them on sticks 
lying across a glass. A liquid distils, with 
which anoint the sore often in a day. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
113 
Apply wood-betony bruised, changing it 
daily. 
241. A fistulous Ulcer. 
242. A bleeding varicous Ulcer in the 
L°g, 
Was cured only by constant cold bathing. 
243. A Malignant Ulcer. 
Foment morning and evening, with a de- 
coction of mint. Then sprinkle on it finely 
powdered rue ; 
Or, burn to ashes (but not too long) the 
gross stalk on wjjich the red cole worts grow. 
Make a plaster with this and fresh butter. 
Change it once a-day : 
*Or, apply a poultice of boiled parsnips, 
this will cure even wrhen the bone is foul: 
Or, be electrified daily : 
244. An easy and safe Vomit. 
Pour a dish of tea on twenty grains of ipe- 
cacuana. You may sweeten it if you please. 
When it has stood four or five minutes, pour 
the tea clear off, and drink it. 
245. To stop Vomiting. 
Apply a large onion slit across the grain, 
to the pit of the stomach : Tried. 
*Or, take a spoonful of lemon-juice and 
six grains of salt of tartar. 114 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
246. Bloody Urine. 
Take twice a-day a pint of decoction of 
agrimony : 
Or, of decoction of yarrow. 
247. Urine by Drops with Heat and 
Pain, 
Drink nothing but lemonade : Tried. 
Or, beat up the pulp of five or six roast- 
ed apples with near a quart of water. Take 
it at lying down. It commonly cures be- 
fore morning. 
248. Involuntary Urine. 
Use the cold bath 
Or, take a spoonful of powdered agrimo- 
ny in a little water, morning and evening : 
Or, a quarter of a pint of alum posset- 
drink every night; 
Or, foment with rose-leaves and planjaue- 
leaves, boiled in a smith’s forge water.— 
Then apply plasters of alum and bole ar- 
moniac, made up of oil and vinegar : 
Or, apply a blister to the os sacrum.— 
This seldom fails. 
Take two spoonfuls of fresh juice of 
ground-ivy. 
249. Sharp Urine. 
250. Suppression of Urine, 
Is sometimes relieved by bleeding: PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
115 
Or, drink largely of warm lemonade : 
Tried. 
Or, a scruple of nitre, every two hours': 
Or, take a spoonful of juice of lemons 
sweetened with syrup of violets. 
251. Uvula* inflamed. 
Gargle with a decoction of beaten hemp- 
seed : 
Or, with a decoction of dandelion ; 
Or, (ouch it frequently with camphorated 
spirits of wine. 
252. Uvula relaxed. 
Bruise the veins of a cabbage-leaf, and 
lay it hot on (he crown of the head : re- 
peat it, if needed, in two hours. I never 
knew it fail. 
*Or, gargle with an infusion of mustard- 
seed. 
253. Warts. 
Rub them daily with a radish : 
Or, with juice of mangold flowers : it 
will hardly fail: 
Or, water in which sal armoniac is dis- 
solved : 
Or, apply bruised purslain as a poultice, 
changing it twice a-day. It cures in seven 
or eight days. 
*This is usually called the Palate of the month 116 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC; 
Hold them in cold water a quarter of an 
hour, morning and evening. 
254. Weakness in the Ankles. 
Wrap leaves of sorrel in a wet paper, 
and roast them in the embers. Mix it with 
finely sifted ashes into a poultice. Apply 
this warm daily. 
Dr. Riviere says, “ I cured a wen as big 
as a large fist, thus : I made an instrument, 
of hard wood, like the stone with which the 
painters grind their colours on a marble.— 
With this I rubbed it half an hour twice 
a-day, Then 1 laid on a suppurating plas- 
ter very hot, which I kept on four or five 
days. The wen suppurated and wras open- 
ed. Afterwards all the substance of it turn- 
ed into matter, and was evacuated. Thus I 
have cured many since.” 
255. A soft Wen. 
256. The Whites. 
Live chastely. Feed sparingly. Use ex- 
ercise constantly. Sleep moderately, but 
never lying on your back. 
Or, boil four or five leaves of the white 
holy-oak in a pint of milk with a little su- 
gar. Then add a tea-spoonful of balm of 
Gilead. Drink this every morning. It 
rarely fails : 
Or, make Venice turpentine, flour,and 
fine sugar, equal quantities, into small pills. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Take three or four of these morning and 
evening. This also cures most pains in the 
back : 
Or, take yellow rosin, powdered one 
ounce, conserve of roses, half an ounce; 
powdered rhubarb, three drachms, syrup, a 
sufficient quantity to make an electuary.— 
Take a large tea-spoonful of this twice 
a-day, in a cup of comfrey-root tea. 
Or, in a quarter of a pint of water where- 
in three drachms of tamarinds and a drachm 
of lentish-wood has been boiled ; when cold 
infuse sena, one drachm, coriander-seed and 
liquorice a drachm and a half of each. Let 
them stand all night.—Strain the liquour in 
the morning, and drink it daily two hours 
before breakfast. 
257. A Whitlow, 
Apply treacle : Tried. 
Or, honey and flour: Tried. 
Or, a poultice of chewed bread. Shift if 
once a-day : 
Or, a poultice of powdered pit-coal, and 
warm water. 
258. Worms.* 
Take two tea-spoonfuls of brandy sweet- 
ened with loaf sugar: 
*A child may be known to have the worms by chil- 
liness, paleness, hollow e}Tes, itching’ at the nose, 
Starling in sleep, and an unusual stinking breath.— 
Worms are never found in children that live wholly 
upon milk. Or, -a spoonful of juice of lemons: or 
two spoonfuls of nettle-juice : 
Or, boil four ounces of quicksilver an 
hour in a quart of clear water. Pour it off 
and bottle it up. You may use the same 
quicksilver again and again. Use this for 
common drink : or at least, night and morn- 
ing, for a week or two. Then purge oil' the 
dead worms with fifteen or sixteen grains of 
jalap. 
Or, take two tea-spoonfuls of worm-seed, 
mixed with treacle, for six mornings ; 
Or, one, two, or three drachms of pow- 
dered fern-root, boiled in mead. This kills 
both the flat and round worms. Repeat the 
medicine from time to time. 
Or, dissolve an ounce of hepatic aloes, in 
a pint of strong decoction of rue. Take a 
tea-spoonful or two, in a morning fasting. 
This destroys both round wrorms and asca- 
rides : 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
*Or, give one tea-spoonful of syrup of 
bear’s foot at bed time, and one or two in 
the morning, for two or three succeeding 
days, to children between two and six years 
of age : regulating the dose according to the 
strength of the patient. 
Syrup of bear’s foot is made thus:— 
Sprinkle the green leaves with vinegar, 
stamp and strain out the juice, and add to 
it a sufficient of coarse sugar.— PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
119 
This is the most powerful medicine for long 
round worms. 
Bruising the green leaves of bear’s foot, 
and smelling often at them, sometimes ex- 
pels worms: 
Or, mix, and reduce to a fine powder, 
equal parts of rhubarb, scamrnony, and cal- 
omel, with as much doubled-refined sugar, 
as is equal to the weight of all the other in- 
gredients. The dose for a child, is from six 
grains to twelve, once or twice a-week. An 
adult may take from twenty grains to forty, 
for a dose. 
Or, boil half an ounce of aloes, powdered, 
with a few sprigs of rue, wormwood, and 
camomile, in half a pint of gall, to the con- 
sistency of a piaster r spread this on thin 
leather, and apply it to the stomach, chang- 
ing it every twelve hours, for three days ; 
then take lifteen grains of jalap, and it will 
bring vast quantities of worms away, some 
burst and some alive. This will cure, when 
no internal medicine avails. See extract 
from Dr. Tissot, page 145. 
{"Or, take ten grains of cornomilc, thirty 
grains of rhubarb, and as much finely pow- 
dered chalk, or oyster-shells, for six pow- 
ders ivhen rubbed together : one to be tak- 
en every morning, noon, and night; for a 
child five years old. Keep him from cold 
water. Take two drachms of quicksilver. 120 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
boil it in half a pint of water till half is con- 
sumed, pour oft the liquor and give him half 
a table-spoonful thrice a-day, and lay by 
the quicksilver. 
259. Wounds. 
If you have not an honest surgeon at 
hand, 
Apply juice or powder of yai.ow ; /. 
Or, bind leaves of ground-ivy upon it : 
Or, wood betony bruised. This quickly 
heals even cut veins and sinews, and draw's 
out thorns and splinters : 
Or, keep the part in cold water, for an 
hour, keeping the wound closed with your 
thumb. Then bind on the thin skin of an 
egg-shell for days or weeks, til! it falls oil* 
of itself. Regard not, though it prick or 
shoot for a time. 
260. Inward Wounds. 
Infuse yarrow twelve hours in warm wa- 
ter. Take a cup of this four times a-day. 
261. Putrid Wounds. 
Wash them morning and evening with 
warm decoction of agrimony. If they heal 
too soon, and a mailer gathers underneath, 
apply a poultice of the leaves pounded, 
changing them once a-day till well: 
*Or, apply a carrot poultice ; but if a 
gangrene comes on, apply a wheat flour PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
poultice (after it has been by the fire, till it 
begins to fe-rment) nearly cold. It will not 
fail. 
[One of (he best poultices for separating 
or suppurating, will be found to be made of 
biscuit of fine wheat flour, boiled in milk : 
and mpst additions or refinements on it only 
lessen its value : sometimes it may be pro- 
per to touch it over with a little sweet oil or 
fresh butter ; and in extreme pain, in other 
cases, with liquid laudanum.] 
262. Wounded Tendons. 
Boil cornfrcy-roots to a thick mucilage or 
jelly, and apply this as a poultice, changing 
it once a-day. 
263. To open a Wound that is closed 
too soon. 
Apply bruised centaury. 
264. Daffy’s Elixir. 
Take of the best sena, guaiacum, liquo- 
rice sliced small, aniseeds, coriander-seeds, 
and elicampanc-root, each half an ounce; 
raisins of the sun, stoned, a quarter of a 
pound : let them all be bruised, and put into 
a quart of the best brandy. Let it stand by 
the fire for a few days, then strain it. See 
page 30. 122 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
265. Turlington’s Balsam. 
Take of balsam of Peru, balsam of Tolu, 
Angelica-root, and calamus-root, of each half 
an ounce : gum storax in tears, and drag- 
on’s blood of each one ounce ; gum Benja- 
min, an ounce and a half ; hepatic aloes 
and frankincense, of each two drachms 5 
let the roots be sliced thin and the gums 
bruised ; and put all the ingredients into a 
quart of spirits of wine 5 set the bottle by 
he fire in a moderate heat for eight or ten 
days, then strain it for use. 
This is indeed a most excellent medicine 
for man or beast, and for any fresh wound, 
1 know of none like it. 
266. Stoughton's Drops. 
Take gentian-root one ounce ; cochineal 
and saffron, one drachm ; rhubarb two 
drachms ; the lesser cardamom-seed, grains 
of paradise, * zedoary, snake-root, of each 
half an ounce; galengale one ounce; slice 
the roots, and bruise the seeds ; then in- 
fuse them in a quart of the best brandy, and 
add the rinds of four Seville oranges.— 
When it has stood eight days, clear it off; 
and put a pint and a half more of brandy 
to the same ingredients till their virtue is - 
drawn out. This is greatly helpful in dis- 
orders of the stomach,-——See stomachic 
tincture, page 101. 123 
267. Dr. James’s Powders. 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Instead of giving half a crown a packet 
for these powders, you may, at any drug- 
gist’s get Dr. Hardwick’s fever-powder for 
a shilling an ounce, which (if it be not the 
same) will answer just the same end. 
COLD-BATHING 
Cures young Children of 
Convulsions* 
Cutaneous inflammations, pimples, and scabs 
Gravel 
Inflammation of the ears, naval, and mouth 
Rickets* 
Suppression of urine 
Vomiting 
Want of sleep. 
It prevents the growth of Hereditary 
Apoplexies 
Asthmas 
Blindness 
Consumption 
Deafness 
Gout 
King’s Evil 
Melancholy 
Palsies 
Rheumatism* 
Stone 124 
PRIMITIVE PHVSIC, 
It frequently cures every Nervous,* and 
every Paralytic Disorder ; in partic- 
ular 
Ague of every sort* 
Atrophy 
Coagulated blood after bruises 
Convulsions* 
Convulsive pains 
Epilepsy* 
Hysteric pains 
Incubus 
Involuntary stool or urine 
Lameness 
(Old) Leprosy 
Lethargy 
Loss of appetite 
Nephritic pains 
Pain in the back, joints, stomach 
Rheumatism (chronic)* 
Rickets* 
Rupture 
Suffocations 
Sciatica 
Surfeits (at the beginning) 
Scorbutic pains 
Swelling on the joints 
Torpor of the limbs, even when the use 
of them is lost 
*Anrl this, I apprehend, accounts for its frequently 
curing- the bite of a mad-dog-, especially if it ue re- 
peated for twenty or thirty days successively. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
125 
Tetanus* 
Tympany 
Vertigo 
St. Vitus's dance 
Vigilia 
Varicous Ulcers 
The Whites. 
*Wise parents should dip their children 
in cold water every morning, till they are 
three quarters old; and afterwards their 
hands and feet. 
the head every morning in cold 
water, prevents rheums, and cures old head- 
achs, and sore eyes. 
Water Drinking generally prevents 
convulsions, gout, hysteric 
fits, madness, palsies, stone, trembling. 
To this children should be used from their 
cradles. 
The best water to drink, especially for 
those who are much troubled with the wind, 
is rain-water. After it has settled, draw it 
off clear into another vessel, and it wall keep 
sweet for a long time. 
Electrifying in a proper manner, cures 
Blindness 
Blood extravasated 
Bronchocele 126 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
Burns or scalds 
Coldness in the feet 
Contraction of the limbs 
Convulsions 
Cramp 
Deafness* 
Falling sickness 
Feet violently disordered 
Felons 
Fistula lachrymalis 
Fits 
Ganglions 
Gout 
Head-ach 
Involuntary motion of the eye-lids 
Knots in the flesh 
Lameness 
Wasting 
Weakness of the legs 
Restores bulk and fulness to wasted 
limbs 
Locked Jaws or joints 
Leprosy 
Menstrual Obstructions 
Opthalmia 
Pain in the stomach 
Palsy* 
Palpitation of the heart 
Rheumatism* 
Ring-worms 
Sciatica 
Shingles PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
127 
Sinews shrunk 
Spasms 
Stiff joints 
Sprain, however old 
Sore throat 
Tooth-arch^' 
Ulcers 
Wens. 
Drawing sparks remove those tumours on 
the eye-lids, called barley-corns, by exci- 
ting local inflammation, and promoting sup- 
puration. 
Nor have I yet known one single instance, 
wherein it has done harm : so that I cannot 
but doubt the veracity of those who have 
affirmed the contrary. Dr. De Hean pos- 
itively affirms, “ it can do no hurt in any 
case ; “ that is unless the shock be imrnod” 
erately strong.” 
Fasting Spittle outwardly applied every 
morning, has sometimes relieved, 
and sometimes cured 
Blindness 
Contracted sinews from a cut. 
Corns (mixt with chewed bread and 
applied every morning) 
Cuts (fresh) 
Deafness 
Eyelids, red and inflamed 
Scorbutic tetters 
Sore legs 
Warts 128 
PRIMITIVE PHYiSIC. 
Taken inwardly, it relieves or cures 
Asthmas 
Cancers 
Falling sickness 
Gout 
Gravel 
King’s Evil 
Leprosy 
Palsy 
Rheumatism 
Scurvy 
Stone 
Swelled liver- 
The best way is to eat about an ounce of 
hard bread, or sea-biscuit, every morning, 
fasting two or three hours after. This 
should be done, in stubborn cases for a 
month or six weeks. 
SOME HINTS 
TO ENABLE PARENTS TO DETERMINE WHE- 
THER THEIR CHILDREN ARE PARTICULAR- 
LY SUBJECT TO DISEASE, AND IF DISOR- 
DERED, TO JUDGE OP THE VIOLENCE OF 
THE ATTACK. 
Parents should be particularly attentive 
to observe their children minutely in all their 
actions and habits, &c. 
1. They should observe the common ex- 
tent of their appetite, so that any consider- 
rable excess or deficicncjr in their eating rna3r 
not pass unnoticed. This will be of use, 
since a considerable change in one of these 129 
respects, almost always takes place before a 
spell of sickness. 
2. Attention should be paid to their stools. 
Unimportant as this might at first appear to 
the inconsiderate, yet a costive habit gene- 
rally precedes an attack of fever. 
3. The degree of exercise and the agili- 
ty with which it is performed deserve par- 
ticular observation. For all fevers are 
ushered in with a degree of slothfulness, a 
sense of weariness, and in children with a 
more than usual disposition to sleepiness. 
4. By noticing whether any of the fore- 
going circumstances take place after having 
been exposed to unusual weather, or to 
greater than ordinary fatigue : Or if the 
place or season be sickly, by having regard 
to these circumstances, there will be the less 
danger of being taken at surprise. 
5. As it is generally the case that some 
complaints of lesser magnitude go before, 
and give warning of the impending danger; 
such as costiveness, a sense of weariness, 
dulness of the faculties, preternatural ap- 
petite or defect of it, a pain in the limbs, s*c. 
Therefore when these marks of forming 
disease present themselves, a puke or purge 
ought to be timely adminstered according 
to circumstances. This might frequently 
prevent great mischief. Indeed in many 
instances, simply bathing the feet in hot 
water, and taking a plentiful draught of 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. PRIMITIVE PHYSIC; 
warm tea of some kind on going to bed, 
might prevent an attack of fever, especially 
if the patient be not in a costive habit. This 
last circumstance may be considered in 
most instances as requiring the exhibition of 
a purge of some kind As also great sick- 
ness of the stomach might point out the pro- 
priety of a puke. 
6. But it will also be important for pa- 
rents to be able to judge of the violence of 
the disease in case of an attack. They 
should therefore frequently observe the 
strength of their children’s pulse when in 
health, its kind of motion, the force with 
which it seems to propel the blood along, its 
apparent size, its tightness as to its exten- 
sion lengthwise of the arm, its fulness, &c. 
A knowledge of these circumstances attend- 
ing the pulse, wiilbe very important in par- 
ticular cases, especially where bleeding may 
be necessary. For this operation cannot be 
proper unless the pulse be either strong and 
full, or tight, at least judicious advice should 
be had in cases with other states of the 
pulse. 
7. They should also have regard to the 
manner of breathing in a healthy child, to 
the state of his skin, the appearance of his 
eyes, tne complexion of his teeth, the colour 
and degree of moisture of his tongue, the 
proper figure and appearance of his mouth 
and throat. For as the violence and dan- PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
131 
ger of a disease are always in proportion to 
the irregularity presented in these circum- 
stances and appearances, it must be impor- 
tant to obtain a correct knowledge of them 
all. 
8. Let us apply these remarks in a case 
or two. It may be observed that children 
are subject to some of the most violent dis- 
eases. If a child after exposure to cold, be 
taken suddenly at night when warm in bed, 
if the pulse be strong, full, and tight, if it 
beat forcibly in the neck, if the face be 
flushed with blood, while there is great, 
heat and thirst, if he breathe irregularly, 
with a stoppage at every breath, if he have 
a and particularly if he express an 
increase of pain on pressing his side with 
the hand, a pleurisy should be suspected, 
and he should be immediately bled ;. and 
this operation should be repealed again and 
again, as often as the violence of the symp- 
toms require it. A large bleeding at the 
first is better than smaller ones repeated.—: 
It should be so large as at any rate to 
change the manner of his breathing and 
lessen the pain. The blood should be drawn 
from a large orifice. After a copious 
bleeding, let three grains of tartar emetic 
and twenty grains «f salt-petre* be dissolv- 
*The salt-petre, if rejected by the patient, might be 
left out of the solution. 132 
PRIMITIVE PHYSICr 
cd in one gill of water, and give a tea-spoon- 
ful of this solution in barley-water, or flax- 
seed tea, or any other mild drink a little 
warmed every one, two or three hours. It 
will moderate the cough and remove the 
fever. If it nauseate too much, the dose 
should be lessened. As this calculation 
would suit a child of four or five years old, 
the quantity of tartar should be . varied ac- 
cording to circumstances. In the mean 
time his bowels should be evacuated -with a 
little manna, cream of tartar, castor oil, or 
some other mild purge. Clysters might 
also be of service. 
9. Again, if the child complain of pain 
in the head, attended with redness of the 
eyes and face. If the admission of the light 
to his eyes seem to excite uneasiness or 
pain, if he startle at every noise, be very 
watchful, sometimes making violent strug- 
gles, and have a full and tight, or hard 
pulse, inflammation of the brain should be 
suspected. In this case the child should be 
copiously bled, purged with jalap and calo- 
mel, and clystered. His head should be 
considerably raised, cloths wet with cold 
water and vinegar should be applied to his 
head, and after bleeding and purging for 
four or five days, a blister should be applied 
to his head (shaved for the purpose) or to his 
two temples. 
10, I have introduced the above cases PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
133 
because more or less of those symptoms 
indicating danger to the lungs and brant. 
frequently occur in mealses, whooping 
cough, and other diseases of children ; ami 
because it is important that these parts of 
the system so essential to life, should be 
properly guarded whatever may be the sup- 
posed complaint. Whether it may be ow- 
ing to the greater proportionate size of the 
head, and the more delicate contexture of 
the lungs in children, or to whatever cause 
it may be refered, it is a fact, that in all fe- 
vers there is a greater determination of the 
blood to the brain and lungs in children’s 
cases than in those of adults. 
DR, PENNING15. CONTENTS 
OF THE 
PRIMITIVE PHYSIC. 
NO. PAGE. 
1 ABORTION to prevent 11 
2 For an Ague 12 
3 St. Anthony’s Fire 15 
4 Apoplexy 17 
5 Canine Appetite 18 
6 The Asthma ibid 
7 A dry or convulsive Asthma 20 
8 To cure Baldness 21 
9 Bleeding at the Nose (to prevent) ibid 
10 Bleeding of a wound 22 
11 Spitting Blood ibid 
12 Vomiting Blood 23 
13 To dissolve coagulated Blood ibid 
14 Blisters ibid 
15 Biles ibid 
16 Hard Breasts * 24 
17 Sore Breasts and Swelled ibid 
18 A Bruise ibid 
19 To prevent swelling from a Bruise ibid 
20 A Burn or Scald 25 
21 A deep Burn or Scald ibid 
22 A Cancer 26 
23 Chilblains (to prevent) &c. ibid 
24 Children ibid CONTENTS. 
135 
NO. PAGE. 
25 Chin-cough, or Hooping-cough 27 
20 Cholera Morbus, i. e. Flux and Vom- 
iting 2S 
27 Chops in Women’s Nipples ibid 
28 Chopt Hands (to prevent) 29 
29 (to cure) ibid 
30 Chopt Lips ibid 
31 A Cold ibid 
32 A Cold in the head ibid 
33 The Cholic (in the (it) ibid 
34 The Dry Cholic (to prevent) 30 
35 Cholic in Children ibid 
36 Bilious Cholic 31 
37 An habitual Cholic ibid 
38 An hysteric Cholic ibid 
39 A nervous Cholic 32 
40 Cholic from the fumes of Lead, White 
Lead, Verdigrease, &c. ibid 
41 Windy Cholic 33 
42 To prevent the ill effects of cold ibid 
43 A Consumption ibid 
44 Convulsions 36 
45 Convulsions in Children ibid 
46 Convulsions in the bowels of Children ibid 
47 Corns (to prevent) ibid 
48 (to cure) ibid 
49 Costiveness 37 
50 A Cough ibid 
51 Violent Cough, from a sharp and thin 
rheum 39 
52 The Cramp (to prevent) ibid 
53 (to cure) 40 
54 A Cut ibid 136 
CONTENTS. 
NO. PACK. 
55 Deafness 49 
56 Deafness from Wax ibid 
57 Deafness with a dry ear 41 
58 Delivery ibid 
59 A Diabetes ibid 
60 'Che Dropsy ibid 
61 Drowned 45 
62 The Ear-ach without inflammation ibid 
63 Ear-ach from Cold ibid 
64 Ear-ach from heat ibid 
65 Hard Wax in the Ear 4-6 
66 Eyes bleared ibid 
67 A Blood-shot Eye ibid 
68 A Bruise in the Eye ibid 
69 Clouds flying before the Eye ibid 
70 Blindness ibid 
71 Dull sight ibid 
72 Films ibid 
73 Hot or sharp Humours 47 
74 Eyes or Eye-iids inflamed ibid 
75 Lachrymal Fistula 48 
76 Pearl in the eye ibid 
77 Sore eyes 49 
78 An excellent Eye-water ibid 
79 Another ibid 
80 Another ibid 
81 An Eye-water, &c. 50 
82 Weak Eyes 51 
83 Fainting on letting biood ibid 
84 The Falling Sickness ibid 
85 The falling of the Fundament 52 
86 The falling down of the Womb 53 
87 Extreme Fat ibid CONTENTS. 
137 
NO. PAGE. 
88 A Fever 53 
89 A high Fever 54 
90 Fever with Pains in the Limbs 55 
91 A rash Fever ibid 
92 A slow Fever ibid 
93 A Worm Fever ibid 
94 A Fistula 56 
95 To destroy Fleas and Bugs 57 
96 Flegra ibid 
97 Flooding (in lying-in) ibid 
98 A Flux " 58 
99 A bloody Flux 59 
100 To prevent (or slop a beginning) gan- 
grene 61 
101 The Gout in the Stomach ibid 
102 The Gout in the Foot or Hand ibid 
103 The Gout in any Limb 62 
104 The Gravel 63 
105 The Green Sickness ibid 
106 To kill Animalcula that cause the 
gums to waste away from the teeth ibid 
107 To make the Hair grow 64 
108 The Head-ach ibid 
109 A Chronical Head-ach ibid 
110 Head-ach from heat 65 
111 A Nervous Head-ach ibid 
1 i 2 A violent Head-ach ibid 
113 A Hemicrania ibid 
114 Stoppage in the Head 66 
115 The Heart burning ibid 
116 The Hiccup (to prevent) ibid 
117 (to cure) ibid 
118 Hoarseness e 7 138 
CONTENTS. 
NO. PAGE 
119 Hypochondriac and Hysteric Disorders 67 
120 The Jaundice ibid 
121 Jaundice in Children 68 
122 The Iliac Passion ibid 
123 An Imposthume 69 
124 The Itch ibid 
125 The King’s Evil ibid 
126 Lameness from a fixed contraction of 
the parts 71 
127 Legs inflamed ibid 
128 Legs sore and running ibid 
129 Leprosy ibid 
130 Lethargy 72 
131 Lice (to kill) ibid 
132 For one seemingly killed with Light- 
ning, a damp, or suffocated ibid 
133 Lues Venerea 73 
134 Lunacy ibid 
135 Raging Madness 74 
136 The Bite of a Mad Dog ibid 
137 The Measles 75 
138 Menses obstructed 76 
139 Menses profuse * ibid 
140 To resolve coagulated Milk 77 
141 To increase Milk 78 
142 To make Milk agree with the Sto- 
mach ibid 
143 A Mortification (to stop) ibid 
144 Nervous Disorders 79 
145 Nettle Rash 80 
146 Old Age ibid 
147 An Old stubborn Pain in the Back ibid 
148 The Palsy 8! CONTENTS. 
139 
NO. PAGE. 
149 Palsy of (he Hands 81 
150 Palsy of the Mouth 82 
151 Palsy from working with White-lead 
or Yerdigrease ibid 
152 Palpitation, or Beating of the Heart ibid 
153 Phlegm (see Plegm) ibid 
154 The Piles (to prevent) ibid 
155 (to cure) ibid 
156 The inward Piles 83 
157 Violent Bleeding Piles ibid 
158 The Pleurisy ibid 
159 To one Poisoned 85 
100 Polypus in the Nose ibid 
161 A Prick or Cut that festers ibid 
162 Ptyalism 86 
163 An, easy Purge ibid 
164 A stronger Purge ibid 
165 The Quinsy 87 
166 A Quinsy of the Breast ibid 
167 The Rheumatism ibid 
168 To restore the strength after a Rheu- 
matism 89 
169 Rickets (to prevent or cure) ibid 
170 Ring-worms 90 
171 A Rupture ibid 
172 A Rupture in Children 92 
173 A Scald Head ibid 
174 The Sciatica 92 
175 Inflammation or Swelling of the Scro- 
tum . 93 
176 A Scorbutic Atrophy ibid, 
177 Scorbutic gums ibid 
178 Scorbutic Sores ibid 140 
CONTENTS. 
NO. PAGE. 
J 79 The Scurvy 94 
180 A Broken Shin 95 
181 Shingles 96 
182 Sickishness in the morning ibid 
383 Sinews shrunk ibid 
184 Skin rubbed off ibid 
185 Small Pox ibid 
186 A long running Sore in the Back 97 
187 A Sore Leg 98 
188 A Sore Mouth ibid 
189 A Sore Throat ibid 
190 A Putrid Sore Throat 99 
191 A Sprain ibid 
192 A venomous Sting 100 
193 Sting of a Bee ibid 
194 Sting of a Nettle ibid 
195 Sting of a Wasp ibid 
196 Sting of a Bee or Wasp la the Eye ibid 
197 Sting in the Gullet ibid 
198 A Stitch in the side ibid 
199 Accidental Sickness, or Pain in the 
Stomach 101 
200 Pain in the Stomach from bad Diges- 
tion ibid 
201 Choleric hot Pains in the Stomach ibid 
202 Cbldcess of the Stomach 102 
203 Pair in the Stomach with Coldness 
and Wind ibid 
204 Stone (to prevent) ibid 
205 In a raging Fit ibid 
206 Stone (to ease or cure) 103 
207 Stone in the Kidneys ibid 
208 Stoppage in the Kiuneys 104 CONTENTS. 
NO. PAGE* 
209 The Stranguary 104 
210 Sunburn (smarting) ibid 
211 A fresh Surfeit ibid 
212 To stop profuse Sweating ibid 
213 Swelled Glands in the neck 105 
214 Indolent Swellings ibid 
215 Soft and flabby Swellings ibid 
216 A white S welling (on the joints) ibid 
217 To dissolve white or hard Swellings ibid 
218 To fasten the Teeth 100 
219 To clean the Teeth ibid 
220 To prevent the Tooth-ach ibid 
221 To cure (he Tooth ach ibid 
222 Tooth-ach from cold air 107 
223 Teeth set on edge ibid 
224 Extreme Thirst (without a fever) 108 
225 Pain in the Testicles ibid 
220 Testicles inflamed ibid 
227 To draw out Thorns, Splinters, and 
Bones ibid 
228 Thrush 109 
229 Tonsils swelled ibid 
230 Torpor, or Numbness of the Limbs 110 
231 Twisting of the Guts ibid 
232 Tympany, or Windy D opsy ibid 
233 A Vein or Sinew cut ibid 
234 The Vertigo, or Swimming in the 
Head ibid 
235 Yigilia, Inability to sleep 111 
236 Bite of a Viper or Rattle-Snake ibid 
237 To prevent the Bite of a Viper 112 
238 An Ulcer ibid 
239 Ulcer in the Bladder or Kidneys ibid CONTENTS. 
JVO. ?AGE. 
240 Ulcer in (he Gum or Jaw 112 
241 A Fistulous Ulcer 113 
242 A Bleeding varicoua Ulcer in the Leg ibid 
243 A Malignant Ulcer ibid 
244 An easy and sale Vomit ibid 
243 To stop Vomiting ibid 
246 Bloody Urine 114 
247 Urine by drops with heat and pain ibid 
248 Involuntary Urine ibid 
249 Sharp Urine ibid 
230 Suppression of Urine ibid 
251 Uvula inflamed 113 
252 Uvula relaxed ibid 
253 Warts ibid 
254 Weakness in the Ankles 116 
255 A soft Wen ibid 
256 The Whites ibid 
257 A Whitlow 117 
258 Worms ibid 
259 Wounds 120 
260 Inward Wounds ibid 
261 Putrid Won ds ibid 
262 Wounded Tendons 121 
263 To open a Wound that is closed too 
soon ibid 
284 Daily’s Elixir ibid 
265 Turlington’s Balsam 122 
266 Stoughton’s Drops ibid 
267 Dr James’s Powders 123 
268 Hints to Parents 128 
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