Page images
PDF
EPUB

patients in the hofpitals of Paris, given by monfieur Poupart, in the Memoirs of the royal academy of sciences, for the year one thousand fix hundred and ninety-nine. That author thinks he faw some resemblance in it to the plague of Athens. It is hard to imagine any thing more dreadful than the case of thofe men, rotting alive by the fcurvyin it's fupreme degree. To obviate fuch putre'faction, I believe the most effectual method would be, to embalm (if one may fo fay) the living body with tar-water copiously drunk; and this belief is not without experience.

92. It is the received opinion that the animal falts of a found body are of a neutral, bland and benign nature: that is, the falts in the juices past the primæ viæ, are neither acid nor alcaline, having been fubdued by the conftitution, and changed into a third nature, Where the conftitution wants force to do this, the aliment is not duly affimulated; and fo far as the falts retain their priftine qualities, fickly fymptoms enfue, acids and alkalies not perfectly fubdued, producing weak ferments in the juices. Hence fcurvy, cachexy, and a long train of ills.

93. A cachexy or ill habit is much of the fame kind with the fcurvy, proceeds from the fame caufes and is attended with like fymptoms, which are fo manifold and various, that the fcurvy may well be looked on as a general cachexy, infecting the whole habit and vitiating all the digeftions. Some have reckoned as many forts of the fcurvy, as there are different taints of the blood. Others have fuppofed it a collection of all illneffes together. Some fuppofe it an accumulation of feveral difeafes in fieri. Others take it for an affemblage of the reliques of old diftempers.

94. But

94. But thus much is certain, the cure of the fcurvy is no more to be attempted by ftrongly active medicines than (to ufe the fimilitude of an ingenious writer) a thorn in the flesh, or pitch on filk to be removed by force. The vifcid humour must be gently refolved and diluted, the tone of the veffels recovered by a moderate ftimulation, and the tender fibres and capillary veffels gradually cleared from the concreted ftuff, that adheres and obftructs them. All which is in the apteft manner performed by a watery diluent, containing a fine vegetable foap. And although a complete cure by alteratives, operating on the fmall capillaries, and by infenfible difcharges, muft require length of time, yet the good effect of this medicine on cachectic and fcorbutic perfons, is foon perceived, by the change it produceth in their pale difcoloured looks, giving a florid healthy countenance in lefs time than perhaps any other medicine.

95. It is fuppofed by phyficians, that the immediate cause of the fcurvy lies in the blood, the fibrous part of which is too thick and the ferum too thin and fharp and that hence arifeth the great difficulty in the cure, because in the correcting of one part, regard must be had to the other. It is well known how extremely difficult it is to cure an inveterate fcurvy: how many scorbutic patients have grown worfe by an injudicious course of evacuations: how many are even rendered incurable by the treatment of inconfiderate physicians and how difficult, tedious and uncertain the cure is in the hands even of the beft, who are obliged to ufe fuch variety and change of medicines, in the different ftages of that malady: which nevertheless may be cured (if I may judge by what 1 have experienced) by the fole, regular, conftant, copious ufe of tar-water.

96. Tar

96. Tar-water moderately infpiffates with it's balfamic virtue, and renders mild the thin and fharp part of the blood. The fame, as a foapy medicine, diffolves the grumous concretions of the fibrous part. As a balfam it destroys the ulcerous acrimony of the humours, and as a deobftruent it opens and cleans the veffels, restores their tone, and ftrengthens the digestion, whofe defects are the principal caufe of fcurvy and cachexy.

97. In the cure of the fcurvy, the principal aim is to fubdue the acrimony of the blood and juices. But as this acrimony proceeds from different causes, or even oppofite, as acid and alkaline, what is good in one fort of fcurvy proves dangerous, or even mortal, in another. It is well known, that hot antifcorbutics, where the juices of the body are alcalefcent, increase the disease. And four fruits and vegetables produce a like effect in the fcurvy, caused by an acid acrimony. Hence fatal blunders are committed by unwary practitioners, who, not distinguishing the nature of the disease, do frequently aggravate, inftead of curing it. If I may truft what trials I have been able to make, this water is good in the feveral kinds of fcurvy, acid, alcaline, and muriatic, and I believe it the only medicine that cures them all without doing hurt in any. As it contains a volatile acid (a) with a fine volatile oil, why may not a medicine cool in one part and warm in another be a remedy to either extreme (b)? I have obferved I have obferved it to produce a kindly genial warmth without heat, a thing to be aimed at in all forts of fcurvy. Befides the balfam in tar-water fheaths all fcorbutic falts alike and it's great virtues as a digefter and deob

(a) 7.

(b) 72.

ftruent

ftruent are of general ufe in all fcorbutic, and, I may add, in all chronical cafes whatsoever.

98. I cannot be fure that I have tried it in a fcrophulous cafe, though I have tried it fuccefsfully in one that I fufpected to be fo. And I apprehend it would be very serviceable in such disorders. For although Doctor Gibbs in his treatise of the King's Evil derives that difeafe from a coagulating acid, which is alfo agreeable to the opinion of fome other phyficians, and although tar-water contain an acid, yet as it is a foap (a), it refolves instead of coagulating the juices of the body.

99. For hysterical and hypochondriacal diforders fo frequent among us, it is commonly fuppofed that all acids are bad. But I will venture to except the acid foap of tar-water, having found, by my own experience and that of many others, that it raifeth the fpirits, and is an excellent antihyfteric, nor lefs innocent than potent, which cannot be faid of thofe others in common use, that often leave people worse than they found them.

100. In a high degree of fcurvy a mercurial falivation is looked on by many as the only cure. Which, by the vehement fhock it gives the whole frame, and the fenfible fecretion it produceth, may be thought to be more adequate to fuch an effect. But the disorder occafioned by that violent process, it is to be feared, may never be got over. The immediate danger, the frequent bad effects, the extreme trouble and nice care attending fuch a course do very deservedly make people afraid of it. And though the fenfible fecretion therein be fo great, yet in a longer tract of time the use of tar-water may produce as great

(a) 58.

a discharge of fcorbutic falts by urine and by perfpiration, the effect of which laft, though not fo fenfible, may yet be greater than that of falivation; especially if it be true, that in common life infenfible perfpiration is to nutrition, and all fenfible excretions, as five to three.

101. Many hyfteric and fcorbutic ailments, many taints contracted by themselves, or inherited from their ancestors, afflict the people of condition in these islands, often rendering them, upon the whole, much more unhappy than those whom po-verty and labour have ranked in the lowest lot of life; which ailments might be fafely removed or relieved by the fole use of tar-water; and thofe lives, which feem hardly worth living for bad appetite, low fpirits, restless nights, wafting pains and anxieties, be rendered eafy and comfortable.

102. As the nerves are inftruments of fenfation, it follows that fpafms in the nerves may produce all fymptoms, and therefore a disorder in the nervous fyftem fhall imitate all diftempers, and occafion, in appearance, an afthma for inftance, a pleurify, or a fit of the ftone. Now whatever is good for the nerves in general, is good against all fuch fymptoms. But tar-water, as it includes in an eminent degree the virtues of warm gums and refins, is of great ufe for comforting and ftrengthening the nerves (a), curing twitches in the nervous fibres, cramps also, and numbness in the limbs, removing anxieties and promoting sleep, in all which cases I have known it very fuccefsful.

103. This fafe and cheap medicine fuits all circumftances and all conftitutions, operating easily, curing without disturbing, raising the fpirits without depreffing them, a circumftance that deferves

[blocks in formation]
« EelmineJätka »