INTERMITTENT FEVERS, <&c.

115

these may sometimes succeed, yet their very nastiness is sufficientto set them aside, especially when cleanly medicines will answerthe purpose better. The only medicine that can be depended up-on for thoroughly curing an intermittent fever, is the Peruvian bark.It may always be used with safety ; and I can honestly declare,that in all my practice I never knew it fail, when combined withthe medicines mentioned above, and duly persisted in.

Where agues are endemical, even children are often afflictedwith that disease. Such patients are very difficult to cure, as theycan seldom be prevailed upon to take the bark, or any otherdisagreeable medicine. One method of rendering this medicinemore palatable, is to make it into a mixture with distilled watersand syrup, and afterwards to give it an agreeble sharpness withdiluted sulphuric acid. This both improves the medicine, andtakes off the nauseous taste. In cases where the bark cannot beadministered, a proportionate dose of the saline mixture* may begiven with advantage to children.

Wine-whey is a very proper drink for a child in an ague ; tohalf an English pint of which may be put a tea-spoonful of thespirit of hartshorn. Exercise is likewise of considerable service ;and when the disease proves obstinate, the child ought, if possible,to be removed to a warm dry air. The food ought to be nourish-ing, and sometimes a little generous wine should be allowed.

To children, and such as cannot swaJiow the bark, or when thestomach will not bear it, it may be given by clyster. Half anounce of the extract of back, dissolved in four ounces of warm wa-ter, with the addition of half an ounce of sweet oil, and six oreight drops of laudanum, is the form recommended by Dr. Lindfor an adult, and this to be repeated every fourth hour, or oftener,as the occasion shall require. For children the quantity of ex-tract and laudanum must be proportionably lessened. Childrenhave been cured of agues by making them wear a waistcoat withpowdered bark quilted between the folds of it : by hathing themfrequently in a strong decoction of the bark, and by rubbing thespine with strong spirit, or with a mixture of equal parts of thetincture of opium and the soap liniment.

To prevent agues, people must endeavour to avoid their causes.These have been already pointed out in the beginning of this sec-tion : we shall, therefore, only add one preventive medicine, whichmay be of use to such as are obliged to live in low marshy coun-tries, or who are liable to frequent attacks of this disease.

Take an ounce of the best Peruvian bark ; Virginian snake-root, and orange-peel, of each half an ounce; bruise them all to-gether, and infuse for five or six days in a bottle of brandy, Hol-land gin, or any good spirit ; afterwards pour off the clear liquor,and take a wine-glass of it twice or thrice a-day. This, indeed, isrecommending a dram ; but the bitter ingredients in a great meas-ure take off the ill effects of the spirit. Those who do not choose

of the grey spider, is inert, and so is the web of the other, when not recent, whichmay be known by its glutinous feel." See Elements of Therapeutics and MateriaMedica. By N. Chapmaît, M. D. In two Vols. 8vo. Vol. ii.

* Take Sulphate of Magnesia, 6 drachms. Syrup of Orange-peel, 1 drachm.Infusion of Senna, 1 J ounce. Make a purging draught.

?