INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN.

185

they are of the least service, and ought never to be used unlesswhere suppuration is inevitable.

An absorbent, which takes up the moisture and cools the skin,answers the purpose much better. What I generally use is starchpowder, spread upon a soft rag, and laid over the parts affected.This may be renewed twice or thrice a-day ; and it is not to beimagined what ease and comfort it gives to the patient every time.

As the erysipelas resembles the gout in many respects, it oughtnot to be rashly tampered with. Should it be driven from thepart affected, it may fix upon a more dangerous one. Tfie alarmis generally greatest when it removes to or attacks the face. Ihave, however, known it seize upon the knee, and after laying thebones bare, prove fatal.*

For the erysipelas appearing in children, see Infantine Erysi-pelas.

CHAP. XVIII.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. (Phrenitis.)

This is sometimes a primary disease, but offener only a symp-tom of some other malady, as the in/Jammatory, eruptive, or spot-ted fever, »fee. It is very common, however, as a primary diseasein warm climates, and is most incident to persons about the primeor vigour of life. The passionate, the studious, and those whosenervous system is irritable in a high degree, are most liable to it.

Causes. — This disease is often occasioned by night-watching,efcpecially when joined with hard study ; it may likewise proceedfrom hard drinking, anger, grief, or anxiety. It is often occasion-ed by the stoppage of usual evacuations ; as the bleeding piles inmen, the customary discharges of women, &c. Such as impru-dently expose themselves to the heat of the sun, especially bysleeping without doors in a hot season, with their heads uncovered,are often suddenly seized with an inflammation of the brain, so as

* * There is a peculiar species of Erysipelas in this country"termed Shingles, (Erysi-pele* phlyctœnodes) and by the antients Zona or Zoster, from surrounding the trunk ofthe body lite a belt. It consists of an aggregation of vesicles filled with a limpid oryellowish coloured fluid. The eruption makes its first appearance on some spot ofthe chest, and gradually extends literally both ways. It is a vulgar, but unfoundedopinion, that if the extremities of the eruption meet so as completely to surroundthe body, the patient must die. As this complaint seems often to be critical, we shouldnot be too eager to repel it by externals. If the eruption suddenly subside, or be drivenin by external applications, a paroxysm of asthma is not unirequently the consequence.To remove this metastasis, stimulant applications are requisite, such as the ointmentof yellow resin with an eighth part of the red precipitate, or the citrine ointment, bywhich the inflammation of the skin is reproduced, and the discharge kept up. Thegeneral treatment of this complaint consists in keeping the patient moderately warm, andgiving tepid diluent fluids, till the vesicles begin spontaneously to dry. Their desicca-tion may be promoted by a lotion composed of a dram of white vitriol dissolved in eightounces of rose water. The common people are in the habit of applying to the shin-gles, writing ink diluted with water. After the eruption is scaled off, the patientshould take a few doses of some cooling purgative. A. P. B.