SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



Pensylvania. 



[I, 1 15-138.] Dr. Benjamin Rush is the Professor of Chymistry, 

 [University of Pennsylvania Medical Faculty], and is a very favorite 

 practicioner a man whose agreeable manners, oratorical fluency, and 

 flowery style abundantly recommend him to his fellow-countryman. 

 He is the author of several opuscula of a medical nature, but also 

 appears frequently as a political writer. Several sheets of his on the 

 newest methods of inoculating for the smallpox and of treating that 

 disease have appeared recently in a German translation. Daring the 

 war he was for a time Physician-in-chief of the American army and 

 frequently had occasion to observe the fatal course of lockjaw in cases 

 of insignificant wounds, although opium was administered heavily. This 

 led him to the opinion that the cause might be found in an extreme 

 weakness of the body. Therefore his treatment was to administer 

 Peruvian bark and wine, at the same time making incisions in the 

 wound and applying a blister of Spanish fly. Results were incompar- 

 ably better. He intends himself to publish, with other material, his ob- 

 servations and conclusions in this matter, unless publication of them is 

 managed earlier in some other way. The idea is confirmed by com- 

 parisons made between the wounded of the two armies, British and 

 French, after the siege of York in Virginia. Most of the wo.mded in 

 the French army, but especially those of West India regiments, were 

 attacked with the lockjaw and died, although their injuries may have 

 been slight, whereas, in the British hospitals a fatal outcome was seldom 

 remarked. It is a known fact that soldiers from the West Indies 

 always show a weak state of health, and the remainder of the French 

 troops, (having made in the height of summer a long and tedious 

 march from New England to Virginia), must have been in a weakened 

 condition. Lockjaw was not frequently the case at Philadelphia, and 

 was as seldom seen at New York, among the British troops. 



Some time ago an Irish woman made several fortunate cures of 

 blood-spitting by the use of common kitchen salt. She recommended 

 for patients suffering with this malady a teaspoonful of salt every 

 morning, to be gradually increased to a tablespoonful several times 

 a day. In the more positive cases of blood-spitting, several doses 

 must be given, often repeated until the symptoms cease, which will 

 unfailingly happen in a short time, it is claimed. Dr. Rush about 

 thirty years ago learned of this treatment, and has made use of it since 

 in more than thirty cases, and invariably with good results. The cure 

 is effectual also in bleedings at the nose and in floodings, but is 

 excellent for blood-spitting. Only in two cases was there no sfood 

 effect, to-wit, with a man w^ho was an old and incorrigible drinker, 

 and wuth another who from distrust of so simple a means would 

 not take the salt in sufficient quantity. Something similar Ins 

 been long known respecting saltpetre and sal-ammoniac, but these 

 being not so generally at hand, the practice with kitchen salt deserved 

 mention. 



