35 CULPEPER%ssBNGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
be excited by tickling the infide of the throat with a feather. Should thefe methods 
however fail, half a.drachm of white vitriol, or five or fix grains of emétic tartar, 
_muft be adminiftered. . If tormenting pains are felt in the lower belly, and there is 
~ seafon to fear that the poifon has got down to the inteftines, clyfters of milk and oil 
mutt be very frequently thrown up; and the'patient muft drink emollient decoc- 
tions of barley, oatmeal, marfh-mallows, and fuch-like. He muft likewife take an 
infufion of fenna and manna, a folution of Glauber’s falts, or fome other purgative: 
After the poifon has been evacuated, the patient ought, for fome time, to live upon 
fuch things as are of a healing and cooling quality ; to abftain from fleth and all 
ftrong liquors, and to live upon milk, broth, gruel, light puddings, and other fpoon- 
_meats of eafy digeftion: His drink fhould be barley-water, linfeed-tea, or infufions 
of any of the mild mucilaginous vegetables. Though vegetable poifons, when 
allowed to remain in the ftomach, often prove fatal; yet the danger i is generally 
over as foon as they are difcharged. Not being of fuch a cauftic or corrofive na- 
ture, they are lefs apt to wound or inflame the bowels than mineral fubftances, no 
~ time however, ought to be loft in having them difcharged. For the bités of poi- 
fonous animals, a great variety of certain and immediate cures are pointed out in 
the Herbal. For the bite of a viper, however, the wound fhould be well fucked, 
and afterwards rubbed with warm fallad-oil. A poultice of bread and milk, foft- 
ened with fallad-oil, fhould likewife be applied to the wound; and the patient ought 
to drink freely of vinegar-whey, or water-gruel with vinegar in it, to make him 
{weat. Vinegar is one of the beft drinks which can be ufed in any kind of poifon, 
and ought to be taken very liberally. If the patient be fick, he may takea vomit. 
This courfe will be fufficient to cure the bite of any of the poifonous animals of this 
country: Itis the happinefs of this ifland to have very few poifonous animals, and 
thofe which we have are by no means of the moft virulent kind. We cannot how- 
ever make the fame obfervation with regard to poifonous vegetables. Thefe abound 
every where, and prove often fatal to the ignorant and unwary. “This indeed is 
chiefly owing to careleffnefs. Children ought early to be cautioned againft eating 
of fruit, roots, or berries, which they do not know; and _all poifonous 
which Ee can have — ought, as. far as 'poftible, to be eee 
of pac oF fone ads: pati or oo ‘whieh fetthag kane 
nua a é ‘. ought to put people upon their guard with 
refpect to the. former, 0 put the later seerg ey of ule. - We might: here 
: — e243 ~~ , ent 0! 
a. 4° 
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