C 381 ; 



NOTES 



BELONGING TO 



" OBSERVATIONS ON THE LEPRA ARABUM, BY DR. W. AINSLIE." 



[liiferred to at Page 298.] 



Note A. 

 Considering the rigid and dry state of the skin which invariably characterizes this Lepra, 

 I have usually recommended, that for a week or more, before giving any medicine internally, 

 the patient should every alternate day be washed from head to foot with soap and warm water ; 

 the intermediate days using, for the same purpose, a strong infusion or decoction of the plant 

 called by the Tamools Toottie elley (Sida populifolia) ; the body being properly clothed, to 

 facilitate as much as possible the cuticular discharge.* 



The remedies I chiefly relied on in treating this formidable disease were the following, and by 

 them I in several instances put a complete stop to it; but it must be remembered that, to give 

 any chance of success, the case must be taken early : for when the malady has laid complete 

 hold of the frame, a radical cure is impossible ; a fact, I perceive, well established so far back as the 

 time of Rhazes (de Re Med., lib. vi. page 128). 



K Pilulae hydrarg : 3iv 



Camphorae 3i 



Piperis nigri 3ij 



Let these ingredients be well rubbed together, and with the addition of a little syrup of ginger 

 nude into forty pills, one of which is to be taken night and morning, and continued for a longer 

 or shorter period, according to circumstances ; the patient at the same time drinking daily a pint 

 or a pint and a half of the decoctum Guiaici, of the Edinburgh Dispensatory, or the same quan- 

 tity of the decoction of Daphnes mezerei. On other occasions I have administered with advan- 

 tage, pills composed of sulphur of antimony, calomel, and guaiacum, together with one or other 

 of the decoctions above mentioned. 



It is well known, that the eastern nations were the first who employed mercury in the cure of 

 obstinate cutaneous and leprous aifections ; and it may be questioned whether the natives of 

 India were before the Arabians, or only second in order, in availing themselves of the virtues of 

 that powerful mineral. l{hazes,\ Mesne, and Avicenna,X all notice it; and according to Fallopius, 



• It is inlcrestJng lo remark llic notions entertained regarding the same medicine in diffejent countries. The 

 Cochin Chinese attacli peculiar virtues to what they call h'uojighui/nh (curcuma longa) ; amongst other properties 

 ascrihed to it, lliey suppose it to be efficacious in cases of Scabies and Lepra, by its resolvent and diaphoretic powers. 

 ■' Etiain in I^pra, et Scabie pelcndo per transpirationem, valet." — Vide Flor. Cochin. Chin. vol. I, page 9. 



f '• Argentum vivum cum cxtinguitur ardcns csl, quod acabici, et pcdiculis auxilium alTert." Vide Rhazes de 



lU' .Med. (lib iii, cap. jxiv.). In the days of I'liny the Elder, the medicinal virtues of mercury do not appear to have 

 been at all ascertained ; that writer termed quicksilver the bane and poison of all tilings, and what would with more 

 propriety be called di'ath tilvtr. (Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiii. cap. vi ) 



t Aviccnna lays of mercury ; " Argentum vivum cxtinclum edversus pediculie et lendes cum rosaseo oleo valet." 

 — y^dt Canon. Med , lib. ii. Tract ii., jjagc U9. 



