for the Cure of the Hydrophohla. 2^3 



treatment was different in each; yet there was one clrcum- 

 ftance common to all, and that was a copious fvveat. Till 

 that appeared, the r^icovery feems to have been doubtful. 

 Nor is the cafe defcribed by Van Helmont an exception : 

 the patient being plunged in the cold bath till half dead, 

 the cure was attributed to the fright, but ought rather to 

 have been afcribed to the re-aftion of the fyftem, which, 

 being aided by a warm bed and fudorllic regimen, termi- 

 nated in a falutary fweat. In a fubfequcnt experiment of 

 this kind, equally terrific, no fweat enfued, and the difeafe 

 foon proved fatal. 



*' Sudorifics, indeed, feldom produce a copious fweat, vm- 

 lefs their operation can be aflifted by warm diluting liquors. 

 Hence, perhaps, it is, that mu(k, valerian, opium, and other 

 powerful fudorifics, have fo often failed. Given merely as 

 antifpafmodics, without proper dilution, they ferve but to 

 flatter hope at the expence of difappointment j let therefore 

 the following method have a fair trial : 



" In a pint of olive oil diflblve an ounce of camphor: let 

 the entire furface of the body be diligently rubbed with this 

 folution, made warm, continuing the fri6lion, before a gentle 

 fire, till the whole be expended ; after which let the patient 

 be covered with flannel, and put into a warm bed till a 

 copious perfpiration be procured. This may be encouraged 

 by an enema of warm wine-whey, with an addition of vola- 

 tile alkaline fpirit, or eau de luce, which lafl: has long been 

 deemed a noted fpecific in France. — ^The part affefted,. and 

 alfo the neck and fpine, ought to be well embrocated twice 

 a-day with tepid oil, which, by foothing the nerves, may 

 act as a powerful anodyne and antifpafmodic : could an entire 

 bath of oil be had, it would be, perhaps, greatly preferable 

 to a common bath of warm water. 



" A patient, in confequence of the poifon of arfenic, had 

 long fuffcred fevere pains and convulfive fpafms over the 

 whole furface of his body, which refifted various internal 

 and external remedies, till he was ordered, by M. Boutcille^ 

 to be placed, for the fpace of an hour, at proper intervals, in 

 a bath of warm oil, by which he was foorx completely cured., 



5 " if 



