On Medical Enlomology. 31§ 



tfncacious which excited his aversion. Honev passcsseX' 

 the double advantage of flattering the taste and producing 

 excellent effects. W it does not occupy one of the lirst 

 places in the materia mcdica, it is probably because it has 

 an agreeable savour, and is very common. Tlicr« are few 

 diseases, indeed, in which honey is countcr-hidicatcd. In 

 many it acts as a powerful paliialivc, and in man^/ others it 

 produces a radical cure. Affections of the urinarv passages 

 and those of the organs of respiration are the cases, how- 

 ever, in which the use of it is crowned with the happiest 

 success. Last waiter I had several instances of pnlmonaiy 

 catarrh, and honey was alwavs the principal means of cure. 

 I had also to treat a dyspnoea, and ihret cases of phthisis in 

 the highest degree. One ol the patients affected with the 

 latter ascribed his malady to cinchona, of which he had been 

 made to take more than twelve oujices. All of them were 

 indebted, in a great ni.eiisure, for their cure, to honev. I 

 advised them to eat it with their bread ; and T caused them 

 to put it into their common beverage, which was an infu- 

 sion of the roots of the [iolygda-umara. The anti-phthisical 

 properties of this plant have l)cen placed beyond doubt bv 

 a physician as esimiablc for his talents as for his virtues*. 

 I w ishcd to try this treatment on a phthisickv patient in the 

 second degree, who had been imprudently moved about from 

 hospital to hospital for a considerable time. Honev and 

 polygala both failed, and the patient soon sunk nnder the 

 <lisease. I also had the misfortune to see fall a sacrifice a 

 captain of the 4Sth regiment of uifantry, attacked with a 

 phthisis laryngeaf, the fatal termination of wnicli ought 

 chiefly to be ascribed to diHerent treatments with hypei"- 

 oxygcnated muriate of mercury. Can Vari Swietcn be par- 

 <]oncd for having put into the hands of ignorance a terrible 

 poison, to which thousands dailv frjl victims? Wafer in 

 which honev is dissolved is called simple hydronicl. If this 

 mixture be subjected to vijious fermentation, the result i«i 

 vinf)us hydromelv The first is proper in angiotenic fevers 

 and phlegmasia^ ; the secoiui is indicated in particular in 

 adynan)ie diseases. 



Honev boiled with half its weight of white wino vinegar 

 constitutes simple oxvuiel, the utility t>f which in nieningc- 

 gastric fevers, and plilegmasi;u complicated with adynamic 

 symptoms, has been proved by long experience, if vinccar 



• Mar. Medic, indigene, par I. F. Cu*tc ei P. il. W'ilicmct, couronree 

 <n 1776 p«r I'Ac-kI. dc Ly.n. 



t Pbibtu: Sjphtlliiim, Sauv. Nos. 



of 



