134 On the Diseases of 



As the tendency of nature appears to be to put an 

 end to these diseases, by evacuations of the hpwels, 

 the chief duty of a practitioner ought to be to promote 

 them ; observing, nevertheless, to moderate them in 

 those whose strength appears sinking, and, on the other 

 hand, to procure them in others. 



Therefore they can adopt the following method. They 

 will begin by bleedings, which they will repeat according 

 to the forces of the pulse. The ordinary drink will be 

 a decoction of roots of lemon-trees and of endive, to 

 each pint of which will be added a dram, or a dram and 

 and a half of glauber salt. For those that are costive, they 

 will add the use of whey, made of cream of tartar. 

 Whey, thus prepared, has the wonderful quality of loos- 

 ening the bowels, and likewise that of assuaging the effer- 

 vescence of the blood. Weak chicken broth, in which 

 is boiled spinage that grows in that country, lettuce, and 

 purslane ; a weak lemonade, emollient injections pre- 

 pared or made out of malvacees plants, which are in plenty 

 in these islands, equally satisfy this indication. 



The quantity and quality of the matters discharged 

 by those whose sickness is attended with a lax, ought 

 to induce the physician to purge some at an earlier pe- 

 riod than they will others. I always made use, with 

 success, of the decoction of cassia, to which I added salt 

 of Epsom. They will, therefore, give the patient a glass 

 of it every three hours, paying nevertheless a due regard 

 to his strength. If the lax should last too long, and 

 there should be cause to fear too great a weakness, they 

 ought to have resort to laudanum, incorporated with 



