864 



SPOTTED FEVERSPRAT. 



selves and their patients to empirical experiments. A 

 respectable writer gives the credit to a worthy ma- 

 tron, of the first discovery of a successful treatment. 

 This consisted in oxritiiu,' a profuse perspiration, 

 by drinking large quantities of a decoction of the 

 - and twigs of the ground hemlock, or dwarf 

 \i-\v, aided by a rude sort of vapour bath, made by 

 boiling billets of wood (of the hemlock, if to be 

 obtained), and laying them, wrapped in cloths, into 

 lied with the patient, who was, at the same time, 

 to be kept highly stimulated with brandy, and 

 other diffusible st'inmlants. But the more judi- 

 cious and scientific part of the profession were not 

 loiiiT in adopting their treatment to the true state 

 of the disease. Adopting a hint, perhaps, from the 

 eileets of the empirical sweating and stimulating, 

 which soon became common, they were able to 

 pursue a course of diaphoretics and stimulants, 

 which, while it avoided the dangers of empirical 

 excess, was eminently successful in arresting the 

 fatal tendency of the disease. Such diaphoretics 

 were selected, as while they act promptly and 

 surely, have the least tendency to induce debility. 

 A moist heat, applied externally, added much to 

 the efficacy of internal diaphoretics. A combina- 

 tion of ipecacuanha, opium, and camphor, sometimes 

 with the addition of calomel, was much used, and 

 with the best effects. It was necessary that a gen- 

 tle diaphoresis should be constantly preserved, al- 

 ways with great care avoiding profuse sweating. 

 The true measure of the use of stimulants, was the 

 preservation of a healthful temperature and an 

 equable pulse. In some cases, the tendency to 

 coldness and prostration was so great, that large 

 quantities of the most powerful kind were neces- 

 sary brandy, in hot water, tincture of cinnamon, 

 tincture of opium, with tinctures of peppermint 

 and lavender, were among the best ; and these must 

 be used, not so much in reference to the quantities 

 given, as to the effects produced. Very early in 

 the disease, almost as soon as a diaphoresis was 

 established, tonics of a more permanent character 

 were employed. The cinchona, in its different 

 modes of administration, was chiefly relied upon. A 

 favourite mode of using it, by many physicians, was in 

 a fermented decoction, with orange peel and serpen- 

 taria. A nutritious and rather stimulating liquid diet 

 was directed also quite early in the'disease. Emetics 

 were avoided, or used only when there were mani- 

 fest symptoms of decided derangement of the 

 stomach ; and cathartics were only used to remove 

 costiveness, and then none but the mildest laxatives 

 were admissible. In the pulmonic form of the 

 disease, blisters and expectorants were added to 

 the other means. It was sometimes necessary, on 

 account of the cough, Sec., to defer a little the use 

 of the cinchona and other tonics; but this did not 

 often happen, and it never appeared safe to wait 

 for a decided convalescence before resorting to 

 them. 



This is a mere outline of the treatment adopted 

 by a large proportion of the most successful practi- 

 tioners in this singular and formidable disease. It 

 of course admitted and required great diversity in 

 its application to the many varieties of form and 

 symptoms which the disease assumed in different 

 places and in the several cases. There were a few 

 physicians, however, who objected to such a stimu- 

 lating practice, and insisted upon the necessity of 

 blood-letting and other evacuants, and who still 

 contend, that an anti-phlogistic course of treatment 

 was the most successful. It may be said, indeed, 



that the prostration and debility must have been 

 produced by some active disease, and if that disease 

 could be arrested by early bleeding, and other 

 means, much of the prostration would be prevented. 

 But, however true this may be in general, in the 

 present instance, the good effects which generally 

 folio wed a judicious course of stimulants, sufficiently 

 showed that no such disorganization was produced 

 by the disease, which was supposed to cause the 

 debility, as to render it unsafe to trust to them to 

 remove it. If the bleeding recommended had failed 

 to prevent the sinking by arresting the disease, it 

 must have increased the exhaustion, and conse- 

 quently added to the difficulty of the cure ; and to 

 perceive accurately when it would be liable to do 

 this, would have required a nicety of discrimination 

 greater than belongs to most practitioners of medi 

 cine, if, indeed, it can ever be attained. 



The results of the treatment were very various 

 in different places. In many places, the disease, 

 though violent and severe, yielded to remedies with 

 a docility truly remarkable. At the same time, it 

 required unceasing vigilance and care to prevent 

 fatal relapses. In such places, most of the deaths 

 seemed to result more from accidental imprudences 

 or neglect, than from the incurable nature of the 

 disease itself. In other places, the disease was 

 speedily fatal to a large proportion of those attacked. 

 In some small districts, twenty or thirty died in 

 rapid succession, before any recovered. Much of 

 this inequality is doubtless to be attributed to dif- 

 ferences in the virulence of the epidemic itself. 

 But there are many facts which go to show, that 

 something must be ascribed to diversities of treat- 

 ment. The comparison here intended, is not 

 between the diaphoric and stimulating practice on 

 the one hand, and the anti-phlogistic on the other, 

 so much as between either of these and an awkward 

 attempt to engraft either upon a routine of earlier 

 days, which many men found it difficult to abandon. 

 To our minds, the stimulating treatment, properly 

 regulated, was incomparably preferable in its effects 

 to the bleeding; but either was immeasurably better 

 than the hesitating, inefficient practice to which 

 we have alluded. Many instances occurred in 

 which a change of practice was followed by a 

 change of results, in the same neighbourhood, and 

 often in the same families, so immediate and so 

 striking, as to render it difficult to attribute the 

 difference to any thing but the change of treat- 

 ment. 



SPRAT, OR SARDINE (clupea sprattus); a 

 small fish, hardly distinguishable, at first sight, 

 from the herring, but smaller and more slender. 

 It is found in the North Atlantic and Mediter- 

 ranean, and keeps usually in the depths of the 

 ocean; but during the autumn approaches the shore 

 in vast numbers, for the purpose of depositing its 

 spawn. The fishery is very lucrative, and has 

 become an important branch of commerce in many 

 parts of Europe. Sprats are taken in the same 

 manner as herrings, except that the nets have 

 smaller meshes; but it is necessary to salt them 

 before bringing them to land. 



SPRAT, THOMAS, bishop of Rochester, was 

 born in 1636, and received his academical education 

 at Wadham college, Oxford, of which he was elected 

 a fellow in 1657. Upon the death of Cromwell, 

 he composed an Ode to the Memory of the late 

 Lord Protector, abounding with the most high- 

 flown adulation, and of the irregular class then 

 termed Pindaric. Another, On the Plague of 



