438 YELLOW FEVER. 



using a good-sized wash-tub, there being two or more persons to aid 

 in the operations. When the patient is too weak to be held up, he 

 can be laid upon a couch, cot or straw-bed, and the friction may 

 thus be practiced, with wet sheets placed upon and about him, and 

 frequently renewed. At the same time the freest circulation of air 

 should be allowed in the room, and if the weather is not decidedly 

 inclement, it would be of great benefit to have the patient in the 

 open air. Fresh air and coolness, generally, are what he most 

 desires, and his feelings should be gratified to the fullest extent 

 while the fever is upon him. Now it is scarcely within the range 

 of possibility to give a patient a cold under such circumstances a 

 fact which it is of the greatest importance to remember. These 

 frictions, besides, are to be continued as frequently and as long as may 

 be necessary to produce the desired result. A great advantage of 

 the treatment is, that if it is not possible to cure the patient, which 

 I think can seldom happen if the case is taken in season it renders 

 the sufferings much less than they would otherwise be. The water 

 need never be so cold as to do much violence to the patient's feel- 

 ings. From 60 to 70 would be safe in the generalitv of cases. 



The patient should at all times be allowed wnat drink he 

 craves; and, singular as it may appear, warm water is found to quell 

 the thirst and vomiting when present better than cold. In the 

 other form the patient is pale, the hands and feet are bloodless and 

 cold although he may have a feeling of heat and a desire to be 

 uncovered. Vomiting and purging are sometimes present to such a 

 degree that it is difficult to distinguish the disease from cholera, 

 and the treatment is to be the same as for the latter disease. 



In all forms of congestive fever its malarial character is to be 

 kept sight of and treatment kept up in the interval between the 

 paroxysms. 



The cold or tepid sitting-bath should not be neglected at this 

 time, especially after the violence of the disease has somewhat 

 passed off. The wet girdle should also be used all, or nearly all of 

 the time, and a semi-daily pack, followed by the rubbing wet-sheet, 

 or the shallow-bath, would aid the patient much in his recovery. 



YELLOW FEVER. 



The celebrated Dr. Rush, speaking of the means used in his 

 practice in the epidemic yellow fever that raged so fearfully in the 

 city of Philadephia in the year 1793, gives the following testimony 

 concerning the effects of water: 



"Cold water was a most agreeable and powerful remedy in this 

 disorder. I directed it to be applied by means of napkins to the 

 head, and to be injected into the bowels by way of clyster. It gave 

 the same ease to both, when in pain, which opium gives to pain 

 from other causes. I likewise advised the washing of the face and 

 hands, and sometimes the feet with cold water, and always with 



