memoir or nu wright. -11:3 



use of the cold affusion in febrile diseases in Edinburgh, par- 

 ticularly in the late influenza ; which lie treated as a fever of 

 debility, allowing a liberal diet, and the moderate use of wine, 

 but keeping down heat and flushings, by the sudden applica- 

 tion of cold water to the surface ; a mode of treatment which 

 he found invariably successful : and he expresses a confident 

 opinion that the cold affusion, well timed, will not only cure 

 all febrile exacerbations, but prevent their taking place, ' I 

 agree, 1 says Dr Wright ' with Dr Falconkii of Bath, in 

 thinking that the cold affusion will secure persons from taking 

 the plague itself, though exposed to its contagion. r ' 



After a short stay at Liverpool and Manchester, 

 Dr Wiiight, towards the end of June 1798, proceed- 

 ed to London, where he had the satisfaction to find 

 that his services in the West Indies had been duly ap- 

 preciated. As he was still retained on the full pay of 

 the army, he appears to have felt that his services 

 were more immediately at the disposal of the Secretary 

 at War, than if he had been reduced with the other 

 officers of the Staff. It is probable, however, from his 

 never having afterwards had any actual duty assigned 

 to him, that the delay in placing him on half-pay was 

 only intended to afford him some remuneration for the 

 example he had shewn of zeal, activity, and perseve- 

 rance in the discharge of his professional duties. 



The uncertainty as to his future destination, de- 

 tained him for several months in London, during 

 which he had an opportunity of cultivating and ex- 

 tending the friendships he had formed in the metro- 

 polis. At the Royal College of Physicians, he found 

 that he had risen so high in favour with the corpora- 



!I 



