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ON THE 



EXTERNAL USE OF COLD WATER IN THE 

 CURE OF FEVER. 



[This paper was originally communicated to the London Medical 

 Society, through the medium of Dr Fothergill. It was 

 read for the first time before the Society, on the 7th of March 

 1779. It was again read on the 8th of March following, and 

 ordered to be printed in the Society's Transactions. After- 

 wards, in March 1783, and March 1784, it was read for the 

 third and fourth time, and on each of these occasions, it was 

 resolved to postpone the publication sine die. On the second 

 return of Dr Wright from Jamaica, in 1786, the paper was 

 recovered from Dr Thomson, the Secretary to the Medical 

 Society; and, as a communication to Dr Simmons, it was first 

 printed in the London Medical Journal, Vol. vii. Part 2. 

 p. 109.] 



From the time that physicians have found fresh air and 

 cold watery drinks so beneficial in the small-pox and malig- 

 nant fevers, these diseases have been less fatal within the tro- 

 pics than formerly. 



Having often observed how greatly people, labouring un- 

 der malignant fevers, were refreshed by washing the hands 

 and face in cold water, I was led to think that the cold bath 

 would answer many good purposes in obstinate malignant 

 and putrid fevers ; but a practice so new in Jamaica, and so 

 different from the common methods, could not well be pro- 

 posed ; and, if it had, would probably not have been submit- 

 ted to : on which account, I kept my opinion to myself till 



