UATI.K IN THE CURE OF FEVER. .'>4;"> 



nistering cold water in large quantities, for common drink, 

 and applying cold water externally to the surface of the body. 



The Greek physicians extinguish the intense heat of- ar- 

 dent fevers, at their height, by making their patients drink 

 large quantities of cold water, and sometimes plunging them 

 into a cold bath. A copious and critical sweat was always 

 expected to follow this practice. 



Dr Cyrillus *, a learned and ingenious physician and 

 professor at Naples, has favoured us with a circumstantial 

 account of the good effects of cold water given internally in 

 malignant fevers at Naples, and observes, that, in obstinate 

 cases, powdered snow was laid on the breasts of the sick. 

 The success of this mode was such, that this practice was uni- 

 versally adopted there, and still continues till the present 

 time. 



Dr J. G. de Hahn has given -f- us the history of a putrid 

 epidemic, which prevailed at Breslaw in 1737, and in which 

 every method of cure was ineffectual, till cold water was ap- 

 plied with sponges to the whole surface of the body. Among 

 other proofs of the efficacy of this mode of treatment, the 

 author mentions its successful use in his own case. 



Sir John Chardin, when at Gambroon, in 1673, was 

 seized with a malignant burning fever, attended with deli- 

 rium and many other bad symptoms ; and of which, after 

 having had many medicines prescribed without the desired 

 effect, he was speedily cured by the cold bath. 



" This uncommon and surprising practice" (says Dr 

 GlasJ), " so successfully employed in curing a burning fe- 

 ver, accompanied with weakness, faintness, and prostration of 



* Phil. Trans, vol. xxxvi. No. 410. 



•J- "Vide Acta Physico-Medica Acad. Nat. Cur. vol. x. p. 3. 4to. No- 

 rimbergse, 1754. 



X See I)r Glas's first Letter to Dr Baker, p. 37- 8vo. London, 

 1767- 



