TREATMENT 0¥ ACUTE DISEASES. .J7-> 



I have not yet learned; hut he merits the thanks of his 

 country, and of mankind ! 



That a medicine of so hot and fiery a nature, as Cayenne 

 pepper, can be given with safety and efficacy in a disorder so 

 evidently inflammatory, is truly surprising, and can only be 

 accounted for in two ways: first, by supposing that the sti- 

 mulus of the pepper is stronger than that of the contagion ; 

 or, secondly, (to use the language of my late ingenious friend 

 Mr John Hunter), that it induces a different action in the 

 stomach and first passages. 



On the treatment of Intermittents I have but little or no- 

 thing new to offer : in such cases I have found every advan- 

 tage from following the advice of my late excellent friend 

 Dr James Lind of Haslar, by giving a large dose of lauda- 

 num in the hot fit : this has seldom failed to produce a plen- 

 tiful and kindly diaphoresis, and the disorder, in general, has 

 afterwards been cured by the Peruvian bark. 



Where intermittents have either been neglected or impro- 

 perly treated, or where the bark, so far from being of ser- 

 vice, has served only to load the stomach, or has been reject- 

 ed, I have suspected that some visceral obstructions existed. 

 In such cases, calomel, in small doses, has had the happiest 

 effect, and the patients have generally recovered without any 

 other medicine. 



Quartans and double tertians, as well as simple intermit- 

 tents, are occasioned by marsh miasmata. In warm coun- 

 tries they are frequent, and difficult of cure ; and unless the 

 sick are removed to better air, the disorder will baffle the 

 skill of the most experienced physician. Fevers of this 

 sort, if even continued but for a short time, occasion obstruc- 

 tions of the liver and mesenteric glands, which are too often 

 followed by jaundice, dropsy, and death. 



In such cases, after clearing the stomach and prima viae, 

 I order mild antimonials, opiates, and calomel ; by these 



