626 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



resolved into the supposition of a general laxity and debility of 

 the system. 



MDCCXXIX. It is upon this supposition almost alone that 

 the cure of rickets has entirely proceeded. The remedies have 

 been such especially as were suited to improve the tone of the 

 system in general, or of the stomach in particular ; and we 

 know that the latter are not only suited to improve the tone of 

 the stomach itself, but by that means to improve also the tone 

 of the whole system. 



MDCCXXX. Of tonic remedies, one of the most promising 

 seems to have been cold bathing ; and I have found it the most 

 powerful in preventing the disease. For a long time past, it 

 has been the practice in this country, with people of all ranks, 

 to wash their children from the time of their birth with cold 

 water, and from the time that children are a month old, it has 

 been the practice with people of better rank to have them dip- 

 ped entirely in cold water every morning ; and wherever this 

 practice has been pursued, I have not met with any instance of 

 rickets. Amongst our common people, although they wash their 

 children with cold water only, yet they do not so commonly 

 practise immersion : and when amongst these I meet with in- 

 stances of rickets, I prescribe cold bathing ; which accordingly 

 has often checked the progress of the disease, and sometimes 

 seems to have cured it entirely. 



MDCCXXXI. The remedy of Ens Veneris, recommended 

 by Mr. Boyle, and since his time very universally employed, is 

 to be considered as entirely a tonic remedy. That or some 

 other preparation of iron I have almost constantly employed, 

 though not indeed always with success. I have been persuad- 

 ed that the Ens Veneris of Mr. Boyle, notwithstanding his giv- 

 ing it this appellation, was truly a preparation of iron, and no 

 other than what we now name the Flares Martiales : but it ap- 

 pears, that both Benevoli and Buchner have employed a pre- 

 paration of copper ; and I am ready to believe it to be a more 

 powerful tonic than the preparations of iron. 



MDCCXXXII. Upon the supposition of tonic remedies be- 

 ing proper in this disease, I have endeavoured to employ the 

 Peruvian bark ; but from the difficulty of administering it to 

 infants in any useful quantity, I have not been able to discover 



