8 Medicine. [Chap. IV. 



diseases*, and especially in malignant fevers, may 

 be considered as a memorable event in the annals 

 of medicine. Those w^ho have most distinguished 

 themselves by recommending the use of mercurial 

 preparations in the latter class of diseases are Drs. 

 Rush and Chisholm. 



The great extension of the use of Opium in the 

 eighteenth century deserves particular notice; but 

 the principles of this extension, and the variety of 

 cases in which it has been lately employed, are too 

 numerous to be detailed. 



Digitalis has long held a place in the materia 

 medica ; but its efficacy in certain diseases, parti- 

 cularly in dropsy and pulmonary consumption^ has 

 been clearly known but a few years. For much 

 information respecting the virtues of this powerful 

 vegetable, we are indebted to the publications of 

 Drs. Withering, Beddoes, and others. 



The use of Lead, particularly in various external 

 applications, has been better understood, and more 

 frequently employed, within the last half century, 

 than before. Those who have been most distin- 

 guished by their inquiries into the medical virtues 

 of this substance are M. Goulard, of France, and 

 Dr. Aikin of Great Britain. 



Many of the best preparations of Antimony now 

 employed by physicians, were either wholly un- 

 known, or little used, prior to the eighteenth cen- 



* The use of Mercury in the S?naU-Pox was resorted to in the 

 American colonies first in 1/45, when it was employed with 

 success by Dr. Thomas, a respectable practitioner of Virginia, 

 and by Dr. ^uirison, an eminent physician of Long Island^ in 

 the province of New York. — Sec Dr. Gale's Dissertation on Small- 

 Par, cjuoted by Dr. Huxham. ' 



