354 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1729. 



fever-cases all sort of food lias been withheld until the 7th or 10th day, and 

 even for a longer period, provided the exhibition of the cold water had not 

 been discontinued. When it appears to be the proper time for indulging 

 the patient with food, the cold water should either be discontinued or be 

 given only in small quantities; and an interval of some hours should elapse, 

 after suspending the use of the water, before the food is offered, that the sto- 

 mach may act upon it the better. The food should be of the lightest and most 

 digestible kind, such as panada, eggs boiled soft, and the like. At first this 

 sort of food is to be allowed in small quantity once a-day, afterwards twice a- 

 day, till the patient comes by degrees to make rather a hearty dinner, but a 

 very sparing supper ; he should however abstain from flesh-meat for a month 

 or longer. When the patients come to this diet, they should not wholly dis- 

 continue the use of cold water ; but after the food has been digested, they 

 should drink 2 or 3 draughts of water ; and this plan should be persisted in, 

 until all remains of fever are removed, and the patient is observed to be in a 

 convalescent state. 



A circumstance which requires much consideration during the employment of 

 this method is, whether the water which is administered be freely discharged 

 again from the body, or not ? If the quantity of urine be increased, and its 

 colour rendered paler 12 hours after this method has been begun upon, it may 

 be inferred that the water begins to act properly. Sometimes on the very 1st 

 day, or on the 2d or 3d day, the bowels are moved, and there comes away first 

 a quantity of feculent saburra, afterwards a quantity of liquid discharge vari- 

 ously coloured. This again is a favourable occurrence; for after such an evacua 

 tion of the bowels, the febrile symptoms abate. Hence, after a lapse of 2 or 

 3 days, if no evacuation by stool shall have taken place, it will be proper 

 (although the water which is drunk shall come away freely by the urinary 

 passages) to move the patient's bowels either by means of glysters, or by some 

 almond-oil given by the mouth. 



It is no objection to a perseverance in this method of cure if the parotid 

 glands should be swelled, or pus should be voided with the stools or urine. 

 Even where symptoms of abscesses forming in the brain or thorax supervene, 

 the internal use of the water should not be discontinued ; but if the patient be 

 drowsy or comatose, blisters and other rubefacients should be applied : or, if 

 the patient be affected with difficulty of breathing, some almond-oil should be 

 given, and the water should be exhibited not quite cold. — It not unfrequently 

 happens that a violent vomiting supervenes on the first day's use of the aqueous 

 regimen. The undigested contents of the stomach being thus brought away, the 

 patient is relieved, the vomiting generally ceasing when tlie stomach is thorough- 



