066 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSCATIONS. [ANNO J 762. 



ran high ; and it afterwards peeled off in most parts of the body : but this was 

 not observed to happen in the present disorder. 



This autumn (176'2) there was a disease, which had not been in Dr. W.'s re- 

 membrance epidemic at London. Very few of the physicians in London had seen 

 this disorder as it had appeared then ; but Dr. Huxham mentions it as frequent 

 at Plymouth in the year 1 743, in his treatise De Morbis Epidemicis, vol 1, p. go, 

 where it is observed that many of the children which fell under his care voided the 

 vermes teretes. In the course of his practice Dr. W. found many of Dr. H.'s 

 observations exceedingly well founded, and collected from them very useful re- 

 marks. Dr. Sydenham has left an admirable history of this disease, as it appear- 

 ed at London in the year 1669, and the 3 subsequent years. To this work, as 

 well as to what Dr. Huxham has given on this subject. Dr. W. was very much 

 obliged. 



As the dysentery is most frequently an autumnal disease, and aSDr.W. had not 

 seen any person afflicted with it in the latter part of Dec. he flattered himself 

 that the cold and frosty weather had put a stop to its progress. This disorder, 

 though very general, most frequently attacked weak persons, and those recover- 

 ing from other diseases, women during their lying-in, and children. The dysen- 

 tery in some was attended with a fever, in a high degree inflammatory , in others 

 it was without any fever. When it was attended with a fever, bleeding and gen- 

 tle evacuations by stool with liberal dilution did great service. When there was 

 no fever, as well as in those whose fever had been relieved by the methods before 

 mentioned, if the irritating pain in the bowels, bloody or mucous discharges with 

 the tenesmus continued, after the excrementitious sordes had been carried off^ 

 nothing relieved more than drinking large quantities of very small mutton broth, 

 without salt, so as to be discharged but little altered. This not only warmed and 

 nourished the patient, but diluted the acrimony, and served as a most comfort- 

 able fomentation to the whole intestinal canal. Clysters of this with Tinct. Theb. 

 he directed to be given 3, or even if the symptoms were urgent, 4 times a day. 

 When these symptoms were abated, as most persons were exceedingly debilitated 

 and their appetite almost gone, light decoctions of Cort. Peruv. greatly hastened 

 the recovery. 



He had the misfortune to see 3 children die of 4 or 5 years old, after the seve- 

 rity of the disease was over. Their bowels had for a week or more been free 

 from pain. They were without fever. Their discharges by stool both bloody 

 and mucous were in a manner gone : yet they were so much debilitated, and 

 their stomachs so languid, that they obstinately refused every species of nourish- 

 ment by the mouth ; nor would they retain nutritious clysters ; so that in the 

 end they sunk from absolute inanition. In 2 of these, which by his direction 

 were opened, he found their gall bladders turgid with high coloured viscid bile. 



