2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, [aNNO 1763. 



it every 4 hours between the fits; but with great caution, and the strictest at- 

 tention to its effects; the fits were considerably abated, but did not entirely 

 cease. Not perceiving the least ill consequences, he became bolder with it, and 

 in a few days increased the dose to 2 scr. and the ague was soon removed. It 

 was then given to several others with the same success, but he found it better an- 

 swered the intention, when 1 dram of it was taken every 4 hours in the intervals 

 of the paroxysms. 



He had continued to use it with success, as a remedy for agues and inter- 

 mitting disorders for 5 years successively. It had been given he believed to 50 

 persons, and never failed in the cure, except in a few autumnal and quartan 

 agues, with which the patients had been long and severely afflicted; these it re- 

 duced in a great degree, but did not wholly take them ofl^; the patient, at the 

 usual time for the return of his fit, felt some smattering of his distemper, which 

 the incessant repetition of these powders could not conquer: it seemed as if their 

 power could reach thus far and no farther; and he supposed that it would not 

 have long continued to reach so far, and that the distem[)er would have soon re- 

 turned with its pristine violence; but he did not stay to see the issue: he added 

 one-fifth part of the Peruvian bark to it, and with this small auxiliary it totally 

 routed its adversary. It was found necessary also, in one or two obstinate cases, 

 at other times of the year, to mix the same quantity of that bark with it; but 

 these were cases where the patient went abroad imprudently, and caught cold, as 

 a post-chaise boy did, who being almost recovered from an inveterate tertian ague, 

 would follow his business ; by which means he not only neglected his powders, 

 but meeting with bad weather renewed his distemper. 



One-fifth part was the largest, and indeed the only proportion of the quin- 

 quina made use of in this composition, and this only on extraordinary occasions; 

 the patient was never prepared, either by vomiting, bleeding, purging, or any 

 medicines of a similar intention, for the reception of this bark, but he entered 

 upon it abruptly and immediately, and it was always given in powders, with any 

 common vehicle, as water, tea, small beer, and such like. This was done purely 

 to ascertain its effects; and that he might be assured the changes wrought in the 

 patient could not be attributed to any other thing: though, had there been a due 

 preparation, the most obstinate intermittents would probably have yielded to this 

 bark without any foreign assistance: and by all he could judge from 5 years ex- 

 perience of it on a number of persons, it appeared to be a powerful absorbent, 

 astringent, and febrifuge in intermitting cases, of the same nature and kind with 

 the Peruvian bark, and to have all its properties, though perhaps not always in 

 the same degree. It seemed likewise to have this additional quality, viz. to be a 

 safe medicine, for he never could perceive the least ill effect from it, though it 

 had been always given without any preparation of the patient. 



