478 Observation on the medical effects 



this is accomplished, and the patients life saved, his consti- 

 tution is often so greatly enfeebled by the means adopted, 

 as to render him afterwards enervated and more subject to 

 disease than before. The following pages are descriptive 

 of an attempt to remedy such a result, by means of a plan of 

 treatment, which I have no hesitation in stating will be found 

 both simple and efficacious. 



A large class of fevers, the fatal cholera, certain local 

 inflammations, and various other diseases of tropical countries 

 are produced, or very much modified, by morbid changes in 

 the circulation or internal congestions. By stopping the 

 passage of blood in the part, or in one or more extremities, 

 the circulation will be retarded, so as to modify its action on 

 the diseased part, or blood in the system will be accumulated 

 in the internal organs, as it passes through a diminished circle. 

 The unequal and morbid distribution of blood in the internal 

 organs which occurs in intermittent fevers, cholera, &c, is 

 counteracted, and by this means a new and powerful action 

 is produced, diminishing internal congestions, and modifying, 

 if it does not check the disease, by hastening the warm stage 

 under more favourable auspices. 



I was led to this train of thought by the perusal of a 

 fragment of a pamphlet entitled " Observations on the me- 

 dical effect of compression by the tourniquet in cases of 

 agues ;" which I found bound up with an old volume of 

 Medical Essays. It is without the title page, and although 

 in the form of two letters, there is unfortunately no signature 

 appended to them. I have likewise noticed, that in some 

 cases the same method has been adopted by the Hindoos for 

 removing pain. In one case, a native subject to colic (sool) 

 and fever from indigestion, was in the habit of applying 

 a ligature tightly round his arms and legs from the axillas 

 and groins, to the wrists and ankles. In that state he lay 

 down, and in a few minutes the pain and feverishness disap- 

 peared. In other cases of rheumatism of the head or extre- 



