439 
TYPHUS FEVER — INFLUENZA, &c. 
in better health, better condition, and better spirits, after the attack 
than they were before he took charge of them. But, perhaps, you 
would wish to have the detail of this treatment. 
Here it is: — At once give a mild laxative, combined with a tonic, 
say two drachms of aloes with two-thirds of a tonic ball : be careful 
not to exceed this dose, though it may happen rarely you may have 
to repeat it ; for the bowels are very susceptible, the mucous mem- 
brane lining them being, as well as that lining the air passages, 
unusually susceptible. Let the throat be well rubbed with a mild 
infusion of cantharides till the animal shakes his head at you, to 
say he has had enough ; order chilled water — mashes, with equal 
parts of oats and bran — green-meat if it is procurable — and a very 
small quantity of hay. Should there be a discharge from the 
nostrils, have the head steamed three times a-day over a pail half 
filled with hay and hot water, turning the former frequently ; a 
cool box, and warm clothing, as a matter of course ; the object 
being to lessen the determination of blood to the lung, and direct it 
to the skin. Repeat the embrocation to the throat every morning 
until a thick scurf has been thrown out ; and give, morning and 
evening, what I call a mixed ball, that is, half a tonic and half a 
diuretic, combined. The tonic should consist of equal parts of 
ginger, aniseed, and bark, mixed with treacle, and this, beat up with 
equal quantity of the usual diuretic mass, gives an almost certain, 
and therefore invaluable, remedy for influenza. And you will find 
that, while you are thus administering a tonic and diuretic ball every 
twenty-four hours, the pulse is decreasing in number and improving 
in quality, the appetite increasing, and the skin and kidneys are pour- 
ing off with impunity the deleterious impurities of the system. You 
may have likewise to blister the throat, to stimulate the sides, to 
keep the skin warm with the hood and bandages; but if more than 
this is required, a more severe disease than influenza has super- 
vened. This may be now and then pneumonia ; and now bear in 
mind the striking evidence afforded how far the treatment is to be 
regulated by the character of the disease. While you had influenza 
your patient would not bear bleeding; the loss of even a moderate 
quantity would retard, if not impede, the cure; debility would su- 
pervene, and death might follow. But if, at the end of the second 
or third day, pneumonia should supervene, you may take blood 
with as much impunity as if no previous disease had existed. 
One word more. I have occasionally seen violent philippics 
against the giving medicine in the form of balls. I at once take 
up the gauntlet, and assert, that any one who orders a draught or 
drink when a ball can be administered is a practitioner, from 
whom 1 beg leave to differ ; and this more particularly applies to 
the present disease, You have to place the animal’s head in an 
