406 
Incase any accidents should happen, such as I have just 
mentioned, when it would be impossible to procure spirituous 
liquors of every kind, water might be used simply with the 
blowing. 
This remedy must be applied immediately after receiving the 
injury ; for when the part has once turned black, it is too late 
to attempt it. 
In the bands of a judicious practitioner,* it might be suc¬ 
cessfully employed in some inflammatory affections. Burns 
have already afforded a proof of the efficacy of the same treat¬ 
ment. 
According to theory of the present day, the use of it might 
be advantageously extended to relieve the patient during the 
paroxisms of the gout, 
Mr. Le Couteur was not mistaken in bis hypothesis. It has since been 
applied to the cure of the yellow fever, in the West Indies. If, however, the 
efficacy of this principle should hereafter he more fully established, Mr. Le 
Couteur is undoubtedly intitled to the right of prior discovery; ashis work had 
appealed sometime before the communication of Dr. Ralph Cuming, of the 
Naval Hospital, at Antigua. That gentleman addressed a letter, dated Oc¬ 
tober 24, 1807", to the merchants at Lloyd’s Coffee-house, on the subject 
of a cure of the yellow fever. We extract the following passages: “ I 
have discovered, that sponging the head, body, and limbs, of a patient, on 
the first attack of fever, with rum, or other ardent spirit, is the most ef¬ 
fectual remedy which can be used. The principle on which it acts is eva¬ 
poration, and the degree of cold produced will be in ratio proportionate to 
the strength or volatility of the spirit employed. It has a two-fold effect 
at the same time, that if it refrigerates the almost burning body, it excites, 
by its stimulant effect on the skin, the perspiratory organs into action, 
and soon produces perspiration. All the naval surgeons who have visited 
English Harbour, and have had the fever on board, have used the remedy 
recommended by me ; and are delighted with its speedy and salutary effects, 
from whom, as well as myself, documents have been transmitted to Govern- 
n.ent.” ' 
The doctor afterwards directs, “ That when a person is seized with pains 
In the head, and with a hot skin, &c. in tropical countries, he is to be strip¬ 
ped naked, exposed to the action of the air, and be sponged all over with 
spirits, untill the skin is cool, not suffering the pulse to fall below' sixty; 
he is then to he put to bed, and to have a purge, and an opening injection 
or clyster. As often as the fever returns, the sponging with spirit is to be 
resorted to. Bleeding, in proportion to the strength of the patient, will be 
necessary, which should never be deferred twenty-four hours after the first 
attack.” The doctor adds, “ I hope, after this information, that people des. 
tined to the West I< dies, will Lave home with greater fortitude, and not 
waste their money on the quackeries of the day, and fill their trunks with 
yellow fever remedies. When the skin is moist, and perspiration flows 
freely, the spirit is no longer to be used; after the perspration has flowed 
some time, widen may he supported by lemon, grass-mint, or common tea, 
the cure is to be completed by an infusion of quassia or decoction of bark ; 
and former habits will by degrees be returned to.” 
CHAPTER 
