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I NSANIT Y. 
129 
medical treatment is directed by a phyficianof the higbeft 
character and eminence, and whole experience is, at lead, 
equal to that of any profeffional man in this country, vo¬ 
mits are by no means conlidered as the order of the day ; 
they may be employed to remove.fymptoms concomitant 
with madnefs, but are hot held as fpecifics for the difeafe. 
In the relation of my own experience concerning vomit¬ 
ing, as a remedy for infanity, I have had only in view 
communication of facts; for I entertain neither partiality 
nor averfion to any remedies, beyond the fair claim which 
their operations polfefs.” 
Camphor is a remedy that has been highly extolled; 
but, if we can believe Dr. Locker of Vienna, not very de- 
fervedly. Having found very good effects from a folution 
of this medicine in vinegar, he took it for granted that 
all the fuccefs was owing to the camphor ; therefore, in 
order to give it a fair trial, he feledted feven patients, and 
gave it in large doles of half a dram twice a-day. This 
was continued' for two months, and the doftor w'as fur- 
prifed to find that only one of his patients received any 
benefit. He then returned the other lix back to the cam¬ 
phorated julep made with vinegar, and in a few weeks 
four of them recovered the ufe of their reafon. This in¬ 
clined hinr to think that the virtue depended folely on 
the vinegar, and accordingly he began to make the trial. 
Common vinegar was firft given ; but after a little while 
he fixed on that which had been diftilled, and gave about 
an ounce and a half of it every day; the patients having 
been previoully prepared by bleeding and purging, which 
was repeated according as it was found necelfary. He 
gives a lift of eight patients wdto were cured by this me¬ 
thod ; fome in lix weeks, others in two months, and none 
of them took up more than three months in perfecting 
the cure. He does not indeed give the ages of the pati¬ 
ents, nor mention the circumftances of the cafes ; he only 
mentions the day on which the ufe of the vinegar was 
begun, and the day on which they were difcharged ; and 
headds, that they all continued well at the time of his 
writing. Dr. Locker informs us, that this medicine acts 
chiefly as a fudorific ; and he obferved, that, the more 
the patients fweated, the fooner they were cured ; it was 
alfo found to promote the menftrual difcharge in fitch as 
had been obftructed, or had too little of this falutary eva¬ 
luation. 
“Cold bathing," fays Mr. Haflam, “having for the moft 
part been employed in conjunction with other remedies, 
it becomes difficult to afcertain how far it may be exclu¬ 
sively beneficial in this difeafe. The inftances in which 
it has been feparately ufed for the cure of yifanity, are 
too fevv»to enable me to draw any fatisfactory conclusions. 
I may however fafely affirm, that in many inftances 
paralytic affections have in a few hours fupervened on 
cold bathing,, efpecially when the. patient has been in a 
furious.ftate, and of a plethoric habit.” Dr. Ferriar ap¬ 
pears more decidedly favouiT.ble to the practice of bath¬ 
ing. In cafes of melancholia he advifes the cold, and in 
mania the warm, bath. The only cafe, however, which 
he adduces in fupport of the practice mull be acknow¬ 
ledged to be equivocal, inafmuch as it was treated, efpe- 
cialiy in its ad vanced ftages, fucceflively by opium, cam¬ 
phor, purgatives, and electricity. General experiments of 
this nature are, perhaps, more calculated to perpetuate 
than to diftipate uncertainty. The real utility of bathing 
jn maniacal diforders remains yet to be afeertained. To 
eftablifh the practice upon a folk! foundation, it muft be 
tried with conftant and judicious reference to the differ¬ 
ent varieties of infanity. Finel relates-a Angle cafe, in 
•which it had a fatal effeCt: “A raving female maniac was 
put upon the ufe of the warm bath. She bathed twenty- 
five times: great debility was the immediate confequer.ee, 
and her mania was Shortly after fucceeded by dementia.” 
He is of opinion, that the warm-bath might be reforted 
to with more probability of fuccefs, as a preventative of 
approaching maniacal paroxyfms; Dr, Willis thinks the 
/kmc. v 
, Vol. XI. No. 74-0. 
It has been laid, that the bath of furp'rife has been 
found a valuable remedy in fome cafes of infanity which 
had refilled the effects of the warm bath, the cold Ihow.er- 
bath, and other remedies. This fuperiority of the unex¬ 
pected application of cold water, has been aferibed to an 
interruption of the chain of delirious ideas, induced by 
the fuddennefs of the fnock, and the general agitation of 
the fyltem experienced from this Iprocefs, It is well 
known, that the enthufiaft Van Helmont made fome valu¬ 
able remarks upon the durable effefts of fudden immer- 
fion in cold water in fome cafes of mental derangement: 
his practice was to detain the patient in the bath for fome 
minutes. It may be proper to obferve, that this method, 
however fuccefsful in fome inftances, might in others be 
extremely dangerous, and that it can only be reforted to 
fvith propriety in cafes almoft hopelefs, and where other 
remedies are ineffectual ; fuch as in violent paroxyfms o? 
regular periodical mania, inveterate continued infanity, 
or infinity complicated with epilepfy. 
Blijiers have been in feveral cafes applied to the head, 
and a very copious difcharge maintained for many days, 
but without any manifeit advantage. The late Dr. John 
Monro, who had, perhaps, feen more cafes of this difeafe 
than any other practitioner, and who, joined to his ex- 
tenfive experience, poffeiTed the talent of accurate obfer- 
v.ation, mentions, that he “ never law the lealt good ef¬ 
fect of blifters in madnefs, unlefs it was', at the beginning 
while th^re was fome degree of fever, or when they have 
been applied to particular fymptoms accompanying this 
complaint.” Dr. Mead alfo concurs in this opinion : 
“ Bliftering plalters. applied to the head will pofh'bly be 
thought to deferve a place among the remedies of this 
difeale, but I have often found them do more harm than 
good by their over-great irritation.” Although blifters 
appear to be of little fervice when put on the head, yet 
Mr, Haflam frequently found much good refult from ap¬ 
plying them to the legs. In patients who had continued 
for fome time in a very furious ftate, and where evacua¬ 
tions had been fufficiently employed, large blifters, applied 
to the infide of the legs, often, and within a fhort time 
mitigated the violence of the diforder. 
Scions have been employed; but little benefit has been 
derived from their ufe, even when the difcharge has been 
continued above two months. 
Dr.^Mead fpeaks of the utility of diuretics , but we know 
not that modern experience fupports their credit. The 
diuretic preferred was the alkaline Halts 5 and the opinion 
of obftruction, from lentor, was then fo common, that 
we can eafily guefs the fource of the recommendation 
and of the good effeCts attributed to it. 
The narcotics have been employed in all their variety 
particularly by the German and Englifh phyficians! 
Storck ufed the ftramonium ; Colin the cicuta and aconite! 
The ancient hellebore, we have faid, was probably a fipe- 
cies of adonis ; Willis gave the extracts of cicuta and 
henbane; Fothergill of Bath the henbane only. Lately 
the digitalis lias been given, in this country, to a confi- 
derable extent. Thele narcotics have been often ufeful 
and have as often failed ; for the difeafe is generally incu¬ 
rable. Perhaps the digitalis .promifes moft fayourably, 
and the hyofeyamusand ftramonium appear to be the next 
in rank. Thefe medicines often aCl as hypnotics; but 
the chief of this clafs, opium , has been commended! and 
rejected, fays Dr. Parr, rather from theoretical prejudices 
than observation. Where opium ufually agrees, it is a me¬ 
dicine of confiaerable importance-in mania; but it fhould 
not be given till the ftomach and bowels have been freely 
emptied ; till the veflels of the head have been, in fome mea- 
fure, depleted by active topical bleeding, by blifters or'a 
feton. In thefe tircumftances, with a large dofe of cam¬ 
phor, it is often highly ufeful, though, like other medi¬ 
cines, in an intractable difeafe, it mult occafionally fail. 
Borax, in a large dofe, was ufed by Dr. Monro to pro! 
cure deep. 
It is of great fervice.to eftablifh a fyftem of reomlaritv 
I 1 ° 
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