240        ROMAN  CHAMOMILE  IN  SERIOUS  SUPPURATIONS. 
intermittent  fever,  of  the  Campagna  of  Rome,  of  nine  month5 s 
standing : — Crisis  by  an  abscess  on  the  right  flank,  as  large  as 
the  head  of  a  child  of  two  years  old,  I  opened  it  with  a  bis- 
toury ;  very  abundant  suppuration ;  camomile  in  large  doses 
(30  grammes  per  day  ;  after  eight  days,  two  violent  fits  of 
intermittent  fever,  which  had  disappeared  to  give  place  to  a 
continuous  fever  from  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  the 
abscess.  The  treatment  was  interrupted  for  a  few  days,  and 
then  resumed  in  the  dose  of  15  grammes  per  day  ;  cured  at  the 
end  of  three  weeks. 
Fourth  Case  (December,  1855,  January  and  February, 
1856). — A  man  of  22.  Malignant  typhoid  fever ;  left  pleurisy 
the  twenty-first  day  ;  haemoptysis  and  right  pulmonary  apoplexy 
the  twenty-fifth  day ;  suppurated  right  pneumonia  the  thirty- 
second  day  ;  expectoration  of  pus  to  the  amount  of  150  grammes 
per^day  ;  hectic  fever  with  profuse  perspirations :  employment 
of  camomile,  in  moderate  dose,  owing  to  the  weakness  of  the 
patient,  (15  grammes  per  day);  and  local  applications  to  the 
chest ;  return  of  strength ;  progressive  diminution  of  suppura- 
tion ;  cure  at  the  end  of  twenty-five  days. 
This  valuable  faculty  of  drying  up  suppurations  deserves  to 
be  tried  on  a  large  scale,  for  we  have  in  medicine  very  few  re- 
medies efficacious  in  such  cases.  Chamomile,  in  large  doses,  will 
be  indicated  in  the  purulent  diathesis  of  amputations,  in  puer- 
pural  fever,  in  phlegmonous  erysipelas,  in  fact  in  every  case  in 
which  it  is  desired  to  prevent  too  abundant  or  too  long  con- 
tinued suppurations.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  first  case,  the  cure 
is  preceded  by  a  transient  aggravation  of  the  evil ;  this  recru- 
descence, which  is  a  medicinal  effect,  should  not  discourage,  but 
shows  only  that  the  doses  should  be  diminished  so  as  to  arrive 
a  more  general  cure. — Chemist,  March,  1858,  from  Comptes 
Rendus. 
