The Disease Was Equally Fatal To The Faculty.

A universal despondency took place, till doctor Rush, suspecting this was a new disorder, applied an opposite method of cure, by mercurial medicines, and copious bleedings; which, when administered in the first or second stage of the disorder, had the desired effect.

I send you an extract from the doctor's pamphlet, wherein he explains his motives for adopting this method of cure, &c.

Speaking of the effect of the lancet, he says, "It was at this time my old master reminded me of Dr. Sydenham's remark, that _moderate_ bleeding did harm in the plague, where _copious_ bleeding was indicated, and that, in the cure of that disorder, we should leave Nature wholly to herself, or take the cure altogether out of her hands."

The truth of this observation was obvious: - By taking away as much blood as restored the blood-vessels to a morbid degree of action, without reducing this action afterward, pain, congestion, and inflammation, were greatly increased; all of which were prevented, or occurred in a less degree, when the system rose gradually from the state of depression which had been induced by indirect debility. Under the influence of the facts and reasonings which have been mentioned, I bore the same testimony in acute cases against what was called _moderate_ bleeding, that I did against bark, wine, and laudanum, in this fever. - I drew from many persons seventy or eighty ounces of blood in five days.

* * * * *

After the cold weather had completely destroyed this disorder, it did not appear again in the United States till the next year, when it was imported to Baltimore and New Haven; a distance from each other of more than five hundred miles.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 118 of 128
Words from 32118 to 32405 of 35016