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the place where the patient lived. It is hardly necessary to say that the cure was rapid.

It was not till the second day of my attendance on this patient that I was completely and satisfactorily relieved from my embarrassment in assigning a sufficient cause for so formidable a disease; but the mother now removed the difficulty in a moment, by telling me that, when I first inquired about the salted meat, she was so much confused, she did not then think of mentioning that the boy was very much given to eating salt; that it was with difficulty she could keep his finger out of the salt-box.

When these two cases are added to that mentioned by Dr. Huxham, of a young lady, who, from being in a state of health, perfectly free of this malady, was, by drinking every morning one pint of sea-water, rendered so highly scorbutic in ten days, that she had a profuse discharge of the menses, constantly spit blood from her lungs, and had petechial spots on her body; that her pulse became quick and full, ber face pale, and somewhat bloated, and her flesh soft and tender; that she was faint; and, in short, so remarkably scorbutic, that, when venæsection was (ignorantly and absurdly) used, to stop the hæmorrhage from her gums, blood oozed from the orifice for several days; and that she at last expired by a bleeding from the nose; and, to sum up the whole, that her blood was dense and firm some weeks before she began the use of the sea water;* it must be evident to every one, that common salt, uncombined with animal food, has the power of scorbuticising the human system. And the following will farther shew that, when salt is combined with animal food, it will produce the same effect in the absence of all the other circumstances which have been generally considered as occasional causes. To me, indeed, it appears to be of little consequence in what vehicle the salt is communicated. Were it administered even in essence of malt, I have no doubt but it would produce the same effect, though possibly not quite so soon as in the form of salted meat.

Mrs. Rolfe, daughter of Mr. Bell, a farmer, at Cattlegate, on Enfield Chace, consulted me on the 13th of April,

* Cursory Remarks on the Nature and Cause of the Marine Scurvy, p. 32. + Essence of malt is sweet-wort boiled to the consistence of honey; and is deemed so great an antiscorbutic, that the British navy is supplied with large quantities of it at a very heavy expense.

1792. She was a young married woman, of fair complexion, agreeable countenance, and the most delicate skin, which on almost every part of her body, but more particularly her legs and thighs, was sprinkled with purple spots of ditferent forms and sizes: the contrast betwixt the deep purple of the macula scorbutice and the other parts of her delicate skin formed a striking spectacle. To the usual question, whether or not she had been living on salted animal food, she readily answered in the negative; which I mention in order to shew the necessity of a cautious inquiry into circumstances of this kind; for the mother, who was present, after some little hesitation, very properly declared, that it was wrong to attempt to deceive the doctor; " Sir, she has lived almost entirely upon salted pork during the last winter; she has scarcely eaten any thing else." The cure was performed with astonishing rapidity by the use of bark and muriatic acid, as medicine; and vegetables, with the juice of lemons and oranges, as food.

In the course of 25 years, one other case of scurvy has occurred in my practice. A poor woman, respecting whom I have no memorandum, but whose illness I perfectly recollect to have happened early in spring, like the other cases already mentioned, applied to me on account of a strange disorder in her mouth; that part of the gum situated betwist the teeth sticking out in a grotesque manner, of the colour and consistence of bullock's liver. This was the only pa thognomonic symptom, but it was one so very strong and characteristic, that I had no hesitation in pronouncing the case to be scurvy. There was a reserve in this woman's answers, respecting the kind of food on which she had sub sisted during the winter, which I could not conquer, and therefore cannot communicate. Bark and an antiscorbutic

regimen effected a speedy care.

After this narrative of facts, it will not be doubted that we have it in our power at any time, by the use of salt, or salted animal food, to scorbuticise, or muriaticate, the human machine with ease. And it will, I think, also appear evident, that salivation is a process not more within our power and management. Happy would it be for mankind should hereafter, like salivation, be found capable of conquering some obstinate, or hitherto incurable diseases. No one could a priori have supposed that salivation, which in itself is a very troublesome as well as loathsome and dangerous distemper, could have answered the many salutary purposes which it has done; or, rather, that the poison capable

of producing that effect, should be also administered with advantage in many diseases.*

1798, Feb.

J. S.

C. The Efficacy of Yeast in Putrid Fevers.
MR. URBAN,

IN this philosophic age, when diseases so often change their appearance from what physicians had any former experience of, it is a pleasing reflection, that the study of medicine has of late been so much simplified, and almost every distemper incident to the human body so fully explained, as to come within the common apprehension of mankind. The following fact, communicated to the world by the Rev. Mr. Cartwright, affords an antidote for the most dangerous disease with which the human body can be afflicted: so that it is hoped one of the most crowded avenues to the grave is at length in a great measure closed.

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"SEVENTEEN years ago I went," says this benevolent clergyman," to reside at Brampton, a populous village near Chesterfield. I had not been there many months before a putrid fever broke out among us. Finding by far the greater number of my parishioners too poor to afford themselves medical assistance, I undertook, by the help of such books on the subject of medicine as were in my possession, to prescribe for them. I early attended a boy about 14 years age, who was attacked by the fever. He had not been ill many days before the symptoms were unequivocally putrid. I then administered bark, wine, and such other remedies as my books directed. My exertions were, however, of no avail; his disorder grew every day more untractable and malignant, so that I was in hourly expectation of his dissolution. Being under the necessity of taking a journey, before I set off I went to see him, as I thought, for the last time; and I prepared his parents for the event of his death, which I considered as inevitable, and reconciled them, in the best manner I was able, to a loss which I knew they would severely feel. While I was in conversation on this distressing subject with his mother, I observed, in a corner of the room, a small tub of wort working. The sight

[* For some further observations on this subject, we must refer our medical readers to the Gent. Mag, for March 1798, vol. Ixviii. p. 192. E]

brought to my recollection an experiment I had somewhere met with, of a piece of putrid meat being made sweet by being suspended over a tub of wort in the act of fermentation. The idea flashed into my mind, that the yeast might correct the putrid nature of this disease; and I instantly gave him two large spoonfuls. I then told the mother, if she found her son better, to repeat this dose every three hours. I then set out for my journey. Upon my return, after a few days, I anxiously inquired after the boy, and was informed he was recovered. I could not repress my curiosity, though I was greatly fatigued with my journey, and night was come on. I went directly to where he lived, which was three miles off, in a wild part of the moors. The boy himself opened the door, looked surprisingly well, and told me he felt better from the instant he took the yeast."

1799, Sept.

CI. Easy and effectual Cure for Wens.

Chisholme, Roxburghshire, Nov. 20, 1799.

MR. URBAN,

HAVING had a wen of the strumous kind, of large size and long standing, upon the side of my face, immediately below my right ear, I was informed by different people that, if I would apply salt and water to it, I should get rid of it. In August, 1798, I put a quantity of salt and water into a saucepan, and boiled it for four minutes; with which I bathed the whole surface frequently while it continued warm, as also after it becaine cold, so often as ten or twelve times daily; always stirring up the salt deposited at the bottom of the bason, and incorporating it again with the water, before I applied it. On the 11th day from the first application, while shaving, I observed a small discharge; which being assisted by a gentle pressure, the whole contents were soon emptied, without the smallest pain and without blood.

Being informed of some others who had been benefited in like manner from the same application, and knowing myself of some late instances under my own immediate direction, I

feel it a duty thus to make it public; being convinced it can produce no bad effect, and every person having it in his power to make the trial. At the same time, I beg leave to caution that no one should be disheartened from the length of time it may be necessary to continue the application; as, in some cases, it has required three or four months, though in the last only thirty days; but in all, without pain or inconvenience of any kind, or any previous notice of the discharge, till it actually took place. 1800, Jan.

WILLIAM CHISHOLME.

CII. Cures for the Asthma.

MR. URBAN,

Chudleigh, Feb. 22.

FOR the satisfaction of A Constant Reader, who requests to know if there be any simple but effectual cure for an Asthma, I take the liberty to trouble you with the following remarkable instances of the good effects of honey in asthmatic cases, as related by Dr. Monro; and sincerely wish that a fair trial of it may be attended with a farther confirmation of its utility in relieving that dreadful malady.

"THE late Dr. John Hume, one of the commissioners of the sick and hurt of the royal navy, was for many years violently afflicted with the asthina. Having taken many medicines without receiving relief, he at last resolved to try the effects of honey, having long had a great opinion of its virtues as a pectoral. For two or three years he ate some ounces of it daily, and got entirely free of his asthma, and likewise of a gravelly complaint, with which he had long been afflicted, About two or three years after he had recovered his health, when he was sitting one day in the office for sick and hurt, a person labouring under a great difficulty of breathing, who looked as if he could not live many days, came to him, and asked him by what means he had been cured of his asthma. Dr. Hume told him the particulars of his own case, and mentioned to him the means by which he had found relief, For two years afterwards he heard nothing of this person, who was a stranger to him, and had seemed so bad that he did not imagine that he could have lived many days, and

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