pointment. I lost one out of three, or two out of five, of all my patients. In the year 1802, led by the observations concerning the happy effects of Olive-Oil, in preventing and curing the plague of the Levant, that had been made by Baldwin, in Alexandria (Egypt), and Fra Luigi, in Smyrna, I resolved to adopt the practice of these gentlemen. I thought myself authorized by analogy to do so; for the difference between the plague and yellow-fever is far from being so great, as has been imagined, I began the method with hopes of success; but my success was greater than I expected it would have been. I, therefore, deem it a duty to submit this method of treating the yellow-fever to the attention and examination of medical practitioners. When I was called to a patient in the beginning of the disease, I immediately ordered him to be rubbed all over the body with warm olive-oil. This was applied by means of a sponge. I repeated the rubbing every two hours, until the perspiration began to break out; which frequently took place half an hour after the first rubbing, If the pain in the back was very severe, I pres. cribed R. Ess. Gran. Paradisi, with which the affected part was rubbed, H Of the following medicine I gave two table-spoonfuls every hour, until it began to operate : R. Ol. Ricini Amer. Ziii. Sal. Mirab. Glaub. 3i. M. Four or five hours after, I generally found my patients in a sound sleep, and in a plentiful perspiration. In order to prevent them from getting cold, when under the operation of the purging medicine, I ordered their nurses to furnish them with a bed-pan, and not to allow them to be uncovered. When the perspiration was over, I found the pa tient without any fever; and, in general, the only symptom of disease that remained, was a vertigo. I continued rubbing with the olive-oil, three or four times a-day; and the mistura oleosa salina was given as many times, in the same period. When I found an inclination to vomit, I applied a plaster of opium to the stomach, and prescribed. R. Mistur. Riveri. viii. Sp. Lavend. com. zi. M. Give a table-spoonful every hour. The common drinks which I recommended, and which appeared to be the most palatable to the patients, were beer and water, good Seltzer water, and cocoa nut water. In general, the cure of the patient was accomplished in seven or eight days. The cases in which the preceding method proved ineffectual were generally fatal. In a few instances, my patients were treated with mercury, given in large dozes, as ten, and even twenty, grains every hour. They were, at the same time, advised to wash their mouths frequently, with warm milk, or barley-water. The recovery of these patients was preceded by a salivation. I have seen one patient recover after an almost uniyersal bloody sweat (sudor sanguinis). He was treated by port-wine, and a strong decoction of the root of Bistort (Polygonum Bistorta of Linnæus), which was also given in the form of injections. I think I have observed the highest degree of malignancy in those patients, who have exhibited the greatest fears of the disease. And permit me to add, that the man who should discover the means of eradicating from the public mind the terrors inspired by the Yellow-Fever, would deserve as much of mankind as Dr. Jenner has done by his happy introduction of the Vaccine disease. Philadelphia, Oct. 11, 1804. V. A Topographical and Medical Sketch of Bristol, in Pennsylvania. Communicated in a letter to the EDITOR, by Dr. AMOS GREGG, junr. of Bristol. THE Borough of Bristol, in Bucks-County, is situated on the River Delaware, twenty miles N. E. from Philadelphia. The village contains (1804) about one hundred houses, besides a church, Friends' and Methodists' meeting-houses, and a public building, which was formerly the county-goal. It is bounded on all sides by water, having the Delaware on the S. a stream of water, called Mill-creek, on the S. and W. which flows from a pond of water. From near the source of the pond, another creek arises, which by a circuitous rout empties into the Delaware, at a place called Adam's Hollow. This last is an artificial canal, which was dug to prevent the pond overflowing the land. Where it empties into the Delaware, it is a hundred yards wide. acres. The borough contains about four hundred and fifty Considering its quantity, the soil is various. Opposite to the lower part of the town, to Mill-creek, and to near the public road to Otter'sBridge, is an extensive morass, or "flat," over which the tide regularly ebbs and flows. This was formerly banked meadow: from this to the pond, it is chiefly low meadow. There is, however, on each side of the road, some arable land. Up the pond and to the Delaware, the land is gravelly and dry, except a small group of meadows (about a hundred yards wide), and a few stagnant ponds. In the borough, there are two Mineral Springs. Over one of them, a Bathing house was erected, many This is distant from the principal part years since. of the town, about half a mile, in a N. W. direction. It is in a low piece of ground or meadow, and within a few yards of the head of the pond, already mentioned. The surface of the water is covered with a dark yellow or okre-coloured substance, though, in places, it has a chalybeate appearance. Much of it also falls to the bottom. The other spring (which I will call No. 2.) is found at the west end of the village, in a meadow also, on the north side of the cause-way. It appears much like the former. The experiments, however, which are afterwards to be mentioned, show a difference. The water of the first spring was analysed by Dr. Rush, in 1773. Dr. A. Gregg informs me, that the second, also, was analysed by Dr. John Abraham De Normandie, then of this place. I do not know that this analysis was ever published*. * It was published in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. EDITOR. |