Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 159
tlie parched skin, and the burning heat, as well as by
the unquenchable thirst of the patient.
Many cooling liquors, which are extremely grateful
to patients in a fever, may be prepared from fruit, aj
decoctions of tamarinds, apple-tea, orange-whey, and
the like. Mucilaginous liquors might also be pre
pared from marshmallow roots, linseed, lime-tre.
buds, and other mild vegetables. These liquors
especially when acidulated, are highly agreeable to
the patient, and should never be denied him.
At the beginning of a fever the patient generally
complains of great lassitude or weariness, and has
no inclination to move. This evidently shews the
propriety of keeping him easy, and if possible in
bed. Lying in bed relaxes the spasms, abates the
violence of the circulation, and gives nature an
opportunity of exerting all her force to overcome the
disease. The bed alone would often remove a fever
at the beginning; but when the patient struggles
with the disease, instead of driving it off, he only
fixes it the deeper, and renders it more dangerous.
This observation is often verified in travellers, who
happen when on a journey to be seined with a fever.
Their anxiety to get home induces them to travel
with the fever upon them, which conduct seldom fails
to render it fatal.
In fevers, the mind as well as the body should be
kept easy. Company is seldom agreeable to the
sick. Indeed every thing that disturbs the imagina¬
tion increases the disease; for which reason every
person in a fever ought to be kept perfectly quiet,
and neither allowed to see nor near any thing that
may in the least affect or discompose his mind.
Though the patient in a fever has the greatest
inclination for drink, yet he seldom has any appetite
for solid food; hence the impropriety of urging him