Diseases > Domestic medicine

POMBSTIC MEDICINS; 165
danger ftom allowing it to take :ts course , but when
the j'atient’s strength seems to decline, or the pa¬
roxysms are so violent that his life is in danger,
medicine ought immediately to be administered.
This however should never be done till the disease
be properly formed, that is to say, till the patient
has had several fits of shaking and sweating.
Medicine.—The first thing to be done in the cure
of an intermittent fever, is to cleanse the stomach
and bowels. This not only renders the application
of other medicines more safe, but likewise more
efficacious. In this disease, the stomach is generally
loaded with cold viscid phlegm, and frequently great
quantities of bile are discharged by vomit; which
plainly points out the necessity of such evacuations
Vomits are therefore to be administered before the
patient takes any other medicine. A dose of ipe¬
cacuanha will generally answer the purpose very
well. A scruple or half a drachm of the powder
will be sufficient for an adult, and for a young person
the dose must be less in proportion. After the
vomit begins to operate, the patient ought to drink
plentifully of weak camomile tea. The vomit should
be taken two or three hours before the return of the
fit, and may be repeated at the distance of two or
three days. Vomits not only cleanse the stomach,
but increase the perspiration, and all the other
secretions, which render them of such importance,
that they often cure intermittent fevers without the
assistance of any other medicine.
Purging medicines are likewise useful, and often
necessary in intermittent fevers. A smart purge has
been known to cure an obstinate ague, after the
Peruvian bark and other medicines had been used
in vain. Vomits, however, are more suitable to this
i disease, and render purging less necessary ; but if