Diseases > Domestic medicine

387
.DOMESTIC MEDICINE.). |
crackling of the joints ; difficulty of walking; some,
times a swelling, and sometimes a falling away of the
legs, on which there are livid, yellow, or violet-
coloured spots: the face is generally of a pale or
leaden colour. As the disease advances, other symp.
toms come on, as rottenness of the teeth, haemorrhages^
or discharges of blood from different parts of the
body, foul obstinate ulcers, pains in various parts,
especially about the breast, dry scaly eruptions all
over the body, &c. At last, a wasting or hectic fever
comes on, and the miserable patient is often carried
off by a dysentery, a diarrhoea, a dropsy, the palsy,
fainting fits, or a mortification of some of the bowels.
Cuke.—We know no way of curing this disease
but by pursuing a plan directly opposite to that
which brings it on. It proceeds from a vitiated state
of the humours, occasioned by errors in diet, air, or
exercise; and this cannot be removed but by a pro¬
per attention to these important articles.
If the patient has been obliged to breathe a cold,
damp, or confined air, he should be removed, as soon
as possible, to a dry, open, and moderately warm one.
of there is reason to believe that the disease pro¬
seeds from a sedentary life, or depressing passions,
as grief, fear, &c. the patient must take daily as
nruch exercise in the open air as he can bear, and
his mind should be diverted by cheerful company and
other amusements. Nothing has a greater tendency
either to prevent or remove the disease, than constant
cheerfulness and good humour. But this, alas! is
seldom the lot of persons afflicted with the scurvy
they are generally surly, peevish, and morose.
When the scurvy has been brought on by a long
use of salted provisions, the proper medicine is a
diet consisting chiefly of fresh vegetables ; as oranges,
apples, lemons, limes,tamarinds, water-cresses.scurvv.