Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 427
Medicine.—The intentions of cure must vary
according to the cause of the disease. If the patient
be of a sanguine temperament, and there be reason
to fear an obstruction in the brain, bleeding and other
evacuations will be necessary. When the disease is
occasioned by the stoppage of customary evaeuations,
these, if possible, must be restored; if this cannot
be done, others may be substituted in their place.
Issues or setons in this case have often a very good
effect. When there is reason to believe that the
disease proceeds from worms, proper medicines must
be used to kill or carry off these vermin. When the
disease proceeds from teething, the body should be
kept open by emollient clysters, the feet frequently
bathed in warm water, and, if the fits prove obsti¬
nate, a blistering-plaster may be put betwixt the
shoulders. The same method is to be followed
when epileptic fits precede the eruption of the small¬
pox, or measles, &c.
When the disease is hereditary, or proceeds from
a wrong formation of the brain, a cure is not to bs
expected. When it is owing to a debility, or too
great an irritability of the nervous system, such
medicines as tend to brace and strengthen the nerves
may be used, as the Peruvian bark, and steel; or the
anti-epileptic electuaries, recommended by Fuller and
Mead.
The flowers of zinc have of late been highly extolled
for the cure of the epilepsy. Though this medicine
will not be found to answer the expectations which
have been raised concerning it, yet in obstinate epi¬
leptic cases it deserves a trial. The dose is from one
to three or four grains, which may be taken -either in
pills or a bolus, as the patient inclines. The best
method is to begin with a single grain four or five
times a-day, and gradually to increase the lose as