Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

Pra&ice. M E D I
Febres. his numerous retinue continued in perfect health, to the
‘•■-’Y”"’' furprife, or to ufe the words of Dr Kramer, to the envy,
of all who beheld thenu The only precaution he u(ed,
was to take, two or three times a-day, a fmall quan¬
tity of brandy in which the Peruvian bark was infufed •,
and he obliged all his attendants and domeltics to fol¬
low his example. It is no lefs remarkable that the
count, placing his certain prefervation in the ufe of
this tingle medicine, lived for many years afterwards in
the molt unhealthy fpots of Hungary, without any at¬
tack or apprehention of difeafe ; and continued to en¬
joy a perfect date of health during the hotted and mod
liekly feafons. And thus, with an unbroken and
found conditution, which is feldom the cafe of thofe
who redde long in fuch climates, he lived to a great
age. There is an indance produced by the fame au¬
thor, of a whole regiment in Italy having been pre-
ferved by the ufe of cinchona from the attack of thefe
malignant difeafes, viz. the flux, and bilious fever as it
is frequently called, when the red of the Audrian ar-
mv, not purfuing that method, became greatly annoyed
with ihem.
The intemperance and irregular living of thofe Eu¬
ropeans who vifit the hot climates is frequently accufed
as the caufe of their dedrudlion j but, our author
thinks, without fufficient reafon j for though intem¬
perance will make the body more liable”to receive fuch
difeafes, it will not bring them on. It mud by no
means, however, be imagined, that in thofe climates
Europeans mav with impunity be guilty of excefles in
eating or drinking: for the lead error in that way will
often prove fatal by debilitating the body, whofe ut-
mod drength in time of full health was perhaps fcarce
fuffieient to refid the pedilential miafmata of the at-
tnofphere.
It appears, therefore, from the concurrent tedimony
of the mod eminent phyficians, that the mod proper
medicine to be ufed, either as a preventive or cure for
remitting and intermitting diforders, is the Peruvian
bark, adminidered with proper precautions and after the
pnmce vice have been evacuated of the putrid bilious
matter colledled in them. In thofe fpecies of tritceophyn,
&.e. belonging to this clafs, enumerated by Sauvages,
the fame remedies only were ufeful *, but in that pedi-
lendal didemper which he calls tritceophya Vratiflavi-
enjis, he tells us, that walking the body with water
fometimes hot, fometimes cold, watery clyders, and
plenty of aqueous drink, were likewife of ufe.
Genus II. QUART ANA; the Quartan Fever.
Quartana au&orum, Sauv. Gen. 89. Lin. 17. Vog. 3.
Sag. 751. Hoffm. II. p. 23. Lunch, tab. 81.
C I N E. 261
and mind. 1 here is feldom any vomiting unlefs when Quartana.
the domach is manifedly overloaded with aliment; nei- ‘ “
ther is there any diarrhoea, but the belly in general is
rather bound, not only on the days on which the pa-
roxyfm takes place, but alfo on the intermediate ones.
The heat, which flowly fucceeds the cold, is lefs
troublefome to the patient by its violence than by the
uneafy drynefs of the Ikin, which is fcarcely ever moi-
dened with fweat. This heat rarely continues longer
than four or five hours, unlefs perhaps at the fird or fe-
cond paroxyfm. It is accompanied affo with a giddi-
nefs and dull pain of the head. On the termination of
the paroxyfm, the patient returns to a middling date of
health, and continues in the fame for the red of the in¬
termediate days ; only there remains fomewhat of a
loathing, and a deep-feated pain as if the perlon was all
over bruifed or broken, which kind of fenfation the phy-
cians are wont to call ojleocopus. The fit returns every
fourth day, and that precifely at the fame hours, being
rarely podponed.
Caufes of, and perfons fubjeB to, this diforder. The
fame general caufes concur in producing this as other
intermittents, namely marflr miafmata, and whatever can
difpofe the body to be eafily affected by them. Studi¬
ous people, and thofe of a melancholic turn, are faid
to be particularly fubjedt to quartans; but what are
the immediate caufes which produce a return of the fits
every fourth day, indead of every day, or every third
day, mud probably lie for ever concealed, as depend-
ing upon the fecret and inexplicable mechanifm of the
human body.
Prognofs. A fimple quartan, where there is no
reafon to dread any induration of the vifcera, may very
certainly admit of a cure; and the prognofis can
never be unfavourable, unlefs in cafes of extreme weak-
nefs, or where the didemper hath been unlkilfully
treated.
Cure. This does not in the lead differ from that
which hath been fully laid down for the fimple tertian,
and which it is therefore needlefs to repeat here.
The Duplicated Quartan. Sp. I. var. 1. B.
Quartana duplicata, Sauv. fp. 4. Bbnet.
This is entirely fimilar to the duplicated tertian al¬
ready mentioned ; proper allowance being made for the
difference between the type of a tertian and quartan.
The Triplicated Quartan. Sp. I. var. 1. C.
Quartana triplicata, Sauv. fp. 16.
This hath three paroxyfms every fourth day, while
the intermediate days are entirely free from fever.
*53
*54
The Genuine Quartan. Sp. I. var. 1. A.
Quartana legitima, Sauv. fp. 1. Sydenham de morb.
acut. cap. v.
Defcription. The genuine quartan, according to
Juncker, keeps its form more exaftly than other inter¬
mittents ; fcarcely coming on at any other time than
four or five in the afternoon. The cold is lefs violent
than in the tertian ; but is very perceptible, though it
doth not proceed to fuch a height as to make the
limbs fhake ; it continues for about two hours. It is
jireceded and accompanied by a languor both of body
The Double Quartan. Sp. 1. var. 1. D.
Quartana duplex, Sauv. fp. 3. Vog. fp. 13.
In the double quartan, the fits come on every day
except the third; but fo that the firlt paroxyfm anfwers
to the third, the fecond to the fourth, and fo on.
The Triple Quartan. Sp. I. var. 1. E.
Quartana triplex, Sauv. fp. 5. Vog. fp.14. Bar¬
tholin. H. anat. c. 1. 93.
This comes on every day, but the quartan type is
ftiu