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

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Proflu via, macopceia, v/here piirifieJ opium is combined with
v - ._' exira^ 0£ liqJ10rice> gum arabic, and other demul¬
cents, to the extent of about a grain in a dram of the
compoficion. After the inflammatory and febrile
Hates of this difeafe arc very much gone, the molt ef-
feffual means of difcuffing all remains of the catarrhal
affection is by fome exercife of geilation diligently em¬
ployed.
Befides the remedies above mentioned, Dr Mudge,
In a treatife on this difeafe, recommends the Hearn of
warm water as a mofl efficacious and fafe remedy for
a catarrh, and which indeed he feems to confider as
little lefs than infallible. The method of breathing in
thefe fleams is defcribed under the word Inhaler j
but he gives a caution to people in health, who may
accidentally fee his machine, not to make the experi¬
ment of breathing through cold water with it, or they
will be almofl certain of catching a fevere cold. His
direflions for thofc troubled with the catarrh are as
follow :
“ In the evening, a little before bedtime, the pa¬
tient, if of adult age, is to take three drams, or as
many tea-fpoonfuls, of elixir paregoricum, in a glafs
of water : if the fubjeft be younger, for inflance under
five years old, one tea-fpoonful j or between that and
ten years, two. About three quarters of an hour af¬
ter, the patient fhould go to bed, and, being covered
warm, the inhaler three parts filled with water nearly
boiling (which, from the coldnefs of the metal, and
the time it ordinarily takes before it is to be ufcd by
the patient, will be of a proper degree of warmth),
and being wrapped up in a napkin, but fo that tire
valve in the cover is not obflru&ed by it, is to be
placed at the arm-pit, and the bedclothes being drawn
up and over it dole to the throat, the tube is to be
applied to the mouth, and the patient fhould infpire
and expire through it for about twenty minutes or
half an hour.
“ It is very evident, as the whole a£t of refpiration
is performed through the machine, that in infpiration
the lungs will be filled with air which will be hot, and
loaded with vapour, by pafTmg through the body of
water ; and in exfpiration, all that was contained in
the lungs will, by mixing with the fleam on the fur-
face of the water, be forced through the valve in the
cover, and fettle on the furface of tire body under the
bedclothes.
“ The great ufe of this particular eonflruftion of
the inhaler is this: Firft, As there is no neeeflity, at
the end of every infpiration, to remove the tube from
the mouth, in order to expire from the lungs the va¬
pour which had been received into them, this machine
mav therefore be ufed with as much cafe by children
as older people-. And, fecondly, As a feverifh habit
frequently accompanies the dborder, the valve in that
refpeft alfo is of the utmoft importance : for a fweat,
or at lead a free perfpiration, not only relieves the
patient from the reftlefs anxiety of a hot, dry, and
fometimes parched fkin, but is alfo, of all evacuations,
the moft eligible for removing the fever; and it will
be generally found, that, after the inhaler fo con-
ftrufted has been ufed a few minutes, the warm
vapour under the clothes will, by fettling upon the
trunk, produce a fweat, which will gradually extend
itfelf to the legs and feet.
France,
“ In a catarrhous fever, or any feveriih habit attend- (.atnrhm
ing this cough, it Avould be proper to take a draught of
warm thin whey a few minutes before the inhaler be
tiled) and after the procefs is over, the fweat which it
has produced may be continued by occafional final!
draughts of weak warm whey or barley-water. The
{'wonting is by no means fo neceffary to the cure of the
catarrhous cough, as that the fuceefs of the inhaler
againft that complaint at all depends upon it.
“ After this refpiratory procefs is over, the patient
ufually palTes the night without the leaft interruption
from the cough, and feels no further moleftation from
it than once or twice in the morning to throw off the
trifling leakage which, unperceived, had dripped into
the bronchite and velicles during the night 5 the thin¬
ner parts of which being evaporated, what remains is
foon got rid of by a very gentle effort.
“ I cannot, however, take leave of this part of my
fubjefl, without pointedly obferving, that if the pa¬
tient means not to be difappointed by my affurances or
his own expeflations, it is effentially neceffary that the
following remarks, with regard to the time and man¬
ner of ufing this procefs, ftiould be ftrkdly attended
to.
“ Firft, That as tender valetudinary people are but
too well acquainted with the firft notices of the diforder,
the remedy muft, or ought to be, ufed the fame even¬
ing 5 which will, in an ordinary feizure, be attended
with an immediate cure : but if the forenefs of the re¬
fpiratory organs, or the petulance of the cough, fhow
the cold which has been contrafled to have been very
fevere, the inhaler, 'without the opiate, ftiould be again
-repeated for the fame time the next morning.
“ Secondly, If the ufe of the inhaler, &e. be delay¬
ed till the fecond night, it will be always right to re¬
peat it again the next morning witlrout the opiate, but
with it if the feizure has been violent.
“ And, laftly, If the cough be of fome days {land¬
ing, it w ill be always neceflary to employ both parts
of the procefs at night and the fuCceeding morning,
as the firft fitnple inflammatory mifebief is now moft
probably aggravated by an additional one of a chrome
tendency.
w But if, through the want of a timely application,
or a total neglect of this or any other remedy, the
cough ihould continue to harafs the patient, it is, par¬
ticularly m delicate and tender con ft i tut ions, of the ut¬
moft confequence to attempt the removal of it as foon
as poffible, before any floating acrimony in tire confti-
tution (from the perpetual irritation) receives an habi¬
tual determination to an organ fo efl'ential to life as the
lungs.
“ If tire patient expectorate with eafe and freedom
a thick and v/ell-digefted inoffenfive plftegm, there is
generally but little doubt of his fpitting oft' the diior-
der, with common care, in a few days j and till that he
accompliflied,. a proper dofe of elixir paregoricum for
a few fucceflive nights will be found very ufeiul in fup-
prefling the fatiguing irritation and ifieffeftual cough,
oecafioned by a matter which, dripping in the early
ftate of the diieafe into the bronchiai during the night,
is commonly at that time too thin to be difehargeu by
thefe convulfive efforts.
“ If, however, notwithftanding a free and copious
expeftoration, the cough ftiould ftill continue, and the
difeharge,
MEDICINE.