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

MEDICINE.
Appendix.
Worms, deprives them of this, they may be expected to attack
even the membranes of the inteftines themfelves. This
evil is to be avoided by eating frequently.
Such are the precautions indicated in this difeafe.
The ordinary vermifuge remedies commonly procured
only a palliative cure, perhaps becaufe they were too
often improperly adminiftered. But the efficacy of
the prefent remedy, in the opinion of the French phy-
licians, feems to be fufficiently confirmed by experi¬
ence. To the above account, however, it feems proper
to fubjoin the following obfervations by Dr Simmons.
“ A Swifs phyfician, of the name of Herrenfc/iwand,
more than 20 years ago, acquired no little celebrity
by difiributing a compofition of which he ftylcd him-
felf the inventor, and which was probably of the fame
nature as Madame Nouffer’s. Several very eminent
men, as Tronchin, Hovius, Bonnet, Cramer, arid
others, have written concerning the eifedls of this re¬
medy. It feems that Dr Herrenfclnvand ufed to give
a powder by way of preparation, the night before he
adminiftered his fpecific. Nothing could be faid with
certainty concerning the compofition either of one or
the other. The treatment was fald fometimes to pro¬
duce moft violent eifedls, and to leave the patients in
a valetudinary ftate. Dr De Haen wras diffuaded by
his friends from ufing it, becaufe it difordered the pa¬
tients too much. It will be readily conceived, now
that we are acquainted with Madame Nouffer’s method,
that thefe effe£Is were occafioned wholly by the pur¬
gative bolus. It is not ftrange, that refin of fcam-
mony or jalap, combined with merctirius dulcis and
gamboge, all of them in ftrong dofes, Ihould in many
fubjefts occafion the greateft diforders. It feems like¬
ly, however, that much of the fuccefs of the remedy
depends on the ufe of a draftic purge. Some of the
ancients who were acquainted with the virtues of the
fern root, obferved that its efficacy was increafed by
fcammony. Refinous purges, efpecially when com¬
bined with mercury, have often been given with fuc-
eefs in cafes of tcenia. Dr De Haen faw a worm of
this fort five ells long expelled by the refin of jalap
alone. Dr Gaubius knew a woman who had taken a
variety of anthelmintic remedies without .any effeft,
though fhe had voided a portion of tcenia an ell and
a half long previous to the ufe of thefe medicines : but
at length, after taking a purge of fingular ftrength,
ffie voided the worm entire. Many other inftances of
the fame kind are to be met with in authors. Other
remedies have occafionally been given with fuccefs.
In Sweden, it has been a pra6lice to drink feveral
gallons of cold water, and then to take fome draftic
purge. Eoerhaave fays, that he himfelf faw a tcenia
meafuring 300 ells expelled from a Ruffian by means of
the fulphate of iron.
From fome late accounts, there is reafon to believe
that Dr Herrenfchwand’s remedy for tcenia does not fo
exadtly agree with that of Madame Nouffer as Dr Sim¬
mons feems to imagine. According to the account
given us by a gentleman who had his information from
Dr Herrenfchwand himfelf, it confifts entirely of gam¬
boge and fixed vegetable alkali.
e O/POISONS.
4 8
Of many poifons we have already treated, but there
are fome of which nothing has hitherto been faid. A-
Vol. XIII. Part II.
mong the moft fatal of thefe are the bites- and ftings of
ferpents, fcorpions, &c. According to Dr Mead, the
fymptoms which follow the bite of a viper are, an acute
pain in the place wounded, with a fwelling, at firft red,
but afterwards livid, which by degrees fpreads farther
to the neighbouring parts 5 with great faintnefs, and a
quick, low, and fometimes interrupted pulfe ; great fick-
nefs at ftomach, with bilious convulfive vomitings, cold
fweats, and fometimes pains about the navel. Frequent¬
ly a fanious liquor runs from the fmall wound, and little
puftules are raifed about it : the colour of the whole
Ikin in lefs than an hour is changed yellow, as if the
patient had the jaundice. Thefe fymptoms are very fre¬
quently followed by death, efpecially if the climate be
hot, and the animal of a large fize. This is not, how¬
ever, the cafe with all kinds of ferpents. Some, we are
affured, kill by a fatal fleep •, others are faid to produce
an univerfal hsemorrhage and diffoiution of the blood ;
and others an unquenchable thrift. But of all the
fpecies of ferpents hitherto known, there is none whofe
bite is more expeditioufty fatal than that of the rattle-
fnake. Dr Mead tells us, that the bite of a large fer-
pent of this kind killed a dog in a quarter of a minute ;
and to the human fpecies they are almoft equally fatal.
Of this ferpent it is faid, that the bite makes the per-
fon’s Ikin become fpotted all over like the fir in of the
ferpent and that it has fuch a motion as if there wer«
innumerable living ferpents below it. But this is pro¬
bably nothing more than a diffoiution 6f the blood, by
which the fkin becomes fpotted as in petechial fevers,
at the fame time that the mufcles may be convulfed as
in the diftemper called hieranofos, which was former¬
ly thought to be the effedl of evil fpirits : but it is even
not improbable that obfervers have been fomewhat aid¬
ed by fancy and fuperftition when they thought that
they detected fuch appearances.
It has juftly appeared furprifing to philofophers, how
fuch an inconfiderable quantity of matter as the poifon
emitted by a viper at the time of biting ffiould produce
fuch violent effefts. But all inquiries into this matter
muft neceffarily be uncertain ; neither can they contri¬
bute any thing towards the cure. It is certain that the
poifon produces a gangrenous difpofition of the part it-
felf, and likewife feemingly of the reft of the body j
and that the original quantity of poifon continues fome
time before it exerts all its power on the patient, as it
is known that removing part of the poifonous matter
by fudtion will alleviate the fymptoms. The indica¬
tions of cure then are three ; 1. Ta remove the poifon¬
ous matter from the body : Or, 2. If this cannot be
done, to change its deftru£Uve nature by fome powerful
and penetrating application to the wound : And, 3. To
counterafl the effedls of that portion already received
into the fyftem.
The poifonous matter can only be removed from
the body by fucking the wound either by the mouth,
or by means of a cupping glafs ; but the former is
probably the more efficacious, as the faliva will in fome
meafure dilute and perhaps obtund the poifon. Dr
Mead directs the perfon who fucks the wound to hold
wurm oil in his mouth, to prevent inflammation of the
lips and tongue : but as bites of this kind are moft
likely to happen in the fields, and at a diftance from
houfes, the want of oil ought by no means to retard
the operation, as the delay of a few minutes might
3 O prove