[p. 86] thin, do not purge such patients,
but, if thought necessary, give a clyster; such patients should be
thus treated; they should be kept in a quiet state, have unguents
applied to them, and be covered up properly with clothes, and they
should use for drink a watery hydromel, and the juice of ptisan as
a draught in the evening; clear out the bowels at first with a clyster,
but give no purgative medicines to them, for, if you move the bowels
strongly, the urine is not concocted, but the fever remains long,
without sweats and without a crisis. Do not give draughts when the
time of the crisis is at hand, if there be agitation, but only when
the fever abates and is alleviated. It is proper to be guarded at
the crises of other fevers, and to withhold the draughts at that season.
Fevers of this description are apt to be protracted, and to have determinations,
if the inferior extremities be cold, about the ears and neck, or,
if these parts are not cold, to have other changes; they have epistaxis,
and disorder of the bowels. But in cases of fever attended with nausea,
or distention of the hypochondria, when the patients cannot lie reclined
in the same position, and the extremities are cold, the greatest care
and precaution are necessary; nothing should be given to them, except
oxymel diluted with water; no draught should be administered, until
the fever abate and the urine be concocted; the patient should be
laid in a dark apartment, and recline upon the softest couch, and
he should be kept as long as possible in the same position, so as
not to toss about, for this is particularly beneficial to him. Apply
to the hypochondrium linseed by inunctions, taking care that he do
not catch cold when the application is made; let it be in a tepid
state, and boiled in water and oil. One may judge from the urine what
is to take place, for if the urine be thicker, and more yellowish,
so much the better; but if it be thinner, and blacker, so much the
worse; but if it undergo changes, it indicates a prolongation of the
disease, and the patient, in like manner, must experience a change
to the worse and the better. Irregular fevers should be let alone
until they become settled, and, when they do settle, they are to be
treated by a suitable diet and medicine, attending to the constitution
of the patient.
PART 9
The aspects of the sick are various; wherefore the physician
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