SYMPTOMS.

Diminution, or total loss, of appetite; nausea, sometimes retching and vomiting, especially in the morning; bad taste in the mouth, foul tongue, flatulency, distention, pain and un­easiness in the stomach and bowels, particularly after meals; acid and windy eructations, heartburn, and flushings in the face: sometimes a lax habit takes place, at other times an obsti­nate costiveness supervenes.

CAUSES.

Intemperance in eating and drinking; with the immoderate use of spices, strong rich sauces, wines, and ardent spirits: These by violently stimulating and distending the fibres of the stomach and bowels, destroy their natural elasticity and the sensibility of their nerves; by which the blood becomes vitiated, and a disordered state of the whole body is frequently produced.

Defect in either the quantity or quality of the food;—Moist warm, confined, or impure air;—Living in low damp houses and in the neighbourhood of marshes and stagnant waters:— Want of due exercise;—A sedentary life;—Intense study.

The abuse of Mercury is another and frequent cause of Indi­gestion: many constitutions have suffered more from the inju­dicious use of this most valuable medicine, than by the very dis­case it was intended to cure; when taken improperly, it injures the nerves as well as the stomach and bowels; and subjects the patient to the gout, d [...]bility, consumption, nervous disorders, loss of memory, lowness of spirits, and often induces prema­ture old age.

The use of Tobacco may be also ranked among the causes of Indigestion; it frequently pr [...]ves injurious to the stomach when first made use of, either in smoking or chewing, owing to the profuse discharge of saliva or spittle it occasions. The injury sustained by the use of tobacco, will always be in proportion to the loss of saliva, and its narcotic power upon the nerves,

EFFECTS.

I. Accumulation of indigestible matter in the stomach and bowels: hence proceed—Vomiting and purging—Colic, flatu­lent or bilious—Worms—Intermitting Fevers—Large Bellies in Children.

II. Debility of the General System; producing—Agues—Fevers—Gout,—Scrofula—Rickets— and Jaundice.

III. Irregular performance of the Secretions and Excre­tions; from whence arise—Catarrhal defluxions—Asthma—Consumption—Diabetes— Fluor Albus, or Whites.

IV. Debility of the Absorbent System; whereby the lym­phatic exhalation is not taken up so quick as excreted by the exhalent arteries. hence—Leucophlegmacy—Dropsy, partial and general.

V. Debility of the Nerves in general: producing—Pains in the head, especially periodical—Spasms of the stomach and bowels—Hysteric disease—Hypochondriasis—Lethargy—Apo­plexy—Palsy.

After enumerating these Effects, it must evidently appear that, the cause of almost every obstinate, complicated, and in­curable [Page 5]disease, originates in the stomach: and, therefore, though Indigestion has been treated as a trifling complaint, it certainly demands our most serious attention.

In order to illustrate more fully how Indigestion becomes the primary cause of most disorders to which the human body is subject, and to account for those symptoms which consti­tute that morbid state I shall here describe

THE PROCESS OF DIGESTION, Or, The Progress of the Aliment, from the Mouth to the Heart and Lungs, with the Changes it undergoes in its Passage, until it is converted into Blood; shewing by what Law of the Animal Economy the BODY IS MAINTAINED AND SUPPORTED IN A NATURAL HEALTHY STATE.

After the masticated food is conveyed into the stomach, it is there reduced into a soft pulpy mass; the stomach then more strongly contracts and forces out at every such contraction, a portion of its contents, until the whole is evacuated into the first bowel, called by Anatomists Duodenum: hence arises the true sensation of hunger: But, if the stomach through weak­ness is unable either properly to digest the aliment or to con­tract with sufficient force so as to evacuate its contents in due time, an unnatural fermentation with an increased secretion take place, which produce the symptoms of Indigestion; such as, flatulency, distention, eructations, acidity; great uneasiness, fickness, vomiting, pain, and spasm or cramp of the stomach; loss of appetite, flushing heats, pain and giddiness of the head, with sometimes a palpitation of the heart, &c.

When the food thus partially dissolved, gets into the first bowel, it there meets with the bile or gall, and the pancre­atic juice, intended to answer some unknown purpose in the act of digestion. These fluids being intimately combined with this alimentary pulp, which they further attenuate and dissolve, and [Page 6]into which they seem to infuse new properties) is pushed forward through the bowels by their frequent contractions; and the more fluid part (called chyle), being separated in this progres­sion, is absorbed and conveyed to the blood by the lacteals; while the more solid part, thus deprived of every nutritious particle, is evacuated from the body as useless. But when the bowel are become weak, through the stomach remaining so for a length of time, this must be the case, they will be unable to contract sufficiently, as either perfectly to separate the fluid from the solid part, or to evacuate their contents in due time. Hence arise crude chyle, a costive habit, piles, fla­tulent colic, head ach; and collections of slimy matter in the bowels, from which many diseases are derived, especi­ally worms.

The liquid part of the digested aliment, being separated from the solid part by the natural contractile power of the bowels, becomes a mild sweet, and whitish fluid, termed chyle, which the lacteals absorb and convey to the mesenteric glands, and afterwards to the thoracic duct, from which it is poured into the left subclavian vein, and by that into the heart and lungs. Here the chyle is mixed with the blood, which changes and assimilates that fluid into its own nature. This is called Sangui­fication. It is from this fluid that the blood is made; and this affords that supply of nutrition which the continual waste of the body is found to require. I shall now point out

THE OFFICES OF THE BLOOD.

The Blood supplies every waste of the body made by the different secretions; the secretid fluids, therefore, certainly are all formed from the blood, such as the perspiration, urine, saliva, bile, &c. It forms every part of the body, both solids and fluids: it repairs diseased parts: it forms that hard substance or cement in fractures, which unites the ends of [Page 7]broken bones so firmly together: In short, it regenerates all the solid parts of the animal system, and replenishes all the waste of the fluids. Such being the important offices of the blood, it is universally allowed to be and it most certainly is the principle or pabulum of life. But, unless the blood is con­stantly recruited by a fresh supply of good chyle, (from which as before observed, it is made) an impoverished and vitiated state of that vital fluid must ensue; consequently these offices, so essential to health, cannot be duly performed; nor that waste, occasioned by the different secretions, be properly sup­plied. Hence arise general debility, nervous disorders, gout, dropsy, jaundice, and cutaneous eruptions.

Though it is evident that the chyle supplies the blood with its nutrition, and that, is the former is vitiated, the latter must sooner or later become so too; yet it is necessary to remark, that, besides the chyle, the blood in its passage through the lungs, receives from the external air, during the act of inspira­tion, another principle which is called OXYGEN AIR. This is the source of animal heat, as well as the cause of sensi­bility, irritability, and motion:—It is this which empowers the blood to stimulate the heart and arteries into action:—It is this which gives the blood its florid c lour: in short, this imparts to it the vital principle.

In order to render the last paragraph more perspicuous, I shall specify the component parts of the atmosphere; this is a body consisting of two species of airs, namely OXYGEN and AZOT, which bear a certain proportion to each other; that is, about twenty-eight parts of Oxygenated, vital, or dephlogisticated air, which supports life and flame; and seven­ty two parts of Azotic (commonly called, phlogisticated) air, which destroys both. This atmospheric air, being inspired by the lungs, meets there with the blood passing through them, to which the oxygenated or vital air having a greater affi­nity than to the azotic or phlogisticated air, disengages itself [Page 8]from the azot and combines with the blood, which at the same time parts with another species of air that has a greater affinity to the azot than it has to the blood: These two extricated fluids, (to wit, that escaping from the blood, and the azotic air,) combining together, are expelled from the lungs in the form of vapour termed breath. This constant action of the lungs constitutes what is called Respiration.

But whenever the oxygen or dephlogisticated air becomes much diminished, according to the proportion which it ought to bear to the other component part of the atmosphere in order to answer the purposes of life—or, in other words, where the atmosphere is lowered or contaminated—the blood loses its natural stimulus: Hence arises a diminished action of the heart and arteries; the consequences of which are, fainting, languor, head ach, difficulty of breathing, general relaxation; and, if it continues long in that state, cutaneous eruptions, and especially the sea scurvy.

The necessity of obtaining the air in as pure a state as the at­mosphere will admit, must appear obvious from what has been said respecting its wonderful effects: this is quite as requisite to be attended to, as preserving the strength of the digestive organs: for, while the chyle, which is prepared by them from the food, is supplying the waste occasioned by the different offices of the blood, the oxygen (received by the lungs from the atmosphere) at the same time is supporting its heat and action, without which life cannot subsist.

The following circumstances produce a diminution of oxygen in the air:—First, A great number of people being assembled together in any place, in which the air has not a free circulation, or where its equilibrium is not restored so quickly as it is de­stroyed by respiration:—Secondly, Large fires in rooms, from whence the external air is in a great measure excluded; for the fire, in order to support itself, attracts the oxygen and consumes it, whereby the vital property of the air is decreased; and, the [Page 9]larger the sire, the greater quantity of air must necessarily be consumed; hence the impropriety of great fires in small rooms or bedchambers:—Thirdly, Burning many candles renders the air foul, from the before-mentioned cause, because the flame destroys the purity of the air. It has been ascertained that each person destroys the vivifying principle of a gallon of air in one minute, also that a single candle consumes a similar quantity in the same space of time: which shews that oxygen or pure air equally support animal life and flame; for, where a candle will not burn, owing to the want of a supply or it, an animal cannot live. These three circumstances are therefore such as destroy the purity of the air, and render that element unfit for the purposes of life; so that in a very short time, and even in a spacious apartment, any of them must prove destructive to the vital principle of a large column of air: hence where these unavoidably take place, ventilators absolutely become re­quisite.

It may be necessary here to observe, that water and ve­getables have a contrary effect; for they attract and absorb the impure air and consequently increase the vital property thereof: hence the air in the country and that on the sea coast is more salubrious than that of cities and large towns.

CURE OF INDIGESTION.

I have made use of various medicines for the cure of this complaint, which are usually prescribed in the common routine of the practice of physic; such as bark, bitters, preparations of steel or iron, joined with carminatives, or aromatics, and every other remedy applied for debility of the stomach and bowels: but none of these have acted with so much safety, or have been attended with such beneficial effects, (either as, an aperient, sedative, or tonic,) as I have uniformly experi­enced during an extensive practice of many years from the use of

MILK,

Which is easy of digestion, and affords a greater supply of nourishment to the body when the digestive organs are weak, and with much more certainty, than any other kind of food. In cases of emaciation and general debility, also when the powers of nature or the vigor of the constitution begin to de­cline, milk is a most excellent restorative diet: it gives to the fluids both quantity and quality in the most perfect manner. This valuable fluid, however, certainly does not agree with every constitution; for the gastric juice renders it more or less coagulated in every stomach, and so firmly in some as even to resist the solvent power of that organ; consequently a variety of complaints must ensue: It has never been ascertained from what particular cause this unnatural coagulation happens, neither has the prevention of it been yet discovered; therefore, the best way is to avoid Milk entirely, where it is found to disagree: for with some (especially children) it produces fla­tulency, [Page 12]distention, and pain in the stomach and bowels, great difficulty of breathing, fever, &c. When these cases have occurred without any evident cause, I have ordered the break­fast of milk to be changed to common tea with only a little milk in it, or water gruel; in consequence of which, the children have become more healthy in every respect, and have required much less medicine than before.

TEA.

The quality and effects of common Tea have employed many ingenious pens, and most agree that it has some peculiar effects on the nervous system, producing tremors, &c. but, for my own part, I believe, that in nine hundred and ninety nine cases out of a thousand, it agrees very well, especially the black sort. After study or fatigue, Tea is a most grateful repast; as it quenches thirst and cheers the spirits, without heating the body. Whatever bad effects have been apparently produced by the use of this valuable plant, they have evidently arisen from drinking it too strong, too hot, in too large a quantity, or in too great a hurry: whereby a temporary relaxation is induced over the whole system, and consequently faintness and trem­bling may ensue. However when neither milk nor common tea are perfectly agreeable to the patient,

GINGER, OR ORANGE-PEEL TEA,

May be substituted, these are made by putting so much of either in a tea-pot of boiling water, as will just give it an agreeable flavour, not too strong, to which a suitable quantity of milk and sugar may be added. It is necessary to caution the patient against the too liberal use of hot watery fluids, as that would increase the debility of the stomach already subsisting.

COFFEE

Strengthens the stomach, assists digestion, is grateful to the whole nervous system, and serviceable in head achs, and lan­guor from over-exercise either of body or mind. To those of lax fibres, and to cold phlegmatic constitutions, coffee will be [Page 13]found more beneficial than tea, being warmer and more aro­matic; but, on the contrary, with such as are of a dry san­guineous habit of body, it is less proper.

For abating the fits of a periodical asthma, strong coffee is recommended by Sir JOHN PRINGLE, which he affirms to be the best remedy he was ever acquainted with; for which pur­pose, he directs an ounce of the best Mocha coffee to be made into a single dish; and this is to be repeated, after the interval of a quarter or half an hour, but it must be drank without milk or sugar: Sir JOHN FLOYER, who wrote a very ingenious Treatise on the Asthma, was long afflicted with that disorder; but, during the latter years of his life, he was kept free from (or, at least, lived more easy under) that complaint, by the use of very strong coffee.

CHOCOLATE.

Is well known to be the fruit of a tree growing in the West Indies, ground into a paste with other ingredients, and serves as a grateful repast to multitudes of people. It may be con­sidered as a wholesome kind of breakfast to those who like it, and with whom it agrees. It is of an unctuous nature, therefore little or no butter should be used with it.

THE DINNER

Should consist of that kind of food which affords the most nourishment, and is at the same time easy of digestion.

ANIMAL FOOD.

A Mixture of Animal and Vegetable Food affords the most wholesome diet, and the greatest nourishment: Animal food tends to induce corpulency and too great a fulness of the blood vessels; vegetable food, on the contrary, is sound too weak a diet for many constitutions, and therefore would be improper to live upon alone, though it would be much the safest of the two; but in regulating the exact proportion that [Page 14]Animal and Vegetable Food should bear to each other, regard should be had to the season of the year, the state of the wea­ther, the constitution of the body, &c. for, in hot weather, infectious air, or in full habits, in persons subject to feverish heats, and those who live a studious or sedentary life, much animal food is improper; but when the weather is cold, the constitution strong, and much exercise used, animal food should preponderate.

People who are afflicted with Indigestion, General Relaxa­ation, Nervous Diseases, and Gouty Complaints, should ever remember that the body is not nourished in proportion to the quantity of food received into the stomach, but according to the degree of perfection with which it is digested; and therefore however simple the food may be, more should never be eaten than will sit perfectly easy on the stomach: overloading that organ disturbs the process of digestion, and prevents the proper returns of appetite. Nothing is of so much importance to invalids, and persons of weak or debilitated constitutions, as a proper attention to the quantity of their food; though many people appear to be possessed of such powers of digestion, that they never seem to be incommoded therewith; yet the gene­rality of mankind are affected with uneasiness; and how often do we hear such persons complaining of the ill effects of this or that particular kind of food, when the quantity of all, rather than the disagreement of any, is the cause of their complaints. The Author of Nature has so formed us that it is evident we are designed to live on any part of the globe. Our organs of digestion are so constructed, that we may gradually accommo­date ourselves to aliment of every quality; but this is not the case in regard to quantity; Nature, by degrees, may be ac­customed to subdue and change into nutriment almost every part of the a creation, but to quantity she yields.

MUTTON, VENISON, BEEF, VEAL, and LAMB.—These are very wholesome meats; and if roasted, and eaten with such vegetables as are found to agree with the stomach, the better.

Broths or Soups scarcely ever agree with weak stomachs, because they relax that organ; therefore, they are digested flower, and with more difficulty, and are of a less nutritious quality, than solid animal food. I have frequently observed, that meat, even difficult of digestion, will sit much easier upon a debilitated stomach, than any watery or spoon diet.

Fried meat, or that baked in a pie, is more difficult of solution than that which is moderately roasted or boiled.

Animal food, if kept some time after it is killed, before it is used, becomes more tender and easier of digestion Meat somewhat rare, is more soluble in the stomach, and affords more nourishment than that which is perfectly or over done.

It is a common notion that the Gravy of meat is unwhole­some; on the contrary, it is very nutritive, and is always proper when animal food is necessary.

The fat of meat is nutritious, and more soluble than the lean; but, like butter and oil, it is apt to disorder the stomach.

SALTED MEAT, when frequently used, is unwhole­some; being very difficult of digestion, it vitiates the blood and other circulating fluids But a moderate quantity of salt, taken with our food seems necessary to assist digestion.

High-seasoned food should be avoided, because it excites an unnatural appetite, stimulates and heats the stomach, and eventually destroys its tone. Pepper and Ginger are the most heating Spices; therefore they should be used with great moderation.

FISH, in general, i [...] light and wholesome, and is very proper for those who are not able to digest stronger food, and who re­quire aliment neither stimulant nor heavy.—Shell Fish of [Page 16]every kind are the most nourishing. SALT FISH, like other substances preserved by salt, is unwholesome.

PORK AND BACON, it is remarked, generally disorder those persons who have weak organs of digestion; however, some people find them wholesome. Young sucking pigs are heavier than full grown pork because they are fatter.

RABBIT AND HARE are readily digested.

GEESE and DUCKS are heavy food, and hard of di­gestion. Turkey is much lighter than either, but rather heavier than the common Fowl and Pheasant. Partridge, Quail, Moorgame, the Woodcock, and Pidgeons, are all easily digested, and afford much nourishment.

Mastication, or chewing the food properly, very much assists the stomach in digesting it; therefore should never be per­formed in a slight or hasty manner.

VEGETABLE FOOD.

Taste and Smell generally direct our choice of vegetables; and it may be asserted, with very few exceptions, that those which are agreeable to these senses are the most salutary, and vice versa. But it frequently happens, that both taste and smell are vitiated; therefore, when this is the case, those vege­tables which sit easiest on the stomach are the most proper.

As Vegetables tend to reduce plethora and abate heat, they are very proper for corpulency, and plethoric habits,, and for those who are troubled with feverish heats, and distention of the blood vessels; and, when accompanied with sufficient exercise, and such medicines as preserve the natural state of the bowels, this diet will remove that inflammatory habit of body, which medicines alone could not effect. At the same time, it should be remembered, that sudden changes in the mode of living are generally dangerous; therefore, when an alteration becomes requisite, it should be made gradually.

Vegetables ate less stimulant and less nourishing, but more cooling than animal food; they are generally considered as flatulent. As this quality, however, is never perceived by persons whose stomach and bowels are in a healthy state, flatu­lency may reasonably be imputed to debility of these organs, rather than to the aliment itself.

I shall now consider a few of those vegetable substances, which are chiefly employed as food.

BREAD affords more nourishment than most other vege­table substances, but it it inferior to animal food, both in this respect and in facility of digestion. It should not be eaten, till twenty-four hours after it is baked.

RICE is highly nutritious, and more easily digested than bread, seldom occasions acidity or flatulency, and perhaps is the most wholesome grain that is used by man. The universal opinion, that Rice is of an astringent nature, is founded in error. It is generally prescribed very judiciously as a diet in purgings, and debility of the digestive organs, because it produces less disturbance to the stomach and bowels in digesting than any other aliment.

POTATOES are more easily digested than bread; but they afford less nourishment than either rice or bread, owing chiefly to the large quantity of water contained in their sub­stance. Potatoes, asparagus, and artichokes, often agree with weak stomachs, when cabbage, carrots, and onions, &c. will not.

PARSNIPS are agreeable to most palates, and are very nourishing and easy of digestion; some people, indeed, dislike them on account of their sweetness, but this is a proof of their nutritious quality. The poor people in some part of Ireland, it is said, make beer from this root.

TURNIPS not only afford wholesome nourishment for man, but also furnish the principal food for cattle in the [Page 16] [...] [Page 17] [...] [Page 18]winter; and the sprouts, if gathered very young, make an excellent salad.

BIET ROOT contains a considerable quantity of sugar, consequently it is nourishing and easy of digestion.

Celery, Lettuce, endive, raddish, cucumber, and melon, which have not been subjected to the action of fire, contain the whole quantity of their fixed air, and are therefore more diffi­cult of solution than other vegetables.

It is a fact worthy of remark, that the boiling of vegetables thoroughly extricates a quantity of fixed air, which renders them less liable to produce flatulency or wind.

BUTTER, and the expressed Oil of Vegetables, are ex­tremely nutritive; but they are difficult of digestion.

EGGS are nutritious, and are very light food when mode­rately boiled

FRUITS.—These, in general, afford a mild and wholesome nourishment, and a proper use of them greatly contributes to the preservation of health. It is a mistaken notion, that those complaints of the stomach and bowels which happen in summer and autumn, arise from the quantity of Fruit taken at that time: When we consider the nature of the secreted fluids, which, at those seasons of the year, have a putrid tendency; together with a similar disposition in the state of the air; we must reasonably conclude, from the acescent quality of Fruits; that a moderate use of them would not only tend to cure, but would in a great measure prevent those bilious disorders so usual at the latter end of summer. Ripe fruit extinguishes thirst, moderates heat, opens the body, and affords a most grateful sensation to the stomach. Dried fruits are more nutritive than the green, though less soluble in the stomach. Fruit of every kind is very improper after a full meal.

ACIDS, when moderately used, are grateful to the stomach, assist the appetite, and promote digestion: but the too liberal use of them often disorders the stomach and bowels, and, it has been asserted, occasions a return of the gout.

SUGAR is the most nutritive thing in nature; therefore the saccharine part of vegetables is very justly thought to afford the greatest nourishment. Honey and Sugar possess this saccharine principle in its most concentrated state; and, where they agree, if used in moderation, are very whole­some.

NUTS are certainly nourishing, but difficult of digestion;—hence the impropriety of introducing such substances in deserts, when the stomach is sufficed with other food. Nuts should always be eaten in great moderation; for too large a quantity of them oppresses the stomach, excites pain, and disturbs the process of digestion.

A variety of food at one meal is unwholesome, because it induces the person to eat more than the stomach can digest with facility.

DRINKS.

These must be of that hind which will best agree with the patient's stomach, and produces the least heat, wind, or distention.

MALT LIQUORS are certainly the most salutary, as well as the most natural to the constitution: They are perfectly well calculated to dilute the food and quench thirst; and when they agree with the stomach, they promote digestion and procure sleep. They should be taken cold; because, when drank warm, they are the most apt to produce wind.

TABLE BEER, well brewed, and of a due strength and age, in my opinion, is the best drink in the world for ge­neral use: and it was strongly recommended by the great Dr. SYDENHAM. But where it cannot be kept long without turn­ing four, it generates flatulency or wind, and is therefore im­proper.

PORTER or home-brewed ALE, of a moderate strength, is a very good drink at meal times, especially at supper.

WINE—If malt liquors cannot be admitted, owing to their producing an unnatural fermentation in the stomach, and causing wind, White wine and water is an excellent light liquor; and, if it does not turn acid on the stomach, may be allowed for common drink. After dinner, a few glasses of wine may be taken, provided the patient has been accusto­med to a full diet. Wine moderately used is not only of ser­vice to those who are troubled with Indigestion, but also to persons advanced in life, or where nature is on the decline; in general relaxation, and in all low, nervous, paralytic, and dropsical cases. Where the patient has been in the habit of living very freely, the quantity of wine should be diminished by degrees. Wines of good body and proper age, should be chosen, such as Madeira, Port, Sherry, &c. the small wines being more apt to turn acid in the stomach, and interrupt di­gestion. It may be necessary here to observe, that the quality of wine chiefly depends on the state in which the grape is gathered, which is always influenced by the season: the pro­duce of one year, therefore, is frequently preferable to that of another. When the wine is made from unripe fruit, it will be productive of bad consequences to the constitution; this often gives rise to a suspicion of its being sophisticated.

The immoderate use of wine is injurious to every person, more particularly to studious men, as it increases those com­plaints of the stomach and head which study may have in­duced: those who drink too freely of wine are particularly subject to the gout; while on the contrary, those who confine themselves to drinking malt liquors or water, are seldom affected with that complaint. A bottle of wine a day is cer­tainly too much for any person who prefers health to pleasure.

It is necessary here to observe, that the stomach should be preserved from the action of strong stimulants, and every thing which produces an unnatural heat of the body should be avoid­ed: these precautions should be minutely attended to, not [Page 21]only in cases of Indigestion, but also in nervous diseases, debi­lity, the gout, &c. and even in perfect health.

SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.—If neither Malt Liquors nor Wine agree with the stomach, a little Brandy, Rum, or Ge­neva, properly diluted with water, as they retard fermenta­tion and tend to prevent acidity, may prove a beneficial drink. But the too liberal use of Spirituous Liquors accustoms the stomach to an unnatural stimulus, which increases its action and destroys its proper tone; produces sickness and retching, a depression of spirits, loss of memory, confusion of ideas, and nervous tremors: in hot climates, they occasion phrenzy—in cold ones, stupidity. A man may appear very sober, and yet drink a large quantity of these liquors so as greatly to quicken the pulse, and to excite an unnatural heat; which is hurtful to every body, particularly to a sedentary or studious man.

One of the most extraordinary effects produced by the immoderate use of Spirits, is the following case, communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. WILMER:—A woman, who had every day for many months, drank a great quantity of spiritu­ous liquors, was discovered burnt to death at Coventry, though the fire in the grate had been small, and the furniture of the room had suffered but little; the greatest part of her body was consumed, and even the bones were completely calcined. —An Italian Countess is said to have met with a similar sate in consequence of drinking immoderately of brandy.

WATER. This is not only a proper drink when acidity and flatulency prevail, but also where the bile has acquired too much acrimony. Cold water strengthens the stomach, assists digestion, prevents obstructions, renders sleep more calm, and cheerfulness more regular and lasting: It has been ob­served, that water drinkers have their understandings more clear, their memory more steady, their senses more quick, and their manners more gentle.

Water is the drink Nature has given to all nations, made it agreeable to all palates, and is the only liquor to satisfy thirst of all the brute creation, and some part of mankind during their whole lives take no other; and the state of health those persons enjoy, the hard labour and fatigue they are able to undergo, shew that water is well suited as a drink to answer every purpose of the animal economy. That kind which has no impregnation sensible to the sight, taste, or smell, is the best for use.

SUPPER.

The patient should take very light suppers, and must not go to bed immediately afterwards: Bread and good Cheshire Cheese, in my opinion, is not inferior to any thing; yet there can be no objection to a small quantity of animal food, taken with the liquors before proposed.

REST, AND EXERCISE.

Respecting these the following mode may be adopted as a good one; namely, that of allowing eight hours for labour or exercise, eight hours for pleasure or amusement, and the same length of time for sleep or rest; though some people require more of the latter. The patient should pay great attention to natural rest, for by the want of this, the tone of the nervous system is greatly diminished, and a weak circulation produced: hence paleness, languor, coldess, and dejection of spirits. No pleasure whatever can in any measure compensate for the loss of natural hours of sleep.

Exercise promotes a mutual action of both solids and fluids; it increases animal heat; it invigorates the heart, and occasions an equal distribution of the blood and other circulating fluids through the whole system; it increases the action of the sto­mach with respect to appetite and digestion, and therefore is of the utmost service in cases of indigestion, and general weak­ness; it likewise renders the body less liable to the malignant influence of the weather, and to the attacks of putrid diseases.

The salutary power of exercise and good air is particularly exemplified, in the laborious country people, who, notwith­standing their indifferent food, are generally healthy and strong.

WALKING is the most natural as well as the most wholesome of all exercise; but when this cannot be complied with, riding on horseback, or in a carriage, should be sub­stituted.

FRICTION. If the region of the stomach and bowels be well rubbed with the flesh brush or flannel every morning and evening, it will be found of greater benefit to those who are troubled with indigestion, nervous diseases, and general relax­ation, than is generally imagined: It will occasion a discharge of wind by consent of parts, merely from the principle of irrita­bility, or that property of the muscular fibres to re-act when acted upon by a gentle stimulus, and by which the contiguous parts are brought into action. If the whole body is well-rubbed, perspiration will be encouraged, and the general cir­culation quickened. The Ancients, who were sensible of the advantages resulting from this practice, not only used it as a remedy, but also as a daily method of preserving health.

SWINGING. This kind of exercise is productive of great benefit to the constitution.

STUDY. Excess of Study is so powerful a cause of indi­gestion, nervous diseases, and the gout, that I find very few men of learning are free from these complaints. Intense thinking wears out the constitution more than the most labo­rious exercise.

The brain, which is the immediate seat of thought; the nerves which arise from it; and the stomach, which is fur­nished with many nerves of an exquisite sensibility; are the parts first attacked, and commonly most injured, by the imme­diate labour of the mind; and, if it should continue for any length of time, almost all the parts of the body become parta­kers [Page 24]of the injury. Natural History, the history of men and manners, rhetoric, belles-lettres, and experimental philosophy, together with other subjects of amusement, may be moderately pursued without the smallest detriment to health; for the mind of the reader on these subjects is generally passive, and chiefly engaged in attending to facts.

AIR.

The Patient should reside in a pure dry atmosphere, because pure air increases the elasticity of the muscular fibres, braces and invigorates the whole system, supports the vitality of the blood, and greatly contributes to the restoration and preservation of that principle in the animal economy called Irritability, on which health wholly depends: hence it facilitates the cure, not only of Indigestion, but also of nervous diseases and general relaxation. If the air, which is either one of the most salutary or pernicious agents, be moist, or contaminated with noxious effluvia, it will render the constitution unhealthy, and also considerably impede the good effects of the remedy, let it be ever so powerful.

Foul air is peculiarly inimical to the nervous system; it relaxes and enfeebles the general habit; and often produces diseases of the lungs. In great cities, the air is vitiated by being impregnated with smoke, and various exhalations arising from putrid substances: hence many persons, who are under the necessity of living some time in the unwholesome atmo­sphere of this great metropolis, suffer materially in their health. Those persons, therefore, who are obliged to spend the day in close towns, ought if possible to sleep in the country. Breath­ing pure air in the night will compensate in some measure for the want of it during the day. The patient s chamber should be cool and spacious, the curtains of the bed kept constantly open, and the bed clothes so regulated as to maintain only a moderate degree of warmth.

Places where a number of persons are crowded together ought always to be well ventilated, especially schools; and it is the duty of parents to pay particular attention to the manner in which their children are accommodated in this respect. The same caution is necessary with regard to nurseries, servants being in general fond of hot and close apartments. A few years ago, a remarkable instance occurred, which shews the dangerous effects of foul stagnant air: Eighteen children and a servant slept in one apartment, in King-street, Golden-square; to render the room warmer, they shut up the chim­ney, and used every other expedient to exclude the cold air: the consequences of which were, that the servant and ten of the children were seized with excruciating pains in the pit of the stomach and back, violent head ach, delirium, and con­vulsions.

A very general error prevails among mankind, in exposing the body too much to the action of heat, with a view to pre­serve it from the pernicious effects of cold. The influence of the latter will be the least considerable on those persons who are most frequently but prudently exposed to its action. Those who keep themselves and their children constantly in a warm room, become greatly relaxed, and are seldom without a cold or cough, from which most of the consumptions in this country originate; for if, in addition to the general debility arising from such neglect of air and exercise, we consider the effects of the medicines usually prescribed to cure the cough, (which, being generally composed of syrups and oils, must, it long continued, relax the stomach and pall the appetite) we need not wonder, if, instead of the cold being removed, an incura­ble consumption is induced. This observation applies also to studious men, who live a sedentary life, in an atmosphere which, being seldom renewed, is inelastic, and full of noxious vapours: by this they are relaxed, and rendered heavy and low spirited; and the bad effects arising from study and want of exercise, are greatly increased.

SEA, OR COLD BATHING.

Bathing being one of the principal remedies for indigestion general debility, and nervous diseases, I shall here make a few observations respecting its use.

Nothing affords more strength to the nervous system, or produces a greater elasticity of the muscles and vessels, than sea or cold bathing; it accelerates the motion of the blood, and promotes the different secretions: for though the water only acts immediately on the cutaneous nerves and blood vessels, yet, its benign influence, by sympathy, is communicated to every part of the machine. But this, as well as all other grand remedies when improperly applied, will frequently produce the most baneful effects; it will radicate more deeply in the habit those complaints which it was intended to cure, and render them for ever incurable.

Indeed, on reflection, this is not to be wondered at; for most persons imagine themselves qualified to judge, and boldly venture their opinion, of the propriety of Bathing, who have not the smallest acquaintance with anatomy, physiology, the history of diseases, the science of medicine, or philosophy in general; and who, consequently, are incapable of discrimi­nating in respect to the disease, or the constitution of the patient; and certain it is, that no remedy whatever, can require a more accurate knowledge of these, than Bathing.

Under these considerations therefore, the following remarks are offered to the public, in order to obviate those pernicious effects, which too frequently arise from an indiscriminate use of Bathing.

Previous to laying down particular rules, it may be necessary to premise the two following general ones; that people may be able to form a judgment whether bathing is likely to be useful, or to prove injurious to the constitution.

First, Where the patient, on coming out of the Bath, feels an universal pleasant sensation of glowing warmth, the [Page 27]elasticity of the muscular sibres seems increased; and the ner­vous system strengthened, and as it were, re-animated; these are proofs that it agrees perfectly well with the constitution; and, if properly continued, will be of infinite service: because it thereby evidently appears, that the re-action of the heart and arteries is increased, and consequently, an equal distribution of the blood and other fluids to every minute vessel, is produced.

Second, But, on the contrary, where on coming out of the Bath, the patient feels a sensation of cold, attended with shiver­ing, depression of spirits, pain in the head, or in any other part of the body, universal lassitude or weariness, as though just come from hard labour; these are signs that bathing does not agree with the constitution; because they evidently shew, that there is such a defect of irritability in the habit, that the heart and arteries are unable to overcome that constriction of the cutane­ous vessels, which is the primary effect always produced by the application of cold to the surface of the body.

These two general rules should be particulary attended to; for by an accurate observance thereof, either a great deal of good may be done by bathing, or much mischief prevented.

CASES IN WHICH BATHING WILL BE BENEFICIAL,

Whenever there are symptoms of universal debility, arising from inanition, or want of due nourishment, such as loose or flabby muscles, weariness or languor over the whole body, a sense of fatigue, upon the slightest exertion of the muscular system▪ and an inclination to sweat upon very little exercise, &c.

In all nervous diseases, especial [...]y where there is an increased sensibility, as faintings, tremblings, depression of spirits, alarm on every trifling occasion, nervous head-ach, &c.

The cold or sea bathing should be used in general, in the morning before any food has been taken; though, at the same time it may be necessary to observe, that some constitutions cannot bear it previous to a light breakfast; with such it should [Page 28]be used between breaksast and dinner, but not so soon after the first meal as to interfere with digestion.

The frequency of bathing, and the time of continuing in the water, can only be determined by the nature of the complaint, and the strength of the patient. It should not be used oftener than three or four times a week, by persons of a spare and na­turally delicate habit; and these persons should only make a single immersion, and come out immediately. Those of greater strength may use the bath more freely.

The best time for bathing, in general, is to commence about the middle of April, or beginning of May, according to the tem­perature of the season, and to continue it no longer than a month, or six weeks at most; omitting it totally during the very sultry months of summer; but it should never be employed later in the season than the beginning of November. By thus allowing an interval between the bathings, a salutary change may be in­duced in the solids and fluids; whereas, had it been persisted in many months without intermission, it would not only have lost its tonic power, but debilitating effects might have been pro­duced. I have frequently observed that the good effects of other tonic remedies as well as the cold bath are not always to be perceived during their use; for after taking them regularly about three weeks or a month with little or no apparent benefit; yet, en discontinuing them, I have been surprised at the very rapid manner in which the patient has recovered his health; which serves to prove that strengthening remedies extend their effects much beyond the time during which they are employed.

A day or two previous to bathing, a proper dose of the Tonic Powders should be taken, (two papers will generally be sufficient,) so as to procure two or three motions, in order to evacuate the crudities of the bowels; which would, if allowed to remain there, prevent the bathing having the desired effect.

Likewise, during the use of bathing, particular attention should be paid to the state of the stomach and bowels, especially [Page 29]in those persons who are troubled with a superfluous quantity of bile; for, if this is neglected, many bad consequences may ensue; as a congestion in the abdominal viscera, fevers, violent pain in the head, and even apoplexy may be produced. For this pur­pose, I recommend the Tonic Powders, because they operate without producing any uneasiness, either in the alimentary canal, or the system in general, and do not, like most purgatives, as I have before noticed, induce a constipation of the bowels, or languid state of the body, after their operation; but by their tonic quality, they tend to strengthen the digestive organs, and consequently the whole habit, thereby favouring the intention with which the bath is employed.

Immediately on coming out of the bath, the body should be wiped perfectly dry as expeditiously as possible—this promotes the circulation to the surface, and thereby assists in regulating the secretions, upon which most of the good effects of bathing depend.

The sea bath is found more efficacious than the cold bath, owing to the water being impregnated with salt, which stimu­lates the cutaneous vessels, and causes an increased determina­tion of the fluids to the surface of the body. Upon this princi­ple, I frequently order a quantity of salt to be added to the water in which the patient is to bathe at home, with very good effect. It has been computed that every gallon of sea water contains five ounces and a half of salt; this therefore is the pro­portion which the salt should bear to the water, in which the patient is to bathe. The water and salt should be renewed every other, or third day.

I have frequently known the beneficial effects of bathing greatly promoted, especially in weakly, nervous habits, by tak­ing two tea-spoonfuls of the Tonic Drops, in a glass of water, as soon as the patient comes out of the bath; and, in the course of my practice, I have often observed, that universal, pleasant, glowing sensations, &c. take place, by the assistance of this [Page 30]medicine, where, without its salutary influence, bathing would have been prejudicial.

Having described the particular cases, in which Sea or Cold Bathing will be found of the utmost benefit; I shall now point out those particular states of the system in which its use would be very injurious.

1st, When the patient labours under any actual disease, or obstruction of any of the viscera, either of the abdomen or thorax —Hence bathing is extremely improper in Consumption of the Lungs, Asthma, Jaundice, or in a diseased state of the liver, kidnies, bladder, or womb ^*: because, by the gravity and cold­ness of the water, the blood and other fluids are driven from the extremities and surface of the body towards the internal parts, and occasion an increase of the diameter of the vessels, which, being already in a state of disease, are unable to bear so great and sudden a determination; and, owing to the resistanse they are compelled to make by a certain law of the animal oeconomy, an inflammation or rupture of those vessels may ensue, or at least, the existing disorder may be greatly aggravated. This observation holds good with respect to the effects of the atmos­phere, in winter and spring; for, by reason of its coldness and pressure, inflammatory complaints are more frequent at those seasons than in summer; and also consumptive and asthmatic disorders are rendered more violent by the same means.

2dly, While the body is in a co [...]ive state — Because bathing, by constringing the cutaneous pores, throws back the fluids upon the bowels, thereby increasing the distention already sub­sisting there and in the neighbouring parts, and, of course, must inevitably debilitate, instead of strengthen the digestive organs: even sometimes apoplexy, and many other complaints of the head may be the consequence.

3dly, When there is an intermitting, remitting, or hectic fever, or during the presence of any periodical disease whatsoever. Because the sudden and great change, p [...]oduced by the coldness of the water, aggravates these complaints. It has been said, that the ague has been perfectly cured by plunging into the cold bath at the commencement of the fit; but this is by no means a safe experiment, for if the disease should not be cured by it, the violence thereof will be greatly aggravated.

4thly, When there is an increased determination of blood to the head or breast—Hence people should be very cautious of bathing, who are disposed to Inflammation of the Lungs, Con­sumption, or Head-ach, or subject to a Cough; because the cold or sea bath, by its principal and natural effect of repelling the blood to the internal parts, must increase the congestion already present, and accelerate the coming on of the disease. This is not the only evil that may be induced, for apoplexy, Inflamma­tion of the Membranes of the Brain, or, what is yet more dread­ful, Insanity, may be occasioned; which, I have good reason to believe, has more frequently taken place from this cause, than is generally known or imagined.

5thly, While there is an increased or preternatural heat of the body—Because by the sudden check given to the circulation, the Vis-medicatrix-naturae may be excited to such a degree, as to produce a Fever or local Inflammation.

6thly, While there is a diminution of heat, or sensation of cold present—Because the constriction of the extreme vessels, already taken place, would be so increased by the immersion, [Page 32]as to excite a violent degree of re-action in the heart and arte­ries, which might produce effects similar to those last men­tioned.

7thly, While there exists a plethoric state of the body, or too great a fulness of the blood vessels—Because an increased quantity of blood would be sent to those vessels, already too much distended; so that there would be danger of rupturing them, or of exciting inflammation of the brain, or some of the viscera. Instances daily occur, where inflammations, boils, ab­scesses, and ulcerations, of the external parts, very difficult to heal, are, in that particular state of the constitution above speci­fied occasioned by bathing: for, although there may be evident signs of universal debility, which seem to indicate the propriety of bathing, yet it should be remembered, that this debility may arise from general distention, and not from want of nutrition.— These two species of debility require quite opposite remedies; therefore they should be distinguished from each other with the utmost accuracy, previous to bathing; by which means much mischief may be prevented.

Instead of Cold of Sea Bathing in this last case, the use of the Tonic Powders will be of infinite service, owing to their com­bining an evacuant power with their tonic quality. They should be taken so as to procure three or four motions daily, and should be persisted in for ten or twelve days, or while any uneasy sensation remains

8thly, During the presence of the Haemorrhoids, or Piles— Because the Cold Bath will, most probably, repel the blood suddenly from the haemorrhoidal veins, where nature had de­posited it, in order to relieve the general habit; so that, by the interruption given to her salutary operations, a determination to the head and lungs may ensue, and in consequence many disorders of those parts, as well as a train of diseases, may arise. I have known many instances where people have died of in­flammation of the lungs, arising from the application of cold, [Page 33]by sitting upon damp ground at that particular time, or by putting on a pair of small clothes not properly aired.

9th, While any natural periodical discharge continues — Be­cause, many complaints of the most malignant nature may be produced. This observation should be particularly attended to by women, whom it more immediately concerns.

10th, Bathing should not be made use of very soon after mebriation, or any other irregularity; because the body would be too weak to bear the shock.

11th, It should not be used, but with the utmost caution, during the whole period of gestation, or pregnancy — Because during that time, especially in the first months, the patient is seldom able to bear so sudden a shock to the system in general, or so great a determination to the womb in particular; there­fore abortion, as well as great mischief to the constitution, may be expected from the indiscriminate use of bathing under that circumstance.

12th, Women in general should never bathe, but upon the most urgent necessity, and then not without proper advice — Because very few of them can bear so sudden or so great a shock, owing to the exquisite sensibility of their nerves, and the irri­tability of their general system, which exceeds those of men. The same observation holds good with regard to children; many of whom I have known thrown into convulsions, as well as women into hysteric fits, by the very sudden and violent shock given to the nervous system, by immersion in cold water.

I am much against accustoming children to the cold bath, as the ingenious Dr. Buchan advises in his Domestic Medicine, at a very early age, (unless necessity absolutely requires it), or continuing it too long. I have, for my own part, no notion of endeavouring to prevent complaints, which, in all probability, would never happen unless some or all of the occasional causes on which most of the diseases of children depend, were applied: such as, food in too great a quantity, or of a pernicious [Page 34]quality, want of due exercise, or cleanliness, and sometimes confined air, By removing these causes, or, what is still better, never applying them▪ we should, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, find the cold bath, as well as all other remedies, unnecessary. At the same time I wish it to be understood, that I have a very high opinion of cold bathing, when there is a real indication for its use; but, on the other hand, I think it ex­tremely cruel, to be teazing a child with a pretended remedy, while it is in perfect health. I have more exalted ideas of the great Author of Nature, than for one moment to imagine, that it is in the power of any remedy to render the constitution more perfect than it was intended by him.—

Cold Bathing is likewise improper at or near the time when a return of the gout is expected: for a little before the recur­rence of this disease, irregular determinations generally take place; sometimes to the head, affecting it with pain and giddi­ness; sometimes to the lungs, producing a difficulty of breathing; and sometimes to the stomach and bowels, causing sickness and pain. Bathing, at this time, would encourage these determi­nations, and prevent the gout from fixing in its proper feat, the extremities; in consequence of which, violent inflammations and the most fatal effects may follow.

It should also be used with great circumspection after the gout is gone off—because, in general, the body is too much debilitated by that disease, to be able to bear the violence of the shock. For the same reason, bathing is improper in all cases of extreme debility, from whatever cause it may arise.

Cold or sea bathing cannot be safely employed during the action of any irritating cause in the system—Because that irri­tation would be much increased by the strong re-action of the heart and arteries, which is one of the secondary effects of bathing. Hence it is improper in glandular obstructions, when [Page 35]they have arrived to a certain pitch. It can only be used with advantage in an incipient state of the disease, and even then should be employed with great caution.

The Sea Air and Exercise contribute greatly to the good effects of bathing, and very frequently prove extremely bene­ficial to those persons, in whose cases bathing, according to the foregoing rules, is strictly prohibited. In my opinion, the re­covery of the patient has been often attributed to bathing, when in reality, it was merely owing to the following circumstances:

• 1st. The Purity and Coolness of the Sea Air:
• 2d. The Mind being totally disengaged from Anxiety and Business.
• 3d. The Amusements and Company of the Place, joined with Exercise.

The Sea Air is rendered by the water,—First, More pure: Second, More cool.

The first, by the sea water absorbing those impurities, or noxious particles, with which the air in large towns and cities is replete. For which reason, it must be better adapted to the purposes of respiration; as the oxygen, or basis of vital air, thereby becomes increased in proportion; by which means, the blood is more fully impregnated with the vital principle.

Second, The air is rendered more cook, by its passing over so large a tract of water. Hence, near the sea, are felt none of those unpleasant sensations which arise from the heat of the air in summer, in large cities or inland places; but a constant cool­ing, refreshing breeze is perceived, so congenial to the feelings, and so advantageous to the health of man; which moderates the excess of heat, prevents its irritating and debilitating effects, and produces the most salutary consequences.

HABITUAL COSTIVENESS.

Diseases more frequently originate from costiveness than has hitherto been imagined: and the success I have met with in [Page 36]practice, by obviating this circumstance, I am convinced justi­fies the remark.

A great variety of aperient medicines have been prescribed, to remove costiveness; such as, lenitive electuary, infusion of senna, aloes, Daffy's Elixir, sulphur, &c. These I have used, with many others, but never yet found a medicine that will act with so much certainty and safety, as the Tonic Powders; be­cause, as observed before, they may be taken by persons of any age, sex, or under every circumstance of the constitution; as they do not, like other opening medicines, excite an unnatural stimulus of the stomach and bowels, in order to produce their effect; nor does their operation, which is both mild and effec­tual, interfere with the occupations of life.

There is a peculiar costiveness, affecting studious people, and those advanced in years, which very frequently causes inflam­mation in the bowels, often terminating fatally in the course of a few days: such persons should never be without the Tonic Powers, but should take them occasionally as circumstances may require. I have every reason to believe, that with these pow­ders I have preserved the health of hundreds; as they are so benign in their effects, that they have invariably improved the constitution of those who have taken them.

These powders are widely different in their effects from Anderson's, commonly called Scotch Pills, which are injurious to the constitution in the following respects:

• 1st, Anderson's Pills, after their purgative operation is over, leave a constipated state of the bowels.
• 2dly, They heat the body, therefore cannot be employed, with propriety, in every constitution.
• 3dly, They stimulate the rectum, or lower bowel, thereby producing the Piles,—a highly disagreeable and painful disorder, which often terminates in fistula.
• 4thly, They have a peculiar effect in making women unwell at an improper time, owing to their stimulating the part men­tioned [Page 37]before, and are not only unsafe, but extremely danger­ous, during pregnancy.
• 5thly. Aloes, of which these pills are composed, is of such a nature, that, when the bowels become habituated to its use, they will not act properly without it; therefore, when once become a custom, it must generally be continued through life.

On the contrary, the Tonic Powders have quite different effects:

• 1st. They induce a natural state of the bowels, after they have operated as a purgative.
• 2dly, Instead of heating the body, they abate irritation, and render the patient cool and comfortable.
• 3dly, Instead of producing the Piles, they prevent or cure them, as numbers have experienced, who have taken them by my direction.
• 4thly, I have had repeated opportunities of proving the good effects of these powers in pregnancy, wherein they alleviate, or prevent, all the uncomfortable symptoms, (especi­ally the sickness and retching,) which occur during that parti­cular period, with the utmost safety.
• 5thly, The Tonic Powders have quite a contrary tendency to the aloes; they not only produce a natural action of the bowels after being taken a little time, but may be left off without the least inconvenience.

GIDDINESS AND PAIN OF THE HEAD.

These in general originate in a debility of the digestive organs, but ultimately arise from too great a determination of blood to the head, soul stomach, costive habit, an exquisite sen­sibility of the nerves, &c. The Tonic Powders have repeatedly cured these complaints, after other medicines have proved ineffectual.

Where the pain of the head is periodical, or returns at regular stated times, from fifteen to twenty-five drops of tincture of opium, taken in water, half an hour before its return, or exactly [Page 38]at the time of its coming on, has cured this complaint, after the Peruvian bark had been tried in vain. The body should be kept open with the Tonic Powders, during the use of the opium, or it will not have the desired effect.

Persons afflicted with pain of the head, whether constant or periodical, ought to apply for a remedy in due time; for, if it continues long, it will destroy the sensibility of the nerves, (the common effect of pain,) and terminate in a privation of some one, or more, of the senses; as, sight, smelling, hearing, or taste: even a palsy, or apoplexy, has too often been the consequence of neglect in these cases.

SICK HEAD ACH.

Though this complaint has not been take notice of by writers, yet I have very frequently met with it in practice. The studious, sedentary, and inactive people, and those trou­bled with stomach complaints and of a relaxed habit, are most exposed to this disorder.

This complaint, for the most part, proceeds from inattention to diet, either in respect to quantity or quality, or both.— There are some things, which unless taken with the utmost caution, in some constitutions frequently occasion the sick head ach; such are, melted butter, fat meats, and spices, especially pepper Meat pies often contain all these things united, and are as fertile a cause of this disease as anything I know. Strong Liquors will produce similar distresses to those, who are not accustomed to them. Want of sleep, or uneasiness of mind, are very common causes of this disease A costive habit is also another cause of this malady.

For the cure of this disorder, I have prescribed the Tonic Powders with the utmost success.

PILES,

This disorder is occasioned by complaints of the stomach, [...] determination of blood to the parts, an increased heat of the [Page 39]body, or a costive habit, and also by those medicines which are composed of aloes.

The Tonic Powders will not only cure this complaint, but also remove those causes from whence it originates,

NERVOUS DISORDERS.

Whenever the patient has been troubled with faintings, depressions of spirits, alternate shiverings and flushing heats, the Tonic Powders and Drops have cured great numbers of people, after various other methods had proved ineffectual.

The following Rules should be attended to, during the cure of nervous diseases:

The causes of Indigestion must be avoided.

The quantity and quality of the food should be regarded: more must never be eaten, than will fit perfectly easy on the stomach; and that quality must be avoided, which is known to disagree. Spoon diet should be taken sparingly, because it weakens more than strengthens the body: in short, the solid food should be increased, and the fluid aliment diminished.

Animal food should bear a greater proportion than Vege­table, especially in winter; particularly in those persons who are troubled with wind or acidity in the stomach. Roast meat is preferable to boiled.

The drink must not be heating or stimulating to the sto­mach: —I have known several people prevent the return of nervous complaints by taking no other drink than water. Drams must be avoided; for; though they may raise the spirits, and give present ease to a disordered stomach, yet they will ulti­mately increase the complaint.

The sleep and rest should be at least eight hours out of the twenty-four, sometimes nine will be requisite; for those afflicted with these complaints, require a great deal of rest, and some people hurt themselves by a contrary practice.

Exercise must be regularly used, but not a very fatiguing degree. The stomach and bowels should be well rubbed, every night and morning, with the flesh brush or flannel; which will prove of great service to such persons as are afflicted with nervous complaints or wind in the stomach.

The mind should be kept serene and tranquil, and study and disputes, upon every consideration, avoided.

A comfortable warmth ought always to be preserved, but much heat should be avoided.

Moist, contaminated, or confined air, produces debility and depression of spirits, therefore it should be exchanged for a dry and pure atmosphere: hence the propriety of the country air, or that on the sea coast. Those nervous persons, therefore, who are obliged to live always in London, or in close towns, should if possible reside, for one or two months in the summer, on the sea coast, which will increase the vitality of the blood, brace the relaxed nerves, and give tone to the muscular fibres.

The sea or cold bath should be used, though with great judg­ment and discretion.

The reason why a remedy for nervous complaints has not been more frequently obtained, is because the patient becomes unsteady, owing to the length of time necessary to complete a cure, and runs from one physician to another till at last he becomes dissatisfied, and loses confidence in every medicine, though it may be calculated upon the best principle for curing the complaint.

For a fuller account of Foods, Drinks, Exercise, and Air, see the remarks on these under Indigestion; and for the use of the Sea or Cold Bath, see remarks on that head.

COLIC, WHETHER BILIOUS OR FLATULENT.

Bilious disorders are very frequent about the latter end of summer or beginning of autumn, arising from an increased secretion of bile, usual at that time of the year, inducing violent [Page 41]pain of the stomach and bowels, a sometimes vomiting and purging. The Tonic Powders gently though effectually evacuate the bile, or the morbid contents of the stomach and bowels, while the Drops restore their due tone.

A particular attention should always be paid to keeping the bowels in a regular state, in all bilious and flatulent habits, by the use of the Tonic Powders.

GOUT.

I shall give the history of this disease exactly as it has oc­curred in my practice.

It is distinguished into the Regular and Irregular Gout.

Though the Regular Gout sometimes seizes suddenly, with­out any signs of its approach, when seemingly the patient is in the most perfect health; yet the fit is often preceded by some of the following symptoms: Loss of appetite, acidity, flatulency, uneasiness and fulness of the stomach, general languor, various nervous symptoms, and a sensation as if cold water was trickling down the thighs; sometimes a keen appetite takes place the day before the fit.

The patient, at the commencement of the Regular Gout, is waked about midnight, or one or two in the morning, with a very violent pain of the foot, generally in the great toe, but sometime in the ancle, often attended with chilliness and shivering, which are succeeded by some degree of fever. The pain increases every hour, and comes to its height towards evening, which becomes so exquisite that the patient is scarce able to endure the weight of the bed clothes, nor the shaking of the room from a person's walking across it; and hence the night is not only passed in pain, but likewise with a restless removal of the part affected from one place to another and a continual change of its posture. The pain commonly remits in about twenty-four hours from the first approach of [Page 42]the fit, and then the patient falls asleep, and a gentle moisture comes over the whole body, as well as on the pained part, which then appears swelled and red,—In general the pain abates when the part swells. The patient continues easier through the day; the pain, with some degree of fever, increases towards evening, and after a restless night, they both remit in the morning with a gentle sweat. The pain after being for sometime fixt in one place, shifts to another, and in this way visits most parts of the foot, and in a few days removes to the other foot, and affects it in the same manner.—The urine is high coloured, and not in the usual quantity; but in the decline of the fit, it becomes copi­ous, with a large sediment;—during the fit there is usually an uncommon flow of spirits, and clearness of understanding — When the fit is going off, the parts affected become violently itchy, especially between the toes, the cuticle falls off and a lameness is left proportioned to the severity and length of the disease.—The duration of the sit is uncertain; but in general when the pain is most violent, it is of the shortest continuance, and the interval between the fits is longest.

Having described the regular Gout, I shall now mention those symptoms which constitute the irregular or flying-gout.— The irregular seizes the hands, wrists, elbows, knees, and other parts, as severely as the regular gout did the seet. It often affects the stomach with very violent pain, sickness, distention, and wind, the bowels with griping and fulness, the head with pain and giddiness, the lungs with difficulty of breathing, and the kidnies with pain of the back, all of which alternate with pain and swellings of the joints —It frequently produces disorders of the nervous system, consequently the mind becomes affected, which sympathises with the body, so that it is not easy to deter­mine which of the two is most affected.—In feeble or broken constitutions, or when the disease has been of long duration, the fits become less severe, but continue longer, and the disease becomes more moveable.—After a regular fit of the gout, the [Page 43]patient enjoys perfect health, which is not the case after an irregular fit.

When the gout has continued long, it often produces chalky concretions, weakness, rigidity or stiffness of the joints, and sometimes absolute lameness.

This disease is not dangerous while confined to the extremi­ties, but often proves fatal when it shifts from them, and falls upon any of the internal parts, or where from a deficiency of vigour of the constitution, it cannot be propelled to its proper seat the feet.

The causes which produce indigestion, also occasion the gout.

Authors, in general, have certainly been greatly mistaken with regard to the treatment of the Gout: some have pretended to cure it by regimen alone, declaring that patience, good nursing, and the application of flannel to the parts, were all that possibly could be done during the fit: and that diet, air, and exercise, were only to be depended upon to prevent a return. This doctrine has much influenced our present trifling mode of practice, and has occasioned the ruin of many constitutions; for, consonant to this opinion, they have laid down rules respecting diet, quite opposite to those the patient had been accustomed to; and those persons, who have adhered thereto, have suffered more by intervening diseases, than they would have done, had they persisted in their usual mode of high living; for sudden changes, in that respect, in the intervals, are always attended with some degree of hazard, and when the constitution is debilitated, with the utmost danger. Whenever a change therefore, in point of regimen is necessary, it should be made gradually.

Those authors again who have relied on medicines alone for a cure, have been nder as great an error as those who have wholly depended on regimen: although Medicines may remove the present symptoms, yet, while the cause of the disease is acting, the effect must again recur, and, in all probability with [Page 44]redintegrated strength, when the patient returns to his former habits.

In order to cure the Gout, on a true principle the following rules must be strictly adhered to:

• 1st The action of the stomach and bowels should be affisted, and the indigestible matter, from time to time, gently evacuated downwards, which these organs are not able to do of themselves, owing to the contractile power thereof being so much dimi­nished.
• 2d. The tone of the digestive organs should be increased.
• 3d. The general and nervous system should be strengthened.

These are to be accomplished by medicines, joined to the following rules respecting regimen:

• 1st. Proper diet, both in quantity and quality, should be adopted. Vegetables should be taken sparingly, in proportion to animal food, by those persons who are troubled with wind and acidity in the stomach.
• 2d. Exercise, according to the strength of the patient, should be regularly performed. Universal experience of this disease being unknown to labouring people, is sufficient to prove that exercise is a good assistant in the prevention and cure of the gout.
• 3d. Wholesome air, and natural rest, should be duly attended to.
• 4th. Cold or sea bathing, should be judiciously employed.
• 5th. The causes of this disease, mentioned under indigestion, ought to be avoided.

The Tonic Powders and Drops, are a safe and efficacious remedy for the gout; and I can affirm, that, in my practice, which has been upwards of sixteen years, during which time I have attended great numbers of gouty patients, they have always produced the following effects:

1st. They lengthen the interval between the fits—2dly, They shorten the duration of the fit, when present—3dly, They abate [Page 45]the violence of the pain—4thly, They take off the inflamma­tory diathesis of the system, consequently they tend to remove the topical inflammation. 5th, During the fit they prevent the usual debility taking place, and strengthen the constitution in the intervals.—6th. When the gout seizes the stomach, that organ becomes so cold and torpid, that neither wine nor spirits seem stronger than water, in this case the Tonie Drops have most admirable effects.

Though I do not pretend, with these medicines to perform impossibilities, yet my experience of their effects induces me to believe, that by the use of the Tonic Powders and Drops, the Gout may be erased from the list of those diseases, which have hitherto obtained the appellation of opprobria medicina, or incurable.

Where the pain and inflammation of the feet are violent, I have experienced the good effects of the application of leeches, either on the inflamed part, or as near to it as possible; the latter generally answers better than when applied immediately on the part itself. Dr. Dover strongly recommends a thin beef steak to be applied to the affected part, as a topical remedy for the gout; and Dr. Williams, who has written a very ingenious treatise, has ordered it, with very extraordinary good effects, where the inflammation has not been too great, or the parts too much debilitated; it opens the pores, and discharges the gouty matter so plentifully by perspiration, that if it is not changed, at least every two hours, it grows putrid and becomes offensive: in fact, it appears to have all the good effects of a warm cata­plasm, without irritating the affected parts.

The affected parts should not be kept too warm: at the same time, a comfortable warmth should by all means be preserved.

The treatment respecting food and drink, during the fit, must be suited to the patient's age, constitution, and the violence of the disorder; the accustomed mode of living should likewise be attended to; for example, if the patient is young, the constitu­tion strong, the general and local inflammation high, solid ani­mal [Page 46]food, fermented and other strong liquors, must be avoided: and a cooling farinacious diet and diluting drinks made use of. This will co-operate with the medicine, in lessening the violence, and shortening the duration of the sit.

But, on the contrary, if the patient be advanced in years, or the constitution much debiliated; or if there be the least apprehen­si [...]n of the internal parts being affected by the disease, a more generous diet must be adopted, with the liberal use of Madeira wine, sherry, &c. Being very abstemious, in this case, would be highly dangerous to the patient.

The present mode of treating the gout indiscriminately, with wine, hot cordials, and rich food, must be reprobated by every judicious practitioner, as it tends to increase the inflammation already in the blood, to heighten the fever, and to render the fit more severe as well as of longer duration, and at the same time strengthens the popular opinion of the gout being incurable.

As soon as the fit is over, means should be used to brace and strengthen the relaxed fibres, to give force to the weakened muscles, and to put the constitution into a state, capable of resisting the disorder for the future. For this purpose, the Tonic Powders and Drops I have found preferable to every other medicine, especially when united to a proper regimen.

Exercise should also be employed in the intervals of the Gout, together with these medicines, which, in conjunction with temperance, have been frequently known radically to cure the disease, even in cases where a strong hereditary disposition had previously existed.

During the intervals of the fit, the diet, air, and exercise should be the same as recommended under Indigestion.

For the use of the sea and cold bathing, the reader is referred to the general remarks on that subject.

DROPSY.

Before I enter upon the cure of the Dropsy, it will be neces­sary to premise a few remarks, in order to shew the manner in [Page 47]which this disease is produced, and to point out the true princi­ple upon which the Tonic Powders and Drops act, in effecting the cure

This disease is primarily occasioned by indigestion and debility; but ultimately it is produced—either, by the exhalent vessels pouring a superfluous quantity of watery fluid into the cavities of the body:—or, by the absorbents being rendered unable to take up the proper quantity of fluid, which should be re conveyed into the circulation:—and sometimes, the Dropsy is the effect of both of these causes.

I should have observed before, in order to render this matter more perspicuous, that the peculiar use of the exhalents is to pour a fluid into every cavity of the system, designed by the great Author of nature, to lubricate the parts, in order to facilitate motion.—It is a well-known fact in philosophy, that the action and re-action of all solid bodies, are much facilitated by an inter­vening fluid, without which, attrition would soon destroy that power of cohesion and attraction by which all bodies are held together, and consequently motion would be totally impeded.

The office of the absorbents is to take up that portion of the fluid which remains after answering the purpose above mentioned, and to convey it into the general mass, in order to give room for a fresh supply.—Where these two sets of vessels, viz. the exhalents and absorbents, do not act in equilibrium, a dropsy, partial or general, must ensue.

The Tonic Powders, as I have before observed, empower the animal machine to regulate every secretion, and in this disease, they increase the action of the absorbents, by which means that superabundant fluid is taken up, which had been left by the ex­halents in the cavities of the body. At the same time, assisted by the Tonic Drops, they strengthen the digestive organs, and corroborate the general habit Upon these principles, they not only cure the disease, but prevent its return.

With regard to exercise and air, during the use of these medi­cines, what has been said under Indigestion, applies also to this case.

I have known the Tonic Powders and Drops to succeed in the cure of Jaundice, in many instances, after other remedies had been tried to no purpose.

The Tonic Powders will not only be found efficacious in confirmed Jaundice, but also in those slighter cases, where the skin assumes a temporary yellow cast, frequently arising from too great a quantity of bile, perturbation of mind, want of natural rest, or the too liberal use of spirits.

WORMS, Or Big Bellies in Children.

The cause of the above is indigestion, or weakness of the stomach and bowels, arising from too great indulgence in im­proper food, want of due exercise, unwholesome or confined air;—these causes are sometimes all united, but the first errors in diet, are by far the most frequent.

Whenever children are affected with diminished strength and spirits, with reluctance to exercise, the appetite decreased at one time, voracious at another, swelled belly, starting in the sleep, fever, difficulty of breathing, convulsions, thirst, costiveness, strong disagreeable breath, &c. the Tonic Powders I have found to answer every wished for purpose; as they evacuate whatever indigestible matter may be lodged in the stomach and bowels, whether worms, slime, or phlegm; they relieve the difficulty of breathing, take off the fever, aad remove costiveness; they restore the appetite, strengthen the constitution, and also are very successful in reducing the big bellies, which are so frequently observed in children. In these eases, after every thing else had been tried in vain, and the child's life absolutely despaired of, I have known this medicine, with proper diet, wholesome air, and due exercise, perform a cure.

The stomach of children should be preserved from strong diet; by the neglect of this precaution, they are found to labour under indigestion, worms, rickets, and universal debility.

Every year, for a long time past, nearly a thousand children have been brought to me for advice in different complaints; but three-fourths of that number are afflicted in the manner above described: these I have generally been successful enough to cure.

As grown up persons are frequently troubled with worms, as well as children, I shall mention those symptoms by which their presence may be known.

When worms are in the stomach, they produce an inexpressi­ble pain, anxiety, inquietude, nausea, and a flux of spittle, a foetid breath, grinding of the teeth, the countenance is now pale, then red; there is an itching of the nostrils, with an incli­nation to vomit, and a dry and troublesome cough by fits, and sometimes fainting.

When they are contained in the intestines, they produce the following symptoms:—The belly is much distended, as though the patient was afflicted with a windy dropsy, with now and then a purging, but sometimes a costiveness is present, the upper parts waste away, insomuch that the bones are visible, and yet the appetite is great, the face is generally pale and tumid, and a cough, fever, and pleuritic pains are often produced.

The small, like book worms, called ascarides, are contained in the rectum or lower bowel, and are sometimes thrown out in great quantities; they produce inflation of the belly, lean­ness, and nausea; they are attended with great itchings of the [...]nus, and cause foetid excrements.—This kind of worm though [...]s difficult to cure as any, yet it is the least dangerous of all.

It may be necessary to observe, that there are three particular [...]ymptoms, which distinguish three different kind of worms, viz. [...]udden gripings about the navel, denote the presence of the [...]ound worm; a weight in the belly, as if a ball were rolling [...]bout in it, is a sign of the toenia or tape worm; and an itching [...]bout the anus▪ is a sign of the ascarides or small worms.

The diet during the cure of worms, should be light and easy [...] digestion,

Medicines of various kinds are prescribed for the cure of worms, such as the different preparations of mercury; sulphur, oils, tin powdered, Indian pink, male fern, &c. &c. of these I I have had little experience, always finding a remedy in the Tonic Powders.

FEMALE COMPLAINTS.

There are two critical periods in the life of females, in which the general habit undergoes a material change, namely the COMMENCEMENT and CESSATION.—The first happens between the age of fourteen and sixteen years; and the latter commonly from the age of forty-five to fifty. I shall make a few remarks respecting the management necessary to be observed at both these particular times, as on this frequently depends a good or bad state of health.

I shall begin with that period which commences at the early part of life.

Indigestion and general debility are the causes of this salutary change not happening in due time; because the juices derived from the food, being, crude and watery, are insufficient to sup­ply the body with due nourishment; hence the heart, which is the principal instrument of circulation, can hardly drive forward the blood in its vessels, or distribute that vital fluid to the dif­ferent parts of the body; therefore its due offices cannot be ac­complished: hence proceed obstructions, attended with sickness flatulency, palpitation of the heart, head-ach, and a throbbing or tremulous motion of the internal parts, especially after ex­ercise, or sudden surprise, heart-burn, and a swelling of the stomach; the patient's appetite is whimsical, and much im­paired, often directing her to things void of nourishment, and improper, such as chalk, cinders, sour raw fruits, and the like. The countenance is sometimes wan and sallow, with a remarka­ble paleness of the lips and gums, and excessive coldness of the feet, weariness, depression of spirits, reluctance to exercise wandering pains and slow fever.

In order to promote this salutary alteration, the whole con­stitution must be strengthened, which will aid the powerful efforts of nature, a circumstance of the utmost censequence to the patient's future welfare, though too generally disregarded. Which can only be done by such medicines as are calculated to give strength to the digestive organs, and tone to the general system, united to proper diet, moderate exercise, and natural rest, which will inevitably empower the animal oeconomy to effect this grand office; by the same means the secretions will be promoted, and those disorders, which before had resisted the most powerful medicines, nature will be enabled to remedy herself: but, unless the debility be removed, it will be impossi­ble to remedy these complaints.

Whenever therefore this salutary alteration does not take place in due time, or an accidental obstruction has been pro­duced, I have prescribed the Tonic Powders and Drops, with the happiest effect, even after the usual course of medicines had been administered without any benefit.

Parents and guardians, or those intrusted with the important office of superintending the health and education of young ladies, should direct their conduct with the utmost care and attention, at this critical juncture, for on the seasonable commencement, and regular returns of nature, depends their future health.—

The engagement of the mind, the degree of exercise, the quantity and quality of the food, together with the nature of the air they breathe, should be regarded with the most prudent caution.

The quantity and quality of food should be suited to the di­gestive power of the stomach.—She should eat often, and in small quantities, of what is light and simple, and thoroughly masticate, or chew it, which is a circumstance of much more consequence to those who have weak stomachs than is generally imagined. The drink should be light and rather nourishing but not heating; no heat should be thrown into the habit but [Page 52]what is obtained from exercise: this promotes the natural action of the heart and lungs, whereby a quantity of air will be taken into the blood, which will produce all the beneficial effects of a gentle stimulus, without preternaturally heating the system; she should abstain from the immoderate use of watery fluids, coffee is more wholesome than tea, drunk with the ad­dition of milk.

Moderate exercise, in the open air should be used; this will at first, fatigue the weak patient, and put her out of breath; but when steadily persisted in, she will daily gain strength and spirits; so that what was before a punishment, will afterwards become a pleasing amusement; she should walk, or ride in the air, an hour or two, every day before dinner, when the weather will admit.

The cold bath, where there is no decay of the lungs, or other internal parts, will greatly assist the cure by bracing the solids: but this, being a remedy of a powerful kind, ought never to be used without proper advice, as many instances have occurred where such as laboured under consumptive symptoms, with weak ulcerated lungs, &c. have been destroyed by its un­seasonable use.

Though forcing and heating medicines are prescribed indis­criminately to every female at this time; and believed by mothers to be specifics and infallible; yet they are dangerous and unnatural, and have ruined the health of thousands; for they act either by stimulating the lower bowel, or heating the body, (in some, such as the aloes, both these effects are united,) which, instead of diminishing, tends to increase the cause from whence the complaint originated: nature, on the contrary, ac­complishes her designs by slow degrees, and consequently with­out violence to the constitution.

For a fuller account of food, air, and exercise, see the remarks under Indigestion: also for the use of the Cold Bath, see the observations on that head.

I shall now treat of those complaints which happen between the commencement and cessation of these two periods in which the Tonic Medicines will be of infinite service. I have at­tended a great number of ladies, who, owing to their ill state of health, were either never pregnant at all, or else could never arrive at the full time. By strengthening the whole constitu­tion with the Tonic Medicines, joined to a proper diet and ex­ercise, with a discreet use of the cold bath, I have had the satis­faction of recovering the health of my patients, and afterwards of delivering them of very fine, healthy children,

The following case often occurs in practice, which is very difficult to remedy, if not attended to in proper time:— A woman, apparently of a healthy constitution, is seized with a total suppression, obstruction, or discontinuance. For many months, some women feel very little inconvenience under this circumstance: while others soon grow big, with ten­sion and pain in the belly, and some enlargement of the breasts, sickness in the mornings, dislike to particular foods, and other symptoms similar to pregnancy,—and married women believe themselves in this situation, and imagine that they actually perceive the child, and are sometimes not undeceived till the time of gestation is much exceeded.—The Tonic Powders and proper attention to diet will effectually remove these com­plaints.

Another case has often occurred to me in practice: namely— A violent spasmodic pain, apparently in the stomach and bowels, takes places, in both married and single women, previous to every time of their being unwell, and sometimes during the whole time of their being so: Nothing is more excruciating to the patient; it greatly impairs the health, and predisposes the body to dangerous diseases.—This is a most serious evil, and should be particularly attended to. By the following method, I have been happy enough to prevent a return:—The moment the pain is coming on, I always give [Page 54]fifteen or twenty drops of Tincture of Opium, and (if needful) repeat it every four hours: it is scarcely ever necessary to give more than two doses, before it answers every wished-for purpose. The patient should keep in, or upon the bed, at least in a recumbent posture, and drink moderately of any diluting warm liquor, such as black tea, weak whey, thin broth, &c. I have, in this case also, prescribed the Tonic Powders, with the most happy effect.

I shall now treat of the management necessary to be observ­ed at the CESSATION, or that particular period when Nature Is about to make that change in the constitution, which gene­rally happens about the age of forty-five, or from thence to fifty. Some women, at this time, feel no material alteration in their health; others, after a total cessation, have experi­enced much greater vigour of constitution than they had known for many years before; but there are others who suffer so much inconvenience from this source, as to render some assistance necessary.

About the time when this particular change in the habit takes place, many women experience complaints which prove extremely troublesome, and, if neglected, very dangerous:— such as, flushing heats, restlessness, want of sleep, troublesome or frightful dreams, spasmodic pains of the stomach and bowels, and sometimes swelled ancles, with pain and inflam­mation. After this alteration has taken place, sometimes women suddenly grow bigger and grow unwieldy; their legs swell, their body is costive, the urine in small quantities and often discharged with every appearance of the Dropsy.—The Tonic Powders and Drops, in the two last cases, with regular exercise, I have never known to fail in effecting a cure. Strong purgatives which are generally prescribed, prove extremely injurious.

A proper regimen at this period should be attentively observ­ed.—Those females. who are of a full habit of body, subject to feverish heats, and of a strong constitution, should adhere to a moderately cooling and light diet; every thing that is heat­ing should be religiously avoided, especially spirits, and even wine ought to be taken in great moderation; the patient should lessen the usual quantity of animal food, and abstain from meat suppers, the liberal use of vegetables, with a proper degree of exercise, and pure cool air should be attended to; large assem­blies, or hot close rooms, should be avoided. As the mind has great influence over bod [...]ly health, it is essentially neces­sary to keep that as tranquil as possible.

But where the patient is weakly, and not troubled with feverish heats, and is of a thin habit of body, a more gene­rous diet should be allowed; a glass or two of wine after dinner and supper may be needful; at the same time, whatever will induce an unnatural heat, especially spirituous liquors, must be avoided, Proper exercise and wholesome air should be at­tended to. The sea or cold bathing may be used with great advantage, where the lungs or other internal parts are sound,

Those medicines, on which females place great reliance, usually taken at this period, being very injurious, I shall enu­merate some of their baneful effects:

These are not only extremely pernicious to the constitution, but produce most dreadful disorders of the womb.—The Scotch Pills, Hoopers Female Pills, Analeptic, and, in short, the whole tribe of pills, in general use for this purpose; are all detrimental to the animal oeconomy. Aloes, of which these pills are composed, though a good medicine in itself, has been fatally abused, and has done more mischief than any other [Page 56]drug whatever. Its operation is diametrically opposite to the real intention of nature; for it determines the blood to the womb, and strongly stimulates it and the contiguous parts, which consequently promotes the periodical discharge at a time when naturally it is about to cease. Whatever tends to en­courage the flow, when it is the law of nature to decline that particular office, must certainly be injurious. Inflammation, ulceration, and cancer of the womb, with floodings, more frequently arise from the effects of these pills, than have been hitherto known or imagined.

During suckling, many persons are in the habit of taking Scotch and Hoopers Pills, with a view to keep the body open, — but this practice tends to interrupt the natural process, by lessening the quantity of milk and injuring its quality. In these cases, Lenitive Electuary, Senna tea, with Cream of Tartar, and Castor Oil, are preserable to either the Scotch or Hooper's Pills; but the TONIC POWDERS are, for this purpose, far superior to any other medicine.

My worthy friend, the late Dr. FOTHERGILL, (whose abilities, honor, and veracity, no one with justice ever dis­puted,) has made many judicious remarks respecting the in­jurious effects of those medicines, which are composed of aloes, and prescribed for women at this particular time. He says—

"An opinion generally prevails among the sex, that purga­tives are particularly necessary at this juncture; preparations of aloes are, therefore, recommended, from one to another, as proper purgatives to be used at this particular period.

"But, if we reflect upon the known effects of this drug, in all its preparations, we shall find it almost uniformly pro­ducing [Page 57]the piles, if taken long together, from its stimulating the vessels at the extremity of the Rectum, called the He­morrhoidal Veins, and the contiguous parts.

"Instead, therefore, of countenancing a treatment, which is not only unreasonable in theory, but injurious in practice—every opportunity ought to be embraced to expose and correct a popular error, than which there perhaps are few in the circle of medicine that are more mischievous. Repeated in­stances have occurred in my practice, of grievous inconveni­ences arising from these heating medicines; the piles, stran­gury, racking pains in the loins, representing labour pains, and other similar complaints."

☞ In order to accommodate the Public at Large with these Medicines, Dr. SQUIRRELL has been induced to prepare them in proper proportions, with ample Directions for taking them, well-suited to the Convenience of every class of the community, viz.