Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1837-09-07


one disease, since the history of the son
of the Shunamile 10 the present time,
collected inio one monument, they wonld
form n mountain that would astnnIsh
heaven, nnd triiily the earth! What
heart has not bird over n behaved friend :
over children denrer than their own soul!
over the wife or husband oI their youth! !!
Aud how many have seen all their earth
" comforts wi,hcr under tho sweeping
.iroc Of this rcrvaGing and desolaling
Storm Yes! from the first thrill of the
agitated nerve, The singing pain, the hot
aud hcaving breast, to "the pesillence
that walketh in darkness, and the drs-
truciion that wasteth openly at noon
dav," the human race, smit,en in all IFS
members, consumed in every limb, has
sunk to the house Of silence, in multi
iudes innuncrablc, uEder the single pres
sure Of this destructive power. Look at
the East and West, the silent cities, the
umrodden streets, the dismal, dark array
of travellers on the path Of dealh-and
ask, who hath done all this: what enemy
hath been here? Echo, from her thou
sand caves, would ring out her response,
terer! terer! jfper! This is the disease
which, to break, to battle, to conquer, or
subdue, the learned Colleges of Physlc-
ians have tried all their efforts, and spent
their skill in vain. II must run its course,
is the common sentimen nj; ii one mode OF
treatment fails, we :n,st try another, and
another, till the exhausted imagination,
The worn out sources Of the materla
medica, and the dying patient, arrest the
hand of the eXperimenter, (nnd might
have said, torrnrntor, or nature triumphs
equally over medicine and disease.
The practice of medicine is, perhaps,
the only instance in which man can
profit by his blunders and Mistakes
The very medicines which nggravate
and pro,ract The malady, bind laurel
on the professors brow when, at last,
the sick is saved by the living powers OF
nature struggling against death and the
ply ysician. lie receives all the credit
of miraculous cure; he is lauded to The
skies, for delivering the sick from de-
tail of the most deadly symptoms OF mis-
cry, into which he himself had plunged
them; and out ofwhich they never would
have arisen, but by the recuberating ef-
forts of that living power, which, at once,
triumphcd over poison, and disease, and
death"
The causes which have conspired to
cover with uncertainty the treatment Of
fever, and TO arm the members Of the
faculty often against each other, are
numerous and important. A brief detail
will unfold the many causes OF error, and
the fatal consequences which often result
from the established practice.
lst. Fevers are said to he Of two
kinds; general and local Local, from
partial injuries or diseased parts; general,
from. an affection of the whole system,
or morbid action of all the vital powers
Cd. There are three stages of fever;
the cold, the hot and the sweating stages.
3d. There are three stages Of fever;
the state of debility, the state OF cold and
the state of heat.
4h. Causes Of fevers are enumerated
at thirty nine and upwards.
9th. The forms Of fever are, LIST,
plague or pestilcnce Cd, malignant or
yellow bilious fever; Sd, inhammatory
bilious, Or remlttant fever; 4th, ntermit-
tent fever.
9th. The intermittent (evers, or agues,
are divided into, lst, the quotidian, orr
daily fevcr-having an in,ermission of
twenty-iour hours; Cd, the tertian, or
third day fever-having an intermission
of forty-eight hours ; Sd, the qunrtan, or
fourth day !evcr-having an intermis-
SION of seventy two hours
Now, when to all these we add the
following sources Of mistake and uncer-
tainty, it is not wonderful that more pa
ticnts are killed than cured by the estab.
lished modes of practice and that the
incomprehensible theories, and pernic.
ious onsequences, have been felt, con-
Iessed, and amented, by every candid
mind, from Ilippocrates to Stahl. These
we shall now enumerate.
Ist. The symptoms Of fever are mis-
taken; and one disease, or stage, or state,
or class, is .reated for another; and the
phy sicians declare, the symptoms, are so
often blended, complex, and Protei-form-
ed and fashioned, that it is impossible to
comprehend them This is one source
of uncertainty in practice.
ID. Nosology, or the mournful and
dreary hist Of the names of thirteen hun
drcd and eightyscven diseases, besides
the new diseases, so difficult to be un-
derstood, to be remembered, or distin-
guished, is another source Of certainty
in practice.