[p. 89] days, but, whether on the
one or the other, they are of a fatal character. Should you determine
to give purgative medicines in such cases, at the commencement, you
should do so before the fifth day, if there be borborygmi in the bowels,
or, if not, you should omit the medicines altogether. If there be
borborygmi, with bilious stools, purge moderately with scammony; but
with regard to the treatment otherwise, administer as few drinks and
draughts as until there be some amendment, and the disease is past
the fourteenth day. When loss of speech seizes a person, on the fourteenth
day of a fever, there is not usually a speedy resolution, nor any
removal of the disease, for this symptom indicates a protracted disease;
and when it appears on that day, it will be still more prolonged.
When, on the fourth day of a fever, the tongue articulates confusedly,
and when there are watery and bilious discharges from the bowels,
such a patient is apt to fall into a state of delirium; the physician
ought, therefore, to watch him, and attend to whatever symptoms may
turn up. In the season of summer and autumn an epistaxis, suddenly
occurring in acute diseases, indicates vehemence of the attack, and
inflammation in the course of the veins, and on the day following,
the discharge of thin urine; and if the patient be in the prime of
life, and if his body be strong from exercise, and brawny, or of a
melancholic temperament, or if from drinking has trembling hands,
it may be well to announce beforehand either delirium or convulsion;
and if these symptoms occur on even days, so much the better; but
on critical days, they are of a deadly character. If, then, a copious
discharge of blood procure an issue to the fullness thereof about
the nose, or what is collected about the anus, there will be an abscess,
or pains in the hypochondrium, or testicles, or in the limbs; and
when these are resolved, there will be a discharge of thick sputa,
and of smooth, thin urine. In fever attended with singultus, give
asafoetida, oxymel, and carrot, triturated together, in a draught;
or galbanum in honey, and cumin in a linctus, or the juice of ptisan.
Such a person cannot escape, unless critical sweats and gentle sleep
supervene, and thick and acrid urine be passed, or the disease terminate
in
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