Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

137

Diaphoretics

every half hour in hot Toddy, Madaira Wine &, the sudden sinking should be opposed by Dessicatories, but we possess verry few capable of acting, the preparation invented by Doct Hartshorn is the only one now in use, that is a decoction of cantharides in Spirit of Turpentine. This formidable disease first made its appearance about 6 years ago in the most distant parts of the Eastern States and spread its ranges South. In this place it prevail’d with great mortality and caused of the greatest ornament to our school. Besides this new form of Typhus there is another produced by long exposure to cold which exerts its sedative operation so far as to extinguish almost every vital faculty. These symptoms are torpor, cold skin, insensibility, loss of muscular power &c. The warm bath, dry heat,