A continuation of the account of the nature causes, symptoms and cure of the distempers that are incident to seafaring people illustrated with some remarkable instances of the sicknesses of the fleet during the last summer, historically related : to which is prefix'd an essay concerning the quantity of blood that is to be evacuated in fevers : being the third part of the work / by William Cockburn ...

Observation XXXV.

Mr. Smith, second Lieutenant of the Victory, was troubled with a Cough, and difficulty of breathing, he had a pain in his Breast, he was Costive and had no Appetite.

I order'd him immediately to be let fourteen Ounces of Blood, and next day to take this purge.

℞ pil. Rud. ʒss calomelan. gr. viij. Tartar. vitriclat. gr. v. elix. proprietat. q. s. ut f. p••l. N^o. v. quas Capiat. multo manc cum regimine & superdormiendo. Repetatur ad alteram vicem interjecto die u••ico.

When this was done, he was a a little better, yet the pain in his Breast continuing, I order'd him a∣gain to be let Blood, and taking once more a dose of the Physick, to be∣gin the use of this Electuary, and to live very a••stemiously, drinking no strong drink, and eating only Water-gruel.

℞ pulp. passul. major. conserv. rosar. rub. ℥ij. theriac. Andromach. ʒiij. syr. alth. fernel. parum, ut f. electuar. de quo Capiat magnitud. nuc. moschat. bis vel ter in die.

Before he had consum'd this Ele∣ctuary, he was perfectly well. I know that I shall be blam'd among

great Persons that neglect all small things, for observing this trivial thing of a Cough, and for Curing it this way: But I am not asham'd to own my inclinations to observe the meanest things that may happen; tho', at the same time, I think a Cough one of the greatest Distem∣pers that may be, either as 'tis the beginner of the greatest Diseases, or as it has been the least accounted for, and the Indications of Cure most in∣judiciously establish'd. For a Cough naturally introduces Fevers, Apoplex∣ies, Consumptions, Convulsive Diseases, &c. and the sooner by the ordinary way of Cure, which is generally en∣deavour'd by thickning Lozenges, or diaphoretical Med'cins; or, which is ridiculous, by such things that absorb Acids, those pernicious Causes of this Disease, as they are pleas'd to think. The first method in any Cough, that does not go off of it self, makes the Patient Asthmatical, Lethargical, or throws him into some Convulsive Disease; the second, which is done to open the Pores, which most pro∣••••bly were never shut, nor can be ••••agin'd to be so, by any reason yet

alledged, is the plain beginner of Fevers and Sicknesses of that sort; and as the third is prescrib'd with∣out a design, so it never produces any good effect, but prolongs the Disease, so that if it does not go off in spite of the Med'cins, it ends in a decay. But whoever will give himself the trouble to remember the time wherein we are most apt to catch cold, may easily discern that it is the too great lightness of the Air that occasions the slower motion of the Blood, which is the immediate cause of this Distemper; for the Blood being more slowly mov'd, does especially produce that larger discharge of Lympha in the Salival Vessels, after the manner hinted in my Oecon. Animal. which Lympha be∣ing separated in a great abundance about the Mouth, Throat, or in the Aspera Arteria it self, and falling in∣to the Lungs, does very often by its own weight provoke the Lungs into that action we know by the Name of Cough; tho' this be not the proper place either to explain what it is, how it is produc'd, or what are its causes: Only it is evi∣dent

that this large discharge of Lym∣phae, and the other accidents in a Cough proceeding from the Blood's slower motion, and greater quanti∣ty; that this greater quantity is to be lessen'd, and the Blood's motion heighten'd by ways that are not re∣pugnant to one another, which may be done by the foregoing method, tho' the reason is to be deduc'd in a great measure, from what I have said about the Cure of continu'd Fevers, in the Second Part of my Book of Sea Sicknesses.