The true method of curing consumptions wherein 1. The vulgar method is discovered to be useless and pernicious, 2. A new method, by safe, pleasant, and effectual remedies is describ'd, 3. The original and immediate cause of this distemper explain'd, and 4. Several remarkable observations on persons lately cured by the same method, related, particularly the case of Mr. Obrian, whom the author undertook by his Majesties command : with an account of a cure performed on a person of quality at Paris, and several others / by Samuel Haworth.

Observation the Tenth.

A Tradesman at Lewis in Sussex having Married a Consumptive Wife;* 1.1 after he

had lived some few years with her, fell into the same Distem∣per; she having consulted all the Physicians in those parts without any success, at last yield∣ed to the dire Symptomes of that Malady, and departed this Life; her surviving Hus∣band, not withstanding his be∣ing now freed from the Conver∣sation of her, whose Contagi∣gious Body gave him the Infecti∣on, still declined: he advised with an Emi∣nent and Learn∣ed Physician in that Town,* 1.2 and likewise with an illiterate Preten∣der there;* 1.3 but found no Appa∣rent Relief from the Prescripti∣ons of either; at last they both gave him over, and he himself expected nothing but his last E∣nemy to seize him; his Circum∣stances were such, that his

Strength failed him, his Sleep had left him, his Cough per∣plex'd him, faint Sweats fre∣quently attended him, his Voice was very hoarse, and his Breast sore and straitned; his Breath exceeding short, his Flesh quite wasted, his Countenance an exact Facies Hippocratica, so that indeed he was hardly a Breathing Ghost, and far enough from a walking Spectrum, be∣ing scarce able to stand: He being in this Condition about two year ago sent for me to see him, an Empiric in the Town, that had been tampering with him, hearing of it, declared, That if I ever set him upon his Legs (to use his Expression) he would forfeit his whole Study of Books, which he said cost him Ten Pounds; but how the Medicaster was out in his Prog∣nostic's, the sequel of this Ob∣servation

will manifest; for the first Dose that I ordered him, put a stop to all those dreadful Symptomes that before seemed to be the immediate Messengers of Death and the Scene was now wholly inverted, for the next Morning I found him chearful and pleasant, who before was pining and dejected. His Relations were now fill'd with hopes and presumption of his life; who before had di∣spairingly resign'd him▪ I pro∣ceeded in prescribing the same Dose for him the next Night, and accordingly the ensuing Morning I found him still more revived and strengthned; I now ordered him a Suffi••us com∣pounded of several Engredients in a gross Powder, a little of which I ordered to be strewed upon a Chafing Dish of live Coals, and with a Funnel I or∣dered

him to receive the Bal∣samic Fume or Smoak that ascended, into his Lungs with his Breath, covering the Coals with the great end of the Fun∣nel, and holding the little end in his Mouth, and so by Inspi∣ration draw in, and receive those wholsome healing Parti∣cles: I ordered him the use of this twice a day, from which he soon found sensible benefit; I likewise ordered him a sort of small Ale to be brewed with se∣veral Ingredients, and a Pecto∣ral Balsamic Mixture: By the frequent use of which Remedies, I had so far patch'd him in one Month, that I might have law∣fully challenged the Ten Pound Library; I should then have been furnished with Culpeppers English Dispensatory, his Mid∣wife, his Legacy, his Transla∣tion of Riverius, and perhaps

his Translation of Veslmgius's Anatomy; I should likewise have had Salmon's English Dispensatory, his Synopsis, and his Doron Medicum, and almost a hundred more English Receipt Books, out of which I might have pick'd Recipe's enough to cure all the Horses in England▪

For now the Patient had gain'd such a measure of Strength, that he was able to walk about the Town, and ride three or four Miles at at time; his Cough was much mitigated, his Breath lengthned, and his Breast eased; his Muscles plumped and enlarged, his Rest and Sleep composed, his Appe∣tite sharpned: Himself and Re∣lations not a little transposed with joy and hopes. I still or∣dered him Medicines of the same Nature, in which method he

persisted a Week or two longer, and then found himself so invi∣gorated, that he thought it needless to take any thing more, and therefore desired me to de∣sist; hereupon because he might not suspect that my Design in continuing him in that course and method, was to squeez his Pocket, as many Patients are apt to mistrust their Physici∣ans of such a design, I accord∣ingly desisted; and tho I knew there was an absolute necessity of his persisting in this course and method, his Lungs being putrified and exulcerated, re∣quired constant and continual patching; yet such was my temper, that I hated to expose my self to the censure of such base pecuniary Intentions: But in five Weeks after this, that which I fore-saw and expected, hapned; for by his riding upon

those Downs, and walking out in the cool Evenings, such Bo∣dies being very obnoxious to the injury of Cold; he relap∣sed, and all the former Sym∣ptomes returned: I was now again sent for, and intreated to use my skill and endeavour to restore him; to which pur∣pose I repeated the former Re∣medies with some small altera∣tions, which again so far reco∣vered him, as to enable him to walk abroad or ride as before: But still the Purse being disgust∣ed, grumbled at parting with Fees, and paying the Apothe∣caries Bills, so that the Patient being possest that he should do very well without the constant use of those Restoratives which before kept him alive, dismist me a second time, and instead of living according to prescript∣ion, nothing would please his

Pallat but Salt Beef, Pork, Red Herrings, Neats Tongues, Bacon, Cabbage, and the most unwholsome Food he could in∣vent, he always phansied; par∣ticularly one Night he Invited some of his Relations to Supper with him, when sitting up very late, he cramm'd his Stomach with a large quantity of Salt Roast Beef, where with his Blood was immediately surfeited, and the next Morning a high Feaver enflamed his whole Body, and now all the cited Symptomes return with impetuous violence. I was now a third time sent for, but too late; for when I came I found him panting upon the Bed, unable to stir or speak: I ordered him a high Restorative Cordial, but all in vain, so that in a few hours, his Breath be∣ing so extream short, and his Spirits and Strength quite ex∣hausted,

he died; his Relati∣ons were all satisfied that his days were shortned by his own neglect.

From the time of my com∣ing to him to the time of his Death, it was a whole year; all which time he was kept alive meerly by Art, and he might probably have been alive to this day, had not his careless∣ness (I would not willingly mention Covetousness) been his ruin. If any mistrusts the truth of what is here mentioned, his surviving Brother and other Relations novv in the same Tovvn were Eye-witnesses of e∣very thing here related, and cannot but attest it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mr. John Warts Linnen Draper.
• * 1.2

  Dr. Benjamin White.
• * 1.3

  Mr. H. P.