The store-house of physical practice being a general treatise of the causes and signs of all diseases afflicting human bodies : together with the shortest, plainest and safest way of curing them, by method, medicine and diet : to which is added, for the benefit of young practicers, several choice forms of medicines used by the London physicians / by John Pechey ...

CHAP. CXIX. Of the Measles.

THIS Disease chiefly invades Infants, and all those that are together in the same House. It begins with shaking and shivering, and with an inequality of heat and cold, which mutually expel one another the first day; the second day it ends in a perfect Fever with violent sickness, drowth and want of Appetite, the Tongue is white but not dry, there is a tickling Cough with a heaviness of the Head and Eyes accompanied with a perpetual drowsiness, and for the most part a Humour distils from the Eyes and Nose, and this effu∣sion of Tears is a certain sign of the approaching Mea∣sles. To which this is to be added, no less certain, that tho' this Disease shews it self most commonly in the Face after the manner of little swellings in the skin, yet in the Breast rather red spots than swellings are perceived, arising no higher than the superficies of the skin; the Patient sneezes as if he had taken cold, and the Eye∣lids swell a little before the Eruption; he vomits, but is oftner troubled with a Loosness with greenish Stools: But this chiefly happens to Children that are breeding their Teeth, and they are frowarder in this Disease than they are wont to be for the most part; the symptoms increase till the fourth day, at which time generally, (though sometimes they are deferred) little red spots like Fleabites begin to come out about the Forehead and other parts of the Face, and being increased in num∣ber and magnitude branch into one another, and so

paint the Face with large red spots of various Figures, which are occasioned by little red Wheals, not far distant one from another, that are elevated a little above the superficies of the skin, and their Protuberances may be perceived by a gentle touch, though they can scarce be seen. These spots spread themselves by degrees from the Face, which at first they only possess'd to the Breast, Belly, Thighs and Legs: But they affect the Trunk and Members with redness only, without any sensible inequality of the Skin. The symptoms of the Measles do not abate by the Eruption, as in the small Pox, yet I never observed the Vomiting afterwards; but the Cough and Fever increase, with the difficulty of Breathing, weakness of the Eyes, and the defluxion on them, with perpetual drowziness and want of Appetite, continuing the same as before. On the 6th day, or thereabouts, the Skin breaking, and the Pustles drying off, the Fore∣head and Face grow rough, and at that time the spots in other parts of the Body are very large and very read. About the 8th day, the spots in the Face vanish, and are scarce perceived in the rest of the Body: But on the 9th day they totally disappear, and as we said the Mea∣sles most commonly vanish on the 8th day, at which time the Vulgar, being deceived by reckoning upon the time the small Pox use to last, affirm, They are struck in, tho' really they have finished their course, and they think that these symptoms which come upon their go∣ing off are occasioned by their being struck in so soon: For it is to be noted, That the Fever and difficulty of Breathing are increased at that time, and the Cough is more vexatious, so that the Patient can neither sleep night nor day. Children are chiefly subject to these ill symptoms, which appear now at the going off of the Measles by reason of too hot a Regimen or hot Medi∣cines that were used to force them out; and by this means they are cast into a Peripneumonia, which de∣stroys more than the small Pox or any symptom belong∣ing to it; and yet the Measles are not at all dangerous if they are skilfully managed. And among the rest of the ill symptoms, a Loosness often happens, which either presently succeeds the Disease, or continues many Weeks after it and all its symptoms are gone off, not without

great danger to the Patient by reason of a continual loss of Spirits; and sometimes after a very hot Regimen, the Measles are first livid and afterwards black; but this only happens to grown People, and they are utterly lost when the blackness first appears, unless they are presently relieved by bleeding and a more temperate Regimen.

As the Measles are much of the same nature with the small Pox, so is the method of Cure much the same. Hot Medicines and a hot Regimen are very dangerous, how frequently soever they are used by ignorant Nur∣ses to drive the Disease from the Heart. This method, above others, has been most successful in my practice, viz. That the Patient be kept in his Bed only two or three days after the Eruption, that the blood may gen∣tly breath out, according to its own genius, through the Pores of the Skin, the inflamed Particles, which offend it; and that he have no more Cloaths nor Fire than he is wont to have when he is well: I forbid all Flesh, and allow him Oatmeal and Barly-broaths, and the like, and sometimes a rosted Apple; his Drink must be either small Beer, or Milk boil'd with treble the quan∣tity of Water. I oftentimes mitigated the Cough, which almost continually accompanies this Disease, with a draught of some pectoral Decoction, or with a Lin∣ctus fitted for the purpose; but above all the rest, I took care to give Diacodium every night through the whole course of this Disease. For Example,

Take of the pectoral Decoction, one pint and an half, of syrup of Violets and Maiden-hair, each one ounce and an half; mingle them and make an Apozem, take three or four ounces three or four times a day.

Take of Oil of sweet Almonds, two ounces, of syrup of Violets and Maiden-hair, each one ounce, of white Sugercandy, a sufficient quantity; mingle them and make a Linctus, of which let the Sick lick often, es∣pecially when his Cough troubles him.

Take of black Cherry-water, three ounces, of Diacodium, one ounce; mingle them for a draught to be taken

every night. But if the Patient be an Infant, the dose of the Pectorals and of the Narcotick is to be lessened with respect to the Age.

But if by means of too hot Cordials and too hot a Regimen, the Patient be in danger of his Life after the Measles go off, which is very frequent by the violence of the Fever and the difficulty of breathing, and other Accidents that use to afflict those that have a Peripneu∣monia, I have bled the smallest Infants in the Arm, and have taken away that quantity of Blood which their Age and Strength indicated, with very great success; and sometimes when the Disease has been obstinate, I have repeated bleeding: The Loosness also which fol∣lows the Measles, is also cur'd by bleeding.

What we have now said of the Cure of those sym∣ptoms that come upon the going off of the Measles, may be sometimes also of use when they are at their height, if they are occasioned by a false and artificial heat.

I was called to visit a Maid-servant that had this Di∣sease, together with a Fever, difficulty of Breathing, and purple spots all over her Body, with very many other dangerous symptoms; all which I attributed to the hot Regimen and hot Medicines, which were too much used. I ordered her to be bled in the Arm, and I prescribed a cooling pectoral Ptisan to be taken often; by the help of which, and a temperate Regimen, the purple Spots, and all the other symptoms vanished by degrees.