> " ■' ■> \ ■> > -> ■* ■> > > >> > >» > } > "> ->S3 3&^8§ 3833*5 > 3> >,,i> ^ ^ \ ? ^ >"* ? > >^> J> ;> J> f> > > ; ==>>2n - — j.> ^j>'_>jm> >j> > >> j» ^*L >-' v»- Surgeon General's Office «1 \ is ( > FAlWILY J^HYSICIAN: S. S. FITCH, A.M., M.D. Lnte at 714 Broadway, N. T., now at No. 25 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. Author of the Six Lectures on the Prevention and Cure of Pul- monary Consumption, Asthma, Diseases of the Heart, and those Laws by which Life and Health are pre- served to 100 years; A Special Treatise on Diseases of the Heart; Health, its Aids and Hindrances; Guide to Invalids, &c, &c, &c. C03STTEIsrTS. 7$J M Consumption................................ 4 Bronchitis.......................... ........ 5 Catarrh...................................... 6 Asthma..................................... 13 Diseases of the Heart.................. 16 Dyspepsia..........................-...... 21 Liver Complaint......................... 22 Chronic Diarrhoea...................... 24 Pile3......................................... 25 Kidney Complaints......................26 Femalo Comp'aints.................... 26 Rheumatism..........................— 29 Neuralgia.................................. 29 Skin Diseases............................. 31 Diphtheria................................. 33 Croup....................................... 39 Scarlet Fever.............................. 40 Measles...................................... 43 , Erysipelas.................................. 44 Whooping Cough.............. ........ 45 Typhoid Fever........................... 46 Cholera...................................... 50 Dysentery.................................. 67 Diarrhoea of Childrea................. 68 Sick Headache............................ 60 How to have a perfect head of Hair 61 How to promptly cure Burns...... 62 How to promptly cure Bruises.... 64 Goitre, or Swelled Keck............... 65 St. Vitus' Danco.......................... 66 How to have good healthy Lungs 66 Laws of Life—to continue health and life 100 years..................... 68 Causes of Prematura Deaths....... 69 Cure of a Common Cold............... 69 Hair Dye................................... 75 Cologne W^r........................... 76 Tooth Powder........................... 76 Cancers—3d page of the Cover Worms do do Sores on the Legs, do S. S. FITCH, A.M., M.D., 25 TBEM0NT STEEET, BOSTON, MASS. 1866. COPYRIGHT SECURED. PRICE, 25 CENTS. JH Me. " ^^-CONSULTATION FREE.*=SJ«r Dr. S. S. Fucn makes no charge for consultation or advice, whether personally or by letter. His office is at 25 Tremont Street, Eoston, Mass. i For the benefit of those who cannot visit him, he has so arranged his practice anil prepared his remedies that he can treat them successfully and satisfactorily nt a distance, although he prefers that the patient should give him the opportunity of a personal examination, whenover it is practicable, by calling at his office. But, when ! this cannot be done conveniently, invalids may write a fill) staterueut of their case, j answering the questions below, and stating all facts necessary for a full understanding of their symptoms and condition, with whatever request they have to make, and mail it to Dr. Samuel S. Fitch,, at his office in Boston. A candid opinion in regard to the case will bo promptly returned. Remedies may be sent by express to all parts of the country, and the treatment conducted by letter. His treatment, conducted upon this plan, has been attended by the most gratifying results, and its benefits have been extended to thousands who could not leave their distant homes, and must, therefore, if they had been required to do so, have failed of relief. The remedies he employs are carefully prepared under lus own hand. His charges are moderate; and those in poor circumstances, who want his assist- ance, should not hesitate to apply to liim because they may fear that their means may not allow thorn to procure his remedies and counsel. All such persons will find him considerate and liberal. QUESTIONS TO INVALIDS. Those applying to Dr. Samuel S. Fitch for consultation or advice, will please write him a full statement of their condition and symptoms. The following questions will aid them in doing so. These they may answer, and add any facts or circum- stances not embraced in them, which are uecessary to a complete understanding of their cases: Give, name, age, residence, occupation, lankly consumptive,'or what complaints subject to? where born and brought, u^ married or single? strong or delicate? lean or fleshy? tall-or short? straight .m stoopn.g. or deformed? height and size around the waist, two inches ahovd taa ttps? coloi of hair? complexion? have you any humor, scrofula, cancer, skin lUsease. tienaache, cough, asthma, rheumatism, or pain anywhere, loss of voice, hoarseness, catarrh, dropsy, expectorate much, raise blood, fever or night-sweato, chills, confined to bed or house, palpitation, nervous fits, palsy, bad dreams, sour or sick stomach, dyspepsia, flatulence, distress at stomach, colic, all-gone feeling anywhere, costiveness, diarrhoea, appetite good or bad, piles, fistula, gravel, heat of urine or scanty sediment? If a lady—married? had any female com- plaints? irregularity? weak back? pain anywhere? any bloating? bilious? worms! indigent or easy circumstances? any bad fits of sickness? taken much medicine? In writing, if you wish an answer, always put in a postage stamp, give the nann of your post-office, county, and State in full. Do not neglect this. Address DR. SAMUEL S. FITCH, 25 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. Dr. S. S. FITCH'S appointments on and after January 1st, 1867, are as follows : N. B.—Take any Almanac for the year and note each suc- ceeding second or fourth Tuesday, or any day named in the appointment, and you can follow that day through every month of the years, and tell exactly on what days I shall be at the place NEW YORK CITY: Every Monday, at my House, 714 Broadway. GREENFIELD, MASS.: Tuesday, January 1st, 1867, at the Mansion House, and every fourth Tuesday after. BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT: Wednesday, January 2d, 1867, at the Island House, and every fourth Wednesday after. RUTLAND, VERMONT: Thursday, January 3d, 1867, at the Bardwell House, and every fourth Thursday after. BURLINGTON, VERMONT: Friday, January 4th, 1867, at the American Hotel, and every fourth Friday after. PROVIDENCE, R. I.: Tuesday, January 8th, 1867, at the City Hotel, and every second Tuesday after. BOSTON, MASS.: Wednesday and Thursday, January 9th and 10th, and every sec- ond Wednesday and Thursday after, at 25 Tremont Street. SPRINGFIELD, MASS.: Friday, January 11th, 18G7, and every second Friday after, si the Massasoit House. NEW HAVEN, CONN.: Saturday, January 12th, 1867, and every second Saturday after, at the Tontine Hotel. UTICA, NEW YORK: Tuesday, January 15th, 1867, and every fourth Tuesday after, at Baggs' Hotel. CLEVELAND, OHIO: Wednesday and Thursday, January 16th and 17th at the City Hotel, Seneca Street, and every fourth Wednesday and Thursday after. BUFFALO, NEW YORK: j'riday, January 18th, 1867, and every fourth Friday after, at the Genesee House, 406 Main Street. ALBANY, NEW YORK: Saturday, January 5th, 1867, and every second 'Saturday aftei at the Delavan House. PREFACE. The reader, in the following little work, will find the results of my experience after thirty-five years of a most successful prac- tice of medicine in Europe and this country. The remedies I give may be utterly depended upon. They will not disappoint you if used as directed. Most careful directions always go with my prescriptions. In 1861, I retired from business at 714 Broadway, New York, and now have no interest there. Professional letters sent thera I never see, as a general rule. I generally visit 714 Broadway, New York, every Monday, when I can usually be seen. Since May, 1861, I have spent a considerable time in Europe. Since my return, I have established offices temporarily in Albany, Utica, Buffalo, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio, also at 25 Tre- mont Street, Boston, Massachusetts, where I have my permanent office, and where all professional letters should be addressed. The medicines I now use are nearly all different from those used up to 1861. I have made vast improvements in the remedies I usually use, so that now I rarely fail to cure all cases I treat. What I say to the sick, on the probabilities of a cure, may be fully depended upon. Very few of the medical preparations I now use, and which I prepare myself, are for sale by any agent. The different medi- cines bearing my name, and for sale by agents, were compounded before 1861. I have no pecuniary interest in them. I will say that, when prepared according to the original formulas, and all the ingredients of perfect quality, they are excellent: still, I find it necessary to make a great many new medicines, to meet sua- 2 PREFACE. cessfully the great changes that are always taking place in the human constitution. I never prescribe for any one except on a full statement of the case, and then I put up such a prescription as I «oe the case requires. I never sell any medicine except on a prescription, and have no agents whatever. In the Matter of the Asiatic Cholera. I omitted to say in its place, that excessively hot water baths are excellent, raising the heat as high as the patient can bear, and keep it so by continually adding hot water. Keep in until the patient is better. Salt may be freely put in these baths. The patient may also drink very hot tea, as hot as he can bear it. The tea may be made very strong with spearmint, pepper mint, the leaves of cedar, pine, spruce, or of the hemlock-tree, poppy-leaves, or any of the stimulating bitter garden herbs or roots. A few drops of spirits of camphor may be put in the drinks. Let him drink as much as he pleases of these very hot drinks,—not to be cold or tepid on any account. The cholera remedies may be put in the drinks. After each turn of vomiting, take a full drink of tea, so as to wash out the stomach freely. If the patient gets much exhausted, put with his drinks as much chicken water, or soup without any bits of meat or vegetables in it, or very little rice flour or starch may bo put in it and well boiled, as you please. In the matter of injections and mustard poultices, do as directed by Mr. Hamlin. Brandy may be put freely in the hot drinks. To those who apply to me for cholera remedies, if they wish it, I can send them a bottle of pure brandy, which they can per- fectly depend upon as of very high pure quality. The price of this would be three dollarc extra, making the whole cholera prescription, neat and portable, veady for instant use, eight dollara. Mr. Hamlin in forbidding water intended to mean cold water. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. BY S. S. FITCH, M.D. As light to one in darkness; as sunshine through the storm; as fire to the freezing; as food to the starving; as wealth to the poor; so is health to the sick. He who, by medical knowledge, medical experience, or medical remedies, can cure the sick, becomes a benefactor of his race, and deserves.the rewards, the honors, and the gratitude of mankind. If such exist, it is of the last importance that the siek, and the friends of the sick, should know where to obtain relief, and on whom they may and can truthfully bestow their confidence. It is every thing to the invalid to know that he can be cured, and who or what can cure him. My father and grandfather, and myself, have practised medi cine one hundred and twenty years, unbroken. I have been con- sulted during the last twenty years by about 100,000 persons, Buffering from every variety .of human malady. I here most solemnly record my belief that there are no dis- eases incurable in themselves, but their final fatality is owing to ignorance of remedies which do actually exist, and which would cure the sick if seasonably employed. A disease wholly incurable by one physician is often perfectly curable by another. The sick should never despair of help, but keep seeking and trying reme- dies until they find relief. They should also know that old chronic diseases usually require some considerable time for a permanent cure. In the course of a long practice I never lost but on 3 patient, when I was the first physician called. I will enumerate some of the diseases which I especially treat, and treat successfully. 4 DR. S. S. FITCH'S First, Pulmonary Cc nsumption. In 1840 I first began to lec- ture on Consumption in England. I afterwards lectured in the United States. In 1846 I published my six lectures "On the Uses of the Lungs. On the Causes, Prevention, and Cure of Pulmonary Consumption, Asthma, Diseases of the Heart. On the Laws of Life and Mode of Preserving Male and Female Health to One Hundred Years." The teachings first enunciated in these lectures, and spread everywhere by the press and by intelligent lecturers and pro- fessors of medicine in this country, have materially lessened the prevalence and fatality of consumption among all the educated intelligent classes in the United States. My own impressions are that among these classes in this country Consumption has declined one-third in twenty years. In 1857 I published a large work on Consumption. In this I described twenty-four different diseases called Consumption. No disease to which we are liable is so entirely preventable as Pul- monary Consumption. It is also curable before the lungs are sreiy greatly disorganized. CONSUMPTION. I need not describe this disease, it is so universally known. As a general thing, it is indicated by a cough and expectoration, pain, shortness of breath, chills, fever, night-sweats, loss of flesh and strength, a general wasting of the "system, which, if un- checked, in a longer or shorter time lays the sufferer in the grave. In some cases, especially in those who are consumptive by their family, its beginning is hardly noticed. One of the earliest symptoms of Consumption is a sense of weariness, loss of strength, easily overcome by exercise or labor; slight shortness of breath, much increased by any exertion ; a disinclination to exercise. &c. When these symptoms are noticed in any person, especially the young, and those who have any taints of Consumption in their family, either near or remote, they should receive prompt atten- tion, and be cured. It is often the case that many are struck with Consumption long before they have a cough. Read carefully the following letters, and you will get as clear an idea of Consump tion, and its symptoms and curability, as I can describe. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 5 BEONCHITIS. This is a skin disease, that affects the skin or membrane that lines the windpipe and vocal organs, and all the air-pipes and air-cells of the lungs. I mean all those surfaces which the air touches when it enters the chest. The effect of Bronchitis is to produce hoarseness, weak voice, loss of voice, cough, and Con- sumption. Indeed, there are very few cases of Consumption where Bronchitis is not more or less present. Bronchitis is usually a true Salt Rheum. The cough in Bronchitis is usually attended with a copious expectoration of mucus, and even pus: of course the quantity raised will depend much on the extent of the disease. In some cases the cough is dry. OATAEEH. This is a skin digease, located in the nostrils, often extending to all the nasal passages; backwards, it occasionally reaches the Eustachian tubes, causing partial deafness; upwards, it often enters between the plates of the bones of the forehead, inducing at times severe and long-continued headaches, pain in the fore- head, temples, &c, often of a highly neuralgic character: some- times only one side of the head is affected. I have seen catarrh produce fearful ravages in the nasal bones, so as to remove them entirely. Frequently catarrh is attended with a very offensive odor from the nostrils and parts affected. These three diseases, Catarrh, Bronchitis, and Consumption are often found together in one person, and so are usually groups together. Separately or together, they are curable. How can their Curability be proved ? I think, best by the testimony of intelligent persons who have suffered from them and have been cured. I give this proof from persons who can be easily referred to, personally or by letter. Should you write to them, by all means enclose a stamp to pay the return postage. I especially request my friends never to answer a letter of inquiry if a stamp is not enclosed. 1* 6 DR. S. S. FITCH'S The writer of the following letter, Wm. Clayton, Esq., married Mrs. Parkinson, widow of Wm. Parkinson, Esq., who with his uncle formed the celebrated law firm of Parkinson & Nephew, London, old England. They were solicitors to the Duke of Wellington, also to Coutts' Bank, and to the late Duchess of St. lbans. Mrs. Parkinson, now Mrs. Wm. Clayton, suffered greatly foi fifteen years from inveterate dyspepsia and female troubles. Mr. Clayton applied to me for her relief, and before long she regained her health. In London she told me, " You have saved my life." After Mrs. Clayton recovered, by her and Mr. Clayton's advice, many of their relatives and acquaintances placed them- selves under my care; and all who did so were cured. Mr^ Clay- ton always keeps my remedies on hand for the relief of any suf- ferers that come under his notice. CONSUMPTION. What is said of Dr. S. S. Fitch in London. No. 10, Warwick Gardens, Kensington, London, Nov. 13, 1863. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir :—Six weeks ago I was sent for to see a young lady twenty-one years of age. She had been given up by four of our best doctors. They all told her she had consumption and could not live many weeks. She had nearly lost the use of her legs. Her finger-nails were quite black. A bad cough. Nature had stopped eighteen months. I told her father and mother I could cure her with your medicines, and I am most happy to inform you that she is getting better very fast. She can now walk up and down stairs well by herself. Before I saw her, all hopes of her recovery were given up. Several persons have been to see her. They all think it quite a miracle. A gentleman happened to call to see her a few days ago who had just returned from New York, and of course they asked FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 7 him if he had ever heard of Dr. S. S. Fitch in New York. He told them, uYes; he is the best physician in New York, and very much thought of there." Mrs. Clayton, Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Scantlebery, and Mr. Townsend all send their kind regards to you. Yours, ever sincerely, WILLIAM CLAYTON. Case of John Carhart, Gilderland, Albany county, New York, aged seventeen years.- Called on me in May last. The February before he had an attack upon his lungs, which greatly affected them, leaving him with a bad cough, pain in his side, short breathing, &c. This continued on him four months. All medical aid seemed unavail- ing ; all hope of his recovery was abandoned. His parents were urgently advised to consult me, which was done. In four months all cough, all expectoration, and all pain left him, and he is now in good health. His right lung was badly ulcerated. New Yoke, March, 1864. March, 1866, is well. Mariners' Harbor, Staten Island, New York, Feb. 15, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—I applied to you in August, 1858. I had then a very weak chest, cough, spitting blood a little at different times. My left lung very weak, and said to have been ulcerated. I have fully recovered my health years ago. Last year my health was better than I ever remember it, and is now very good. I have the utmost confidence in your remedies. Two years ago I lost a sister by consumption. Yours, truly, THEODORE M. DECKER. Brandreth House, New York June 10, 1862. Clarke Rice, Esq.; Dear Sir :—I have just heard from my friend, Dr. S. S. Fitch, of 714 Broadway, that he purposes to visit Watertown for a few days. 8 DR. S. S. FITCH'S have been long and intimately acquainted with Dr. Fitch. He cured me of a bad cough, expectoration, &c, which had affected me eighteen months. I have sent many invalids to him suffering with sore throat, cough, bleeding lungs, heart-troubles, dyspepsia, &c, and have in every case witnessed relief, and in many cases most astonishing cures. I have witnessed Dr. Fitch's immenso practice and great success for many years, until I am forced to believe that he is one of the first of all living physicians. He leaves home a while for the benefit of country air. Your citizens will have a rare opportunity of profiting by his great science and experience. You can recommend him to your friends with the most perfect confidence. Please accept my affectionate regards. GEORGE II. MALLORY. A Case of true Consumption Cured. Interesting Letter from Cornelius de Revere, Esq. Tarrytown, New York, March 10, 1854. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir:—I feel it to be a duty I owe to yourself and the community to make a public acknowledgment of the fact that under your treatment, by the blessing of God, I have been re- stored to comfortable health after going down to the very borders of the grave with true pulmonary consumption. As I am informed by physicians, it is nearly or quite impossible to determine with absolute certainty that any individual now in health ever had true consumption,—that although consumption may be curable, still the facts of such cure can only be obtained by a post-mortem examination of the lungs. This may, in most jases, be true; but it is not in my case, as the circumstances which I will relate conclusively show. Consumption first began to develop itself in my lungs in 1842, by a cough and the usual attending symptoms of decline in strength and flesh, pain about the region of the chest, through the shoulders, and under the shoulder-blades. The disease con- tinued slowly but steadily and obstinately to progress. The best medical advice and assistance I could get appeared to oppose no check to it. By the year 1845 I had become very feeble, coughed much, expectorated largely, with all the ordinary indications of FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 9 diseased and wasting lungs. During the last-named year a now feature presented -itself: a large abscess gathered in the left side and broke, discharging a great quantity of thick matter, resem- bling very much that which I coughed up. This discharge con- tinued until I called on you in 1847. It proved to proceed from a cavity in the lungs. Ulcerous and tuberculous cheesy matter was discharged; but what showed conclusively that the opening penetrated into the substance of the lungs was that the air passed out through the abscess. I could, and did frequently, blow out a lighted candle by placing it immediately before the opening and making a sudden effort at inspiration. Here was positive proof that extensive ulceration, involving the substance of the lungs, was going on. All my symptoms indicated consumption,—cough, expectoration, distress for breath, hectic fever, night-sweats, &c. My friends and my physician regarded me as certainly doomed to the grave by the disease which was on me as though I had been already in my coffin. This was my apparently hopeless condition when in January, 1847, I most fortunately applied to you. I did so with very little hope of relief. You yourself did not express a very confident hope that you could rescue me from the grasp of a disease so firmly fastened, but still encouraged me by saying that you thought it possible I might be cured if I adopted and faithfully pursued your treatment. I did so; and with gratitude to God for his blessing upon the means you employed, and with gratitude to you for your skill and kindness in treating me, I can say that I have been in the enjoyment of good health for the last four or five years. pursue my ordinary business, have no cough, no pain, have m usual flesh, and nearly my usual strength. I do not suppose that I am as strong as I would be with lungs that had never bee.i diseased. The front lobe of the left lung is nearly all gone. My case may appear almost incredible to those who regard seated consumption as incurable. But if the skeptical will write or call on me at Tarrytown, N. Y., I can, I think, convince them that at least one case has been cured by your admirable treat- ment. With the sincere wish that others similarly situated may apply to you and find relief, I am, most gratefully, yours, CORNELIUS DE REVERE. Mr. Revere is still in good health, 1866. 10 DR. S. S. FITCH'S Little Falls, Herkimer Co., New York, March 3, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—You wished me to write you a full statement of my case: I will try and do so as near as I can. In December, 1863, I was attacked with a severe turn of bleeding at the lungs. / was very much reduced, and so weak that I could not raise myself in bed nor even feed myself. I was attended by skilful physicians, who did all they could to relieve me; but the relief I obtained was only momentary. I had daily hectic fever, cough, expectoration, sore throat, and at times a great heat and dryness and tickling in my throat. Had severe palpitation of the heart, pain through my chest and shoulders, great pain in my back and sides, also costiveness, piles, sour stomach, bloating of the bowels, coldness of the lower limbs, night-sweats very bad. Physicians and friends thought consumption would soon lay me in the tomb: indeed, I thought myself that dread disease had fastened upon me with an iron grasp, no more to be unloosed until wrapped in the cold and icy arms of death. I had lost father and mother and other relatives with consumption, and I soon expected to follow them. I was in this state when my wife called on you at Utica, July 10, 1863, and stated my case to you. You gave her no encouragement. Your answer was that, under all the circum- stances, the probability was that medicine would do no good, more than to relieve me for a short time, for you considered my case hopeless, but said if I wished you would give me medi- cine, with shoulder-braces and supporter. I took them faithfully, but saw no change for nearly four weeks; only-my appetite seemed to be improving. In about two months I was able to ride out, seemed to gain strength daily, and am now enjoying a com- fortable state of health, although I have to be very careful of myself, as my lungs are still very weak. March 1, 1864, I called on you at Utica, the only time I have ever seen you. On ex- amining my chest, you said by strictly following your directions a few months longer, through God's blessing, I would again become a healthy man. I would advise all those similarly af- flicted not to give up until they have given your remedies a trial. Kind sir, allow me again to thank you for the kindness you have ever manifested towards me; and I sincerely hope your valuable FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 11 life may be spared many years to come, and may Heaven's richest blessings rest upon you, is the sincere wish of your friend, R. W. WHEELER. March, 1866, Mr. Wheeler is well. Thompsonville, Connecticut, March, 1866. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir :—I cannot express the gratitude I feel for the kind- ness you have shown me and the benefits I have received from your remedies. It is near two years since I heard you visited Providence, Rhode Island. I had heard of you before, and at once determined to see you. I was then very low, could not do any thing for self or family. I had given up all hope. Lungs congested, expectoration constant, hacking cough, night-sweats, palpitation, female troubles, fever, and so weak that to walk seemed impossible. Such I came to you. I had no appetite, could not sleep or rest nights for palpitation of heart and pain in the chest. Your words of hope and sympathy at once won my confidence. You told me I must be faithful in all you told me to do, and I would get well. I be- lieved you, and did every thing you prescribed for me. Your supporter and shoulder-braces gave me great ease and comfort. I cannot speak highly enough of their benefit to me. All your remedies acted well upon me; and slowly, as you told me, have yet surely gained. Thanks to you, I am now able to do my work for five persons in my family, and perform all the duties which devolve upon me. I have no pain, no night-sweats, no cough, do not take cold near as easy as before taking your reme- dies. I am proud to tell of the kindness and sympathy you have ever shown me, which, to a nature as sensitive as mine, has great power. I can eat, sleep, and work, walk, and feel a new life. I am quite convinced that Consumption is in your care curable, if the patient will not get discouraged but faithfully and long enough persevere. I, have allowed nothing to discourage me: I relied on your word as a gentleman, and in doing so felt safe. I shall with pleasure answer any inquiries, and hope you may long be spared 12 DR. S. S. FITCH'S to be a blessing to others. I hope to continue to see you, as long as you come near me, so to be firmly established in health. With every good wish for your health and success, I am, sir, Very truly yours, _____ JANE FRANCIS. Case of Mrs. Abby J. Hadly, If there are any who deny the curability of Consumption, the following case ought to satisfy them to the contrary. Amsterdam, New York, March 5, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir :—In December, 1862, I was taken with a cough ant trouble of my lungs, especially the right lung. This increased, with fever. My expectoration became very copious; I raised a great deal of pus. I suffered from chills, fever, and night-sweats. I lost flesh, and wasted rapidly. My appetite was very poor, and my monthly nature left me entirely. The ends of my fingers became knobby, and the ends of the nails turned inwards; there was a dark purple color under my nails. Great quantities of matter would seem to accumulate in my right lung; finally, an ulcer opened through the chest between the fourth and fifth ribs, about four inches from the breast-bone, nearly in the centre of the front of my right chest. When I drew in my breath, the air would rush out through this opening, so that I could blow out a candle from it; the air would make a whistling, rushing sound whenever the ulcer was uncovered. Through this opening a great quantity of pus passed out every day. I have known as much as one pint to come out at once. Most usually about half a pint would come out night and morning when the ulcer was opened. I was wholly confined to my bed,'and had a bad cough, chills, fever, night-sweats, poor appetite, &c. In this situation I lay in my bed five months, and was reduced to a mere shadow of my former 6elf. My face was pallid and utterly sunken. All hope of my recovery had disappeared. I had the best medical advisers the country afforded. All faces reflected on me but one look,__that of hopeless pity. On the 19th day of October, 1863,1 commenced taking your medicines and following your directions. Without the least shock to my system, and hardly apparent at first, I began to recover, and every symptom of my dreadful disease FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 13 unproved; my cough lessened, my appetite returned, I raised less, and the discharges through the ulcer became less, until, finally, all symptoms of disease disappeared. I am now very well; color has returned to my cheeks; indeed, I think my com- plexion is better than before I was taken sick. I have not en- tirely recovered my strength, but I am very well. I have no cough and no expectoration, no pain, &c. I need not say any thing of your remedies, directions, &c.; the result of my case tells enough of them. I have only to thank a good God for having directed me to you, and to thank you for your most bene- volent kindness. ABBY J. HADLY. Mrs. Hadly is very well, March 27, 1866. ASTHMA. Asthma, sometimes called phthisic, is a most distressing com- plaint, affecting the lungs and the breathing. At first it comes by attacks lasting from two hours to five or six days and nights. It is characterized by short breathing, greatly aggravated on at- tempting to talk or walk or move, often not able to lie down at night. On first attacks there is in many persons a dry cough, which in some cases continues dry until the fit of asthma is over. In most cases, in from one to three days and nights the cough becomes humid, and much phlegm or mucus is expectorated. In this way the attack goes off, and may return in one week or many months. Often these attacks increase in frequency until th unfortunate sufferer is affected all the time, and cannot lie down at all at night, but is forced to sit up, oftentimes leans forward on some support, and for hours struggles against apparently im- pending suffocation. I have known cases where for months and years they could not lie down at night. I knew one case of fifteen years' continuance, that during the last three years the sufferer, a lady, could not, from debility and the disease, sit up or lie down; a sister held her up every night. I had the pleasure of curing this case permanently in three weeks. I have now known of her good health ten years or over. 2 14 DR. S. S. FITCH'S I would say to the invalids, I always cure asthma in all its forms and in all its varieties. All get well. It is only a question of time. Some get well sooner than others, but all get well. Use the remedies I direct long enough, and you will get well. I hav* seen cases of asthma in aged people which I have thought aft visable only to palliate. Asthma of Twenty-Three Years' Standing Cured. A conclusive Letter from Charles S. Powell, Esq. 220 Columbia Street, South Brooklyn, August 14, 1856. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir :—I owe it to the public and yourself to give a state- ment of my case. I was born and grew up at Islington, near London. Occupation, clerk and teacher. From early life I was subject to wheezing and asthma. I of course received the assist- ance of the best physicians in England,—Dr. Leman, Teignmouth, Dr. Frederick Salmon, of London, and a great many others,—with only slight relief. In 1836 I went to Egypt, where my asthma was relieved some, but had a bad dysentery. There met Dr. Abbott. In 1840 I returned to England, followed by immediate dreadful attacks of asthma. I stayed three years in England, then went to Syria in Asia, and stopped at Beyrout (asthma left —had dysentery), and visited Jerusalem, in the Holy Land. At Jerusalem I saw Dr. McGowan. From Syria I went to England, then to Boston and this city. I suffered dreadfully with asthma in Boston; and, truly, I think my case was one of the worst I ever knew. I obtained no permanent relief whatever here until I applied to Dr. Fitch, 714 Broadway. For many months now I have had no attack whatever, and consider myself perfectly cured of that affliction. I remain yours, respectfully, CHAS. SAMUEL POWELL. Case of Miss Mary Bigger. Bin Brook, C. W., March 3, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir :—For four years I was very much affected by asthma. I had it some nearly every day, and at times very bad j often I FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 15 could not lie down much at night. Every change of weather to cold, or wet, or wet and cold, or stormy, my asthma would at once come, and I would be very ill with it. I tried every thing I could hear of. Several physicians prescribed for mc, but without much, if any, good effect. Last September I applied to you for relief, and used your remedies several months. The result, so far, i very happy. I have had but one attack of asthma since I first placed myself under your treatment. I do not take cold nor feel the changes of the weather as I once did. I feel, and have long thought myself, perfectly well. Please accept my best thanks. ft -------------■ Case of Donald Mcintosh. Buffalo, New York, March 4, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch : I have suffered exceedingly from asthma. I am forty-nine years of .age. For six weeks before I saw you, I suffered all I thought I could suffer from asthma. I had a most severe cough, —would at times cough all night. I could not lie down at night. 1 raised very much; but the terrible trouble was my breathing: for hours together it would seem to me that I must expire for want of breath. My struggles to get my breath were awful. Any exercise, or the least attempt to do any work or to move about, would at once threaten to kill me. In this state I called on you, the eighth day of January last. I have used your reme- dies faithfully as you have directed. I now find myself ail-but entirely well. I have no cough, no pain, no expectoration; all that remains of the terrible disease is a little, very little, short breathing on exercise. Refer any one to me you please. Respectfully, yours, DONALD McINTOSH. 16 DR. S. S. FITCH'S DISEASES OF THE HEART. These diseases are nsually considered fatal by all the medical faculty. As far as I know, I am the only physician living who asserts the curability of heart diseases. I believe I and my pupils are alone in this branch of practical medicine. During the last twenty years I have treated a great many cases of heart affection and disease. Nearly all have got well, and stay well. I treat heart diseases with great pleasure, as I alwavs cure them, or nearly always. The exceptions are very few, !.-»th in young and old. Heart disease is characterized by pain about the heart and left breast, often extending to the left arm, also a crowding in the left chest, very uneasy, strange feeling there; also irregular action of the heart, quick, rapid beating, on exercise, stoppage of one or more beats; beats rapidly, and stops with a sudden jerk, as if turning over; fluttering in the left side and pit of the stomach like a bird; throbbing in the stomach ; long breaths often in- stantly cut off by a sharp pain under the lower part ©f the breast- bone or left side; throbbing at the pit of the stomach; great difficulty or impossibility to go up-hill or up-stairs; panting breathing; choking often in swallowing; any effort, walking against the wind, or lifting, or any unusual or sudden exertion, will produce palpitation and stoppage of the heart. If very bad, not able to' lie down night or day; very nervous, and alarmed by any sudden excitement. Eating heavy meals affects the heart. Dyspepsia, indigestion, and costiveness all aggravate the heart- trouble. The head is often confused, fulness of the head, rush of blood to the head. A strong tendency to palsy and apoplexy; weakness of all the left side; sudden starting on going to sleep ; swelling of the face and under the eyes ; swelling of the feet and across the stomach. In some cases, sudden acute shocks of pain dart like lightning through the chest and heart, at times affecting most severely the left arm at the insertion of the deltoid muscle. Fulness and throbbing in the head ; often a throbbing is felt all over, especially on first going to bed ; often a sudden starting up, just as falling to sleep. All sedentary persons, scholars, teachers, FAMILY THYSICIAN. 17 professors, bankers, clerks, judges,—all especially of full habit, fleshy, and who take little exercise,—may become subject to diseases of the heart. Late suppers are often fatal to such per sons. Case of George D Webber, Conductor on the Hudson Sivtr Eailroad. This gentleman called on me September 1, 1859. He was a young married man, living at 569 Broome Street, in this city. He once had suffered from rheumatism. He had suffered nearly all his life with sick-headache. For two years past he had expe- rienced very much palpitation, pain, and distress at his heart. At times swallowing was difficult, and he would have spells of very short, difficult, panting breathing. He sufi'ered much from dyspepsia; his food would lie heavy upon his stomach, as if a heavy ball were in it. His food would ferment and sour, gene- rating much wind. He was very bilious. About once in a week or ten days all his sufferings would be much increased, with sharp, severe pains through his heart, his left side, and back. His liver was much affected. His bowels would be very costive sometimes, then changing into a bad diarrhoea. His appetite was poor, his strength feeble, at times hardly able to do any thing. On exa- mination, his heart was found to be much enlarged, so as to lift up the ribs over it, and to push the gullet towards the right side, at times; and also to press upon the left lung, producing very short breathing. From the heart itself proceeded a heavy rasping sound, showing that the valves were much affected. The circu- lation was very feeble. His feet and hands were habitually cold. In person, he was of medium height and spare. He had been doctored two years, without much, if any, benefit, but growing worse every month. All his medical advisers had pronounced his case hopele?s. This was his situation and hopes when he applied to me. His heart was so enlarged, and his constitutional injuries so great, that he was obliged to take medicine two years,- all the time, however, continuing at his business. His recovery was at first slow, as such bad cases usually are. I met him a few weeks ago, and he told me he was perfectly well. New Yobk, March 12,1866. 2» 18 DR. S. S. FITCH'S From the Eon. John Kelly, M. C. from New York City. New York, Nov. 24, 1857. Dr. Samuel S. Fitch: My dear Sir:—Supposing that others, afflicted as I have been, may be benefited by the knowledge and use of your remediea and treatment, I am induced to write you this communication. You may make any use of it you may deem proper. For a num- ber of years I have been afflicted with what I supposed to bo disease of the heart. At times I have had great distress in tho region of the heart and left side, occasionally violent palpitation and fluttering of the heart; the circulation of the blood seemed to be slow and obstructed in some way; my digestion was very imperfect; I was nervous and despondent; was troubled with headache very much, and had turns of sinking, faint, prostrate feeling, which were distressing and alarmed me. Having tried numerous remedies, as recommended by physicians, and without any apparent benefit, I gave up all hopes of obtaining relief, when I was advised by a friend of mine to call upon you, as he felt confident that you would be able to relieve me. I am glad to inform you that his predictions have been fully verified. The medicines and treatment you prescribed for my case have had a wellnigh miraculous effect upon my system. I am now nearly restored to my usual good health, and by the aid of your remedies and the help of a kind Providence I hope finally to be completely bo. I would most certainly recommend your treatment to any who may be afflicted as I have been. Very truly, yours, JOHN KELLY, M. C. Mr. Kelly is well, March, 1866. From Mrs. E. K. Clement, Pennsylvania. Stroudsburg, Monroe Co., Pa. February 23, 1854. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—It will be three years next winter since I called to see you. I was then pronounced in the last stage of the heart disease by the physicians of this place. They said there was no FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 19 hope for me. I was then induced by entreaties of my husband to go and see you, yet with but very little hope of being cured. You gave me remedies, &c, which I took, and followed your directions to the letter, and in six months' time I could say, "I am well." I can sleep as sweetly as a little babe, and on my left side as well as my right, which I could not do for years previous. Since my cure of the heart disease, many have been induced to try you, and several more are going to see you this spring. Our doctors must and do acknowledge that you can cure that disease. Yours, truly, ELIZABETH K. CLEMENT. From John Knowls, of Virginia. Norfolk, Va., April 11, 1858. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—It is with pleasure that I state to you that the remedies you have prescribed for me have had a wonderful effect already. I feel as if I were a new man. I have had no palpita- tion for the last two weeks; and I have only had that throbbing at the pit of the stomach twice since I commenced to take your medicine. I will be very thankful to you if you will send me some more of your Heart Corrector and some Pills, as I am en- tirely out. With heart-felt gratitude for the good you have done me, I am Yours, truly, JOHN KNOWLS. Another Most Eemarkable Cure of Heart Disease. If the following homely, but graphic and truthful, narrative does not convince the reader that heart disease may be cured, and excite at least some interest .in that system of treatment by which this cure was effected, it must be because his prejudices are invincible. Tamworth, Carroll Co., N. II., December 9, 1857. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—I must apologize to you for not writing to you before. I certainly ought tc have done so. At the time I applied 20 DR. S. S. FITCH'S to you I had taken so much medicine that did me no good that 1 gave up all hopes of recovery, and, to be honest about the matter, I thought the same of yours. But, Mr, to commence the narra- tive of my case. Nine years ago I was taken with a slight pain in my heart, and just before I had the pain there appeared to be a raw or sore spot on the heart about as big as a five-cent piece. But it may have been imagination. It was, at all events, pretty sore, and I suffered the most excruciating pain in the heart. Then the heart commenced palpitating, and by spells it would entirely stop. One time in particular I fell senseless in my house; the neighbors were called, and by their timely aid—by rubbing and putting something stimulating into my mouth—I came to myself again. My family became more alarmed than ever, and also my friends; they said that they thought I was past cure. I called on the best doctors of the day, as they were thought to be; they said, all as one, it was the heart complaint, and could not be cured. I was then very weak. Some of them told me they could make me easier. They left me some medicine, but all they prescribed hurt me, and I gave it back to them, one after another. After taking the medicine of the last one of them for some days, he came to see me, and found me lying upon the floor, for I had not lain on a bed for five weeks. I told him his medicine would kill me, and he had better take it away, which he did. The doctors all said that my disease was incurable. By chance I got one of your books: I read it, and it gave me some hopes. But my hopes were small; for I had not lain my head on a pillow for about three years. I had to sit up in bed with my sioulders covered up: I could not breathe if I laid down. Then, as the last resort, I thought I would write you,—I think it was in October, 1852; and I stated my case as near as I could. You wrote me that my case was a bad one, but you thought you could help me. Even this encouragement almost gave me new life. You prescribed for me, and I got your medicines. In a few days I went out to my shop, some twenty rods from the house, where I had hands at work; I had not been there for six weeks. My health rapidly improved. Some of the doctors told me, before I got help, that if Dr. Fitch helped me so that I could ever work again, they would go in for him on heart complaints: they are surprised now to think FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 21 that I am so well. I now do as much work on my farm as I ask any man to do. If any one wishes to address me, he is at perfect liberty to do so. This is at your service; and may God ever bless you, here and hereafter ! Yours, with respect, BENJAMIN F. TWEMBLY DYSPEPSIA. This is a disease of the stomach, existing in all degrees, from very slight to great sickness, almost unable to eat any thing, attended with sour stomach, belching of wind, great oppression at the stomach. After eating, the food lies like a heavy load. At times great tain is felt in the stomach, and swelling and dis- tension. The food remains long on the stomach, ferments and sours. In some cases it continues in the stomach weeks and months, many articles becoming wholly indigestible. The liver is usually sluggish and the bowels constipated; but in some cases a diarrhoea will exist. This state of the stomach often deranges the whole system, causing palpitation and great nervousness, pain between the shoulders, nervous headaches, and great de- bility. Dyspepsia at times leads to fatal diseases, and may itself become fatal. Causes of Dyspepsia. There are two principal causes of dyspepsia. One is a uni- versal debility of the system from long-continued sickness, scro- fula, debilitating studies, excesses, &c. But the. most common cause of dyspepsia is a humor on the coats of the stomach, which occasions a burning in the stomach, and tenderness at the pit of the stomach, and congestion and thickening of the coats of the stomach. In some cases, patches of the mucous membrane become denuded by the humor. Can- ker and eruptions come on the coats of the stomach, which extend up the gullet to the throat and mouth, occasioning hoarse- ness and cough. At times dyspepsia affects the eves, causing 22 DR. S. S. FITCH'S floating specks before them and dimness of vision. I could add a great many more symptoms, but have not the space. Curability, Dyspepsia is with me always, or nearly always, perfectly curable. Boston, Mass., Jan. 4, 1858. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—I must write to thank you foi the wonderful relief derived from the remedies you gave me when I visited you last November. I think I was about as miserable a dyspeptic as you ever saw. I cannot describe my symptoms: a terrible and most obstinate sour stomach, headache, pain all through me, nervous- ness, emaciation, a dark bilious look of the skin and eyes; hardly any food would agree with me at all. In shori, I was almost sick of life. If you were to see me now, you would not know me. I have gained twenty-one pounds of flesh, feel strong and hearty, find my dyspepsia all gone. Yours, with true gratitude, MARY SAUNDERS. LIVER COMPLAINTS. This disease is characterized by pain and swelling of the right side, lifting up the right short-ribs, a sense of weight and pulling from the right side on lying on the left side. The whites of the eyes become yellow; so does the skin. Most violent sick-headache and bilious vomiting often occur. Jaundice often is developed; swellings of the face, feet, &c. Dropsy often arises from liver complaints. The bowels are usually torpid; absence of bile in the evacuations; at times the bowels stae loose, and a chronic diarrhoea prevails. The face becomes very sallow,—almost black in some cases. The finest complexion is soon ruined. The stomach is always injuriously affected by any disease of the liver. Low spirits and hypochondriasis mark the disease. Nearly all cases of liver complaint are curable. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 28 39 Hammond Street, New York, March 23, 1858. Dr. S. S. Fitc:i : Dear Sir :—I write to say to you that I have derived very great benefit from the use of your remedies. For the last thirty years, until recently, I have been subject to violent bilious at- tacks, commencing with a chill, pain in the head and back, and in the bones, followed by fever, sickness, and great prostration, often lasting several days. No remedies that I could get, or advice of physiciand, would prevent a recurrence of these attacks. Two years ago I commenced using your remedies, with entire success. I have hardly during my life enjoyed such uninter- rupted good health as since I have made use of your remedies. One of my daughters, who has been during most of her life subject to violent attacks of sick-headache, has been entirely eared. You are truly a public benefactor. Yours, respectfully, A. SEYMOUR. Six Mile Run, Somerset County, New Jersey, January 12, 1858. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir :—It is due that I should thank you for the very great benefit I have received from your remedies. For several years I have suffered with sick-headache and a torpid liver. The attacks of headache came on periodically, and lasted generally three or four days, sometimes a week; and the pain and sickness I endured are indescribable. For more than a year, now, I have been free from them, having been completely relieved by your remedies. I would with great confidence recommend your treatment to others similarly affected. Yours, truly, JOHN POOL. Rev. James Wells, of this city (New York), says: I cannot forbear expressing to you my gratitude for the most delightful relief I have experienced from your remedies. I was for years the victim of distressing headache, which made my life a burden, and at times almost totally disabled me from any 24 DR. s. s. fitch's mental effort; in fact, disqualified me for any duty. Thanks w a kind Providence, last November I made use of your remedies. In the course of three or four days my head was relieved, and I have had but little return of the pain, which I at once relieve by your remedies. January 12,1858. Brewerton, Orange Co., New York. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—I have been out of health for a year past. One year ago, or a little more, I had a run of the bilious fever, which left me in a very low state of health. I had a constant diarrhoea, —for several months could not exercise at all without bringing it on. I tried various medicines, and consulted a number of phy- sicians, but all without relief. I was very soon cured by your remedies. I can cordially recommend them. Yours, truly, CHARLES P. ADAMS. Case of George C. Marshal, Esq,, of Poughkeepsie, This gentleman called on me September 20, 1858. He was very pale, utterly prostrated, exceedingly emaciated. He had a constant diarrhoea, and most distressing piles. He almost utterly despaired of cure from any quarter, as all remedies had failed. Within three months he was restored to health. The last time ] saw him he was very well, and had regained all his usual flesh and strength. He had been out of health four years and a half Case of Baron H. Tatiosyan, July 10, 1851, I was urgently requested to call on a gentleman living in 101 Fourth Avenue, below Thirteenth Street, east side. I found him very ill with chronic diarrhoea. He said, "You are the one-hundred-and-twenty-third doctor I have consulted in three and a half years past. I have expended seven thousand fivo hundred dollars trying to regain my health. I spent six months in England trying to obtain relief. I consulted the best phy FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 25 sicians in London, but without any good effect. The sea-voyages did me no good. I have consulted every physician of any note, in New York, without relief." The back part of his mouth was covered with canker, which extended down the gullet and spread over the coats of his stomach. His bowels were badly ulcerated, and discharged large quantities of pus every day. He could only eat a little beef-tea with a cracker soaked in it. Nearly all food, distressed him exceedingly. This gentleman entirely recovered his health. Within four weeks he returned to his business, and in six months was very well. I met him some time ago; he was • very well. PILES, OR HEMORRHOIDS. This complaint is always troublesome, and at times dangerous. There are three varieties of piles. The first is piles proper, where bunches grow from the internal coat of the lower bowel, near its termination. These bunches often come out, at times suppurate, and break, causing great pain. In a great many cases, most intolerable itching is experienced. Piles are supposed to produce or lead to fistula. In some cases, dreadful pains take place at stool. Blind Piles. Blind piles occur wholly within the bowels. Nothing comes out. They' are often indicated by great pain at the evacuation and by most intense pain in the back, between the hips. Bleeding Piles. This form of piles is very common. They are mostly internal, *ften bleeding very profusely, most usually after evacuations. Great debility and prostration of the whole system may be pro- duced, so as at times to lead to most dangerous results. I cannot dwell long on piles. They are perfectly curable. I have treated many thousand cases with unvarying success. I always promptly cure them, when I think it advisable to do so. 26 DR. S. S FITCIl'S URINARY COMPLAINTS. Diseases of the kidneys, bladder, &c.; are always annoying, mortifying, unpleasant; and at times they become the most awful and distressing and dangerous diseases that can affect the *?uman system. Gravel, diabetes, incontinence of urine; ulceration of the kid- neys, bladder, and urethra; stoppage, scalding, burning urine, sometimes clear as spring-water, at other times high-colored; Scanty, thick, red or white sediments or mucus in the water; sup- pression of water, and finally stone in the bladder; bleeding from the bladder, kidneys, &c. Most diseases of the kidneys, bladder, water-passages, &c. arise from a bad humor in the blood, which settles on these parts. Stone in the bladder is often produced by drinking limestone water. In most of the limestone districts, many old persons, who have for a long time drank of the lime-water, suffer fearfully from stone and gravel. Suppression of urine, even if partial, soon produces most dan- gerous consequences to the system. I have treated a great many cases of urinary diseases with the best success, often when previously declared fatal; and this in persons of all ages and sexes, from three to eighty years old, always curing gravel, and sometimes bad cases of stone in the bladder. FEMALE COMPLAINTS. These complaints always call for all the sympathies of the good physician. The most lovely ladies, both single and married, at times fall a prey to diseases peculiar to their sex. These diseases and disorders arise often from falling of the bowels and dis- placementoftheinternal organs; butthemostfrequentof all causes is a humor in the blood, which settles on all the parts affected. Any cause which weakens these parts, or irritates them, will cause a humor (in those who have impure blood) to settle on them, producing enlargements, discharges, ulcerations, with all FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 27 the dreadful symptoms that cause a suspension of all the healthy functions; preventing pregnancy, and, at times, forcing the unfortunates to bed, unable to walk or stand, and this for years ; profuse hemorrhages, unnatural discharges, loss of strength and hope, and, in some cases, fatal results occur. I have been consulted, during the last twenty years, by neari .* thirty thousand ladies, suffering every variety of disease or dis order incident to females. It is indeed rare that any have ever failed of cure. Numbers of bed-ridden ladies have been re- stored to health and activity. How many have become happy mothers, who had long despaired of it! How many cases of happiness restored to families I I could give hundreds of cases and letters, but have time or space for very few. It is one of the most pleasing reminiscences of my life to recall the hundreds of lovely ladies who, by God's blessing, I have seen restored to charming happy health, with all its delightful con- sequences. Ladies may apply to me with perfect confidence of cure. • I must here warn ladies to avoid all physicians and surgeons whose practice is to apply caustics extensively to the womb, under pretence that it is ulcerated. It is only in the last ten days that a lady died at or near Springfield, Mass., from caustics applied to the womb. A lady told me a few clays since that she was pre- sent when caustic was applied to the womb of a young single lady not seventeen years old: after the application she fell on the floor in convulsions. Such practice as this is simply infamous, and usually aggravates the disease and prolongs the cure. I neve adopt any thing of the kind, as I never fail to cure without it, and without exposing the lady in any manner or causing any pain. From John Gordon, Esq,, of Ottawa, C. W. Aylmer, Ottawa, C.W., October 20, 1856. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir :—Two years ago I called on you as the bearer of a letter, citing the case of Mrs. Mary Gordon, the wife of my brother, who was then a very distressed and hopeless invalid. She had some two months previously been severely sick with a violent 28 DR. S. S. FITCH'S attack of erysipelas, which had confined her to the bed for some weeks, and which left her much diseased. She was confined to her house, and could not walk across the floor without assistance. Her whole system seemed to be poisoned. She had great distress, dizziness, and a sense of fulness in the head, pain in the chest mid sides, between the shoulders and under the shoulder-blades, with a distressing, sinking feeling at the pit of the stomach, with cold chills running down the back and limbs. She had falling of the womb for seventeen years, which was constantly growing worse. The pain in her head was agonizing, and she and her friends feared at times it would drive her crazy. She availed herself of all the medical advantages which this part of the coun- try affords, but without relief. You prescribed for her, and sent her remedies, abdominal supporter and braces, with medicines. They have cured her: she is completely restored to her health, and can now walk twenty miles, if need be. Her case has been considered very remarkable by our neighborhood, and has secured the gratitude of herself, her husband and friends. Your success in this case has induced many invalids in this vicinity to apply to you with various complaints, and almost uniformly they have been helped. Some of your cures have been wonderful. I cannot do less than recommend the sick everywhere to avail themselves of your admirable treatment, confident as I am that it is best adapted of any that is practised to restore the invalid to health. Among those who have used your remedies with benefit, I may mention Miss Kellogg, whose left lung, her doctor said, was gone: she is well; also Mrs. Chamberline, and Mr. James Reid. Mr. Reid was far gone in consumption, and is now very much im- proved. I could name others, but forbe'ar. Trusting that your remedies may be effective in curing others, I am, respectfully, yours, JOHN GORDON, High Constable, District Ottawa, C. W. From Mary J. Winship, Pennsylvania. Darlington, Bucks Co., Pa., July 5, 1862. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you concerning my health. Little did I think, when I wrote you, FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 29 that I would enjoy as good health as I do now. I cannot express the gratitude I feel to you, with the blessings of my heavenly Father, for the benefit I derived from your medicines. My health is better now than it has been these five years. My kind husband has spent a great deal of his hard-earned money for the benefit of my health; but I found little relief until I commenced to use your invaluable remedies. They have acted truly like a charm. I have now no pain in my side until I over-exert myself. My bowels are more regular than they have been for the past five years. I am in all respects wonderfully improved. • Yours, with many thanks, MARY J. WINSHIP. RHEUMATISM. This is a disease of very frequent occurrence: it prevails most in cold, windy seasons and in damp places. Persons exposed to cold and hardship are most liable $b it. Rheumatism is cha- racterized by pain more or less intense, which affects ti*e muscles and joints and the membranes which cover the muscles and bones. The joints are mostly affected, and swell; and if very long continued, you may lose the use of them. There are differ- ent varieties of rheumatism: on the nerves it is called NEUKALGIA. At times the large joints, such as the knees, will swell very Dadly and be very puffy, but attended with little pain. Rheuma- tism is sometimes complicated with gou' In some it is a cause of consumption. It at times attacks the joints of the fingers, causing them to swell; if left too long, chalk is at times de- posited in the joints; and finally, in some cases, the use of one or more fingers, and often of the whole hand, and even both hands, will be lost; and some persons lose thus the use of their hands, so as never again to be able to feed themselves. Dreadful fate! Always preventable, always curable, taken in season. Rheumatism cripples thousands. It often settles on the heart, 3* 30 DR. S. S. FITCn'S causing heart disease. I always cure rheumatism if applied to in time. Case of Mrs. Tucker, Buffalo, March 4, 1864. Dr. S. S. FiTcn:—For about three and a half years I was sub ject to a bad cough, bad sore throat, and sore mouth, much catarrh, and a great deal of rheumatism. These various diseases continued to increase, until at last I could do no work, and I began to dread a fatal result. About one year ago I called on you in this city and placed myself under your care. My complaints were obstinate, frequently returning after being checked; but finally all began to yield to remedies, until, in six months, I was ail-but entirely well. My strength returned; ability to work, to exercise, &c, all restored; no cough, no sore throat, no sore mouth, no rheumatism, no catarrh. I now find I rarely take cold, and consider myself as well as most people. You have all my confidence. Respectfully, yours. Utica, N. Y., Feb. 13, 1858. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—When I called on you last fall, you will remember that I had been sadly troubled with rheumatism for a number of years. It seemed to have its seat in my back and left shoulder, and at times laid me up entirely. Nobody can tell what I suf- fered from it. Liniments and external remedies seemed to do me no good. I tried about every thing. Sometimes it went to my legs and feet, and again spread all over me. It was always worse in the spring and fall. Your remedies have cured me. Yours, respectfully, JAMES P. MAYFIELD. Osborn House, Rochester, Jan. 10, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch:—I have for years been a great sufferer from rheumatism. In winter I have been subject to sudden attacks, FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 31 bo that at times I was not able to raise one and sometimes both arms to my head. At other times one or both ankles would be attacked, so that I could not walk; always attended with severe pain. Your remedies cured me within a short time. I thank you for the cure; I thank you for your kindness in thus curing one whom you knew could only pay you in thanks. £ Thankfully, yours, FRANK JOHNSON. SKIN DISEASES. Nearly all the diseases that affect the human system are caused by humor in the blood. There are nearly fifty different diseases of the skin, or that in some form appear on the surface of the body, limbs, or face. They are all curable. Some require longer time than others to effect a cure. The great leading varieties of skin disease are those which are humid: as, salt-rheum, of which there is a dry variety. There is also tetter, or ring-worm, with its varieties; also shingles, de- veloping larger pimples; others in the form of little boils, espe- cially affecting the face,—in some cases covering the face with a most repulsive mark of red boils. Some develop scales; others are attended with itching and burning. Some produce very little pain, burning, or itching, &c. Most skin diseases may become very injurious to the constitution. Some will strike in and affect the throat, the lungs, the brain, heart, stomach, bowels, all parts, —often the eyes and eyelids. In doctoring skin diseases, the greatest care should be taken to cure the humor in the blood, and thus cure the skin disease, and not, by injudicious outward applications, drive the disease to the internal parts. I have treated almost every variety of skin disease, and usually cure every case I treat. 32 DR. S. S. FITCH'S Norfolk, Va., January, 1854. Dr. S. S. FiTcn: Dear Sir:—Last June I called on you to see if I could be re- lieved of a most mortifying condition of my face. It was almost black with biliousness. Little red boils were profusely scattered over it,—some red, some suppurating,—and, with the dark and dusky spaces between them, produced a most repulsive appear- ance. This had been so a long time. I could find no help, and had no hope of any relief. I am certain no person of taste, male or female, could endure such a sight for one moment without aversion. In this condition you very kindly undertook my cure. In a few weeks my face was all I could wish. I then had my photograph taken, which the artist sent to the great exhibition in Paris, where it received the first prize, and was sold for forty dollars. I need not say how much I thank you. Truly, yours, MARTHA HAINES BUTT. Case of John Eeeves, Esq. Shepherd's Bush, London, England. Dr. S. S. Fucn: Dear Sir:—Three and a half years before I saw you I was attacked by a painful disease on the back of my hands and on other parts, attended with much intolerable itching and burning. This continued to increase, attended with a discharge of scalding o- water from the back of my hands. For two years my hands were wet all the time,—water running from them so as to wet my gloves instantly. I could not take a piece of money in my hands even for a moment without wetting it. My lungs and throat became affected. I had considerable cough. During this time I consulted the most eminent medical men in London, amongst whom was Dr. Willan, long celebrated for his treatise upon, and treatment of, skin diseases; also Dr. Ferguson, the queen's phy- sician. Not in a single instance did I find any relief. In this state I called upon you at 66 Berners Street, in this city. To my utter astonishment, in two weeks all my worst symptoms were relieved, all running of water from mv Hands was cured, my FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 33 health rapidly improved, my strength returned, and I could do a full day's business. I have now been very well for years. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude. Respectfully, youra. London, January 1,1864. March 6, 1866, is very well. Black Rock, N.Y., March 4, 1864. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—For a long time I suffered from a most mortifying skin disease all over my face. My complexion was truly repul- sive, and I suffered much from female troubles. My face waa thickly set with little red boils, which were hard, and terminating in little, whitish, festering points, which, on being pressed, would give out a little soft white matter. Scattered over my face, be- tween the little red boils, came out little black, hard points, which they told me were the heads of worms. These would re- main a while, and form a sore and go off, succeeded by other black points. In this way, crop after crop of little red boils and black spots would come and go. I need not say that my face was utterly repulsive. Frequently I would suffer a great deal of itching and burning over my face, and fever in it, that at times affected my eyes. A few weeks ago I put myself under your treatment I am now most happy to say that all my female troubles are cured and my general health fully restored. My face is ail-but entirely well, nearly every vestige of the skin disease is gone, and my complexion is fast recovering its usual brilliancy. MARY JONES. - Moth, brown or yellow spots, red pimples, black points, rose- blush on the nose or face, freckles, and dark stains, blotches on the arms, neck, face, and forehead of both sexes,—these com- plaints, which often utterly destroy all beauty, are perfectly curable, and the beauty of the face and clearness of the com- plexion may be fully restored in a short time. No one need doubt for one moment of a cure. 34 DR. S. S. FITCH'S DIPHTHERIA; OR, DIPHTHERITIS. Within a few years past a disease has appeared in this country and many parts of Europe, called Diphtheria, attended with .great and sudden fatality, passing to a fatal termination in from a few hours to one week, and even longer. This disease may be said, in a very marked degree, to be a combination of croup and putrid sore throat, attended with feverish symptoms, sometimes highly- so at first, but often rapidly falling into a low typhoid state. Like croup, it develops false membrane in the windpipe, trachea, and bronchia, thus rapidly obstructing and closing the air-passage3 and throat. Like the putrid sore throat, simultaneously with the deposition of false membrane in the windpipe and air-passages, the fauces, tonsils, palate, and palate-arches become inflamed. On looking at these parts, we very early in the disease notice white spots upon them, as if of dead membrane, surrounded with highly-inflamed portions not yet involved in this ulcerative process. As the disease progresses, the posterior portions of the nostrils become affected, and the breath becomes offensive, often in a high degree. The simultaneous progress of these two diseases soon induces difficult breathing, with rapid prostration of the system. Time when this Disease mostly Prevails. This is the same as when croup and sore throats mostly pre- vail; that is, in the changeable seasons of the year, as in late autumn and early winter, in an open winter, in early spring, &c, during cold, rainy, damp periods. In the clear, cold weather of midwinter, and in settled periods of summer, it is much less prevalent. Causes of Diphtheria. This disease, like nearly all inflammatory diseases, is most usually induced by taking cold—by exposing the neck to cold and damp blasts of wind—by having the neck and throat struck with snow-blasts—by cold, wet feet—sleeping in damp sheets FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 35 in cold, damp rooms—by exposure in cold, damp, wet evenings, without sufficient protection—by standing or exposure in cold air, or draughts of air, when the person is much heated; in fact, by any thing that checks perspiration. Causes predisposing to Attacks of Diphtheria. Persons breathing impure air, as where many reside in one house or live together in crowded rooms, and not particular in cleanliness and ventilation; any causes that depress the vital powers,—low living, dissipation, a depressed state of the system from previous disease, chronic sore throat, and being greatly reduced by over-working, night-watching, and long attendance upon the sick, &c.; by dyspepsia; by eating much crude, indi- gestible food, and by being very bilious; by loud and long-con- tinued talking, so as to irritate and strain the throat. Many other predisposing causes I could enumerate, but the observing reader can supply them. Persons of full habit, with fleshy, short necks, fleshy, plump, fair children, and persons abounding with blood, are more liable to this disease than the lean and spare. At times diphtheria prevails as influenza does. In this way it often breaks out in neighborhoods, and by bad treatment becomes sweepingly fatal. Symptoms of the Disease. Almost the first symptoms of this disease are a slight sore throat, a slight sense of rawness at the back part of the mouth, followed by a slight difficulty in swallowing. In many cases these symptoms rapidly increase. In some the patient feels as if he had a thread or threads in his'throat; others feel as if they were breathing through wool. In some cases the patient feels as if he had a bone in his throat, which grows larger ever moment and rapidly threatens suffocation. The face assumes an anxious, terrified expression. A fever, suppressed at first, soon develops, and the pulse increases in fre- quency. The neck swells—the cervical, parotid, and maxillary glands all swell—swallowing becomes more difficult and often 86 +&. s. s. fitch's entirely stopped—the voice feeble and shrill—vmist all the powers of life rapidly decline. Meanwhile the false membrane (albumino-fibrinous membrane) forms fast on the inner surface of the windpipe, the trachea, and bronchia, beginning first to form in the upper parts of the wind- pipe, and, if not checked, soon induces suffocation. Is Diphtheria Curable ? From a vast experience in the treatment of croup and sore throat, and much experience in diphtheria, I have not the least hesitation in saying that it is eminently curable in almost any stage of its progress. The treatment should begin as early as possible, but the patient should never be abandoned whilst alive. Hear to no such words as "given up" until the patient actually expires. Treatment of Diphtheria. As this disease is so eminently local in its seat, the surest indi- cation is to arrest it as quickly as we can about the throat, wind- pipe, fauces, palate, and all parts affected or liable to be affected. The remedies should be as promptly used as possible, and every family should have remedies at instant command; for in many cases the disease increases with terrible rapidity. In the outset, use remedies so efficiently as to control the disease and arrest its progress. First, rub the throat most thoroughly and faithfully with some good liniment, which rapidly irritates the skin. The best for all diseases of this class, either croup or diphtheria, I have ever known or ever have used, is my Life Ointment. It is per- fectly efficacious, and will often cure all slight cases without any other treatment. It is a most invaluable family medicine. If you have not this, use any strong liniment you can procure. Equal parts of strong hartshorn and sweet oil may be used, or the following, which is much used by my much-esteemed friend, Dr. Lucien E. King, of 714 Broadway, New York, who has been very successful in the treatment of diphtheria:— Recipe.—Oil of Turpentine..................one ounce. Chloroform...........................half an ounce. Cod-Liver Oil (or Sweet Oil).....three ounces.—Mix. family physician. 37 All or any of these liniments should be rubbed most faithfully over the whole neck and top of the chest. After this has been faithfully done, prepare a bandage of flannel: about three thicknesses of flannel, and wide enough to fully envelop the throat. Wet this in the coldest water at your command, and put it around the throat as high up as the ears, and down fully on to the chest. Cover this bandage with a dry cloth, so as to confine the wet cloth closely to the throat, th$s to sweat the throat and remove the inflammation and fever. In cases of much swelling, heat, and fever about the throat, these cold wet cloths may be changed, and fresh cold wet ones reap- plied every hour, or oftener. The patient should be placed warmly in bed, and draughts of hot mashed onions, or hot mashed boiled potatoes, should cover the whole soles of the feet. Hot foot-baths may be used at first. The patient should take as follows: one teaspoonful, if under twelve years old, every hour,—taken in a tablespoonful of loaf- sugar syrup. Recipe.—Chlorate of Potassa.................one-quarter ounce. Muriate of Ammonia..............half a drachm. Liquorice Ball, pulverized........one-quarter ounce. Water..................................four ounces.—Mix. Take this until free expectoration is produced and the throat is better. Then continue taking the mixture—a teaspoonful two or thre times a day—for a week. The bowels should be kept free by the use of the extract of dandelion and senna, or with castor-oil. Keep the bowels free. In cases of adults, all the above remedies may be given in table- spoonful doses. The throat and palate-arches and fauces should receive the earliest attention, and be most faithfully swabbed every half-hour to three hours, as far down the throat as possible, with the fol lowing mixture:— Recipe.—Nitrate of Potash....................one-quarter ounce. Muriate of Ammonia...............one-quarter ounce. 4 38 DR. S. S. FITCH'S Well pulverized together. Add to this one gill of loaf-sugar syrup or molasses. Small pieces of ice may be kept in the mouth continually. The Swab to Swab the Throat. A swab may be made by tying a little clean, soft, cotton wool $ cotton cloth on a stick the size of a pen-holder. Tie it on per fectLy secure; let it be the size of a pea-nut; press the tongue down and forward, and swab the affected parts thoroughly; soft sheep's wool may be used if you have no cotton wool. If the wash I have given cannot be procured, borax and honey may be used in place of it. Some good wash should be often and freely used. The patient should take a nourishing diet, as beef tea, chicken BOup; sago gruel is excellent. Avoid solid food until all the fever is over, and then return to it cautiously, until entirely well. In bad, malignant typhoid cases, that have been neglected some time, give at once the Diphtheria drops (see recipe at the end of the book), followed in two hours by a strong dose of fluid extract of senna, or of castor-oil, and take the following:— Recipe.—Chlorate of Potassa...............half-ounce. Chlorate of Soda...................half-ounce. Loaf-sugar Syrup..................eight ounces.—Mix. Dose.—A teaspoonful every fifteen minutes, until the throat is relieved and free respiration and expectoration take place. For these cases, use all the other external remedies and swabbing, as before directed. This last mixture will dissolve all the false membrane. If the false membrane after death be placed in this mixture, it ia quickly dissolved. During convalescence the patient should wear flannel around the throat, and avoid all causes which may produce a relapse of the disease. I would say to every man or woman, do not fear, but boldly treat every case of diphtheria that enters your house or neighbor- hood. If you cannot at once procure all the remedies that are advised, use such as you have at command. You will certainly cure every case if you early and literally follow my directions; but, called early or late, do as I have directed, and you will wit- ness cures bng after the sick have been given up to die. FAMILY PHYSICIAN- 39 CROUP. This disease usually attacks children; yet sometimes adults are attacked with it. It usually prevails in the cold and change- able seasons of the year, It is always produced by taking cold. In some cases, the cold for some days is slight, and does not attract much notice. In other cases, a cold is followed almost immediately by a sudden attack of croup. Croup is characterized by hoarseness, wheezing breathing, or short breath, with some cough, and a distressing, anxious look. Thick phlegm chokes and soon begins to fill the windpipe. The continued passing and almost forcible pressing of the air through the windpipe presses and hardens the phlegm, until it takes the shape of the windpipe and is called false membrane. This, if not stopped soon, chokes the unfortunate person to death. Treatment. This disease is perfectly curable. No one affected by croup ehould be given up. Persevere in treating them until they are well or dead. On the first attack, or at any time when you see them, at once put the feet in excessively hot water for fifteen to thirty minutes, if not relieved sooner. At the same time, rub on the chest, all its upper part, and on the breast-bone, and on the throat, my Life Ointment. It is a perfect remedy for croup. You may give Tincture of Lobelia, twenty drops to one teaspoon- ful, or syrup of ipecac, one teaspoonful, every fifteen minutes, until free vomiting takes place. # m My Pulmonary Pectoral is admirable for croup, given in lull doses every quarter to half an hour, until vomiting takes place. Give it with warm water. The Life Ointment may be rubbed on the back of the neck and between the shoulders. Give also an injection, or a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful of castor-oil, or goose-grease, or lamp-oil: this is excellent. The Life Oint- ment and Pulmonary Pectoral may be used in less quantities for some time after the croup is better, until it is entirely 40 DR. S. S. FITCH'S well. If you cannot get my Life Ointment, then use the liniments given in the article on Diphtheria. Lard and Scotch snuff, rubbed together and freely applied to the chest and throat, is excellent. Keep the bowels free with castor-oil. Do not give drenching, exhausting physic. I never lost a case of croup in my life, and never knew one to die under the treatment I have advised. After the croup is well, avoid exposure, or wet feet, or taking cold, until all traces of the disease have left. Treat any relapse of the disease exactly as you did the first attack. Slight attacks of croup may be stopped at once by using the remedies, one or all, in much less degree; but all cases should be watched, and never allowed to go on for one hour, especially in croupy children. SCARLET FEVER. This is one of the most fatal diseases to which children are ever subject, and is often dangerous to adults. When not fatal, it often causes deafness, or leaves running from the ears, &c. This disease is of the Erysipelas family, and is catching. Persons can carry the poison, which produces this disease, in their clothing, and thus carry it to those who have not had scarlet fever. Scarlet fever rarely occurs twice in the same person. It usually occurs in the cold and changeable seasons of the year, and sometimes rages with great fatality. It is caused by an infectious poison. Scarlet fever usually begins with a slight chill, heaviness or pain in the head, followed by a high fever, and in one or more days little red pimples come out more or less over the whole body, and a burning skin. In a little while a sore throat comes on, which often ulcerates and mortifies. Scarlet fever may be very fatal if not properly and promptly treated. How to treat Scarlet Pever. Keep the bowels free, but not drenched, with a little castor-oil, given every day. The whole surface of the body and throat may be sponged daily with saleratus and water, or soap-suds tepid. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 41 This may be done two or three times a day, if there is much fever. Put the feet in hot water often. If the fever should run very high, the patient may be put into a sheet wet in tepid or cold water, and kept in it an hour or so, until the fever abates. The greatest danger in the first stage of scarlet fever is from the throat, which should be carefully noticed. If the throat swells, externally or inter _ nally, rub on it externally some of my Life Ointment, an wear a wet cloth around it for some days, until it is well. Look at it inside, and, if there is any soreness, swab it freely with powdered alum and molasses or syrup, or with borax and honey, or with powdered chlorate of potash, or powdered saltpetre and honey. Clean and swab out all the affected parts most faithfully. Never neglect this, as you value the life of the patient. Powdered gum guiac and molasses is excellent to swab a scarlet-fever sore throat. Internal Eemedies. Besides what I have told you to do, give the patient as fol- lows :— Recipe—Chlorate of Potash..................... one ounce. Water, hot................................ eight ounces. Powder the potash, and then put the water to it. Take one teaspoonful to one tablespoonful of this water every half-hour for one day; and after this every hour will be usually found suffi- cient. This is a perfect curative of scarlet fever. In five to seven days the patient will be apparently safe. Patches of hard skin often peel off, and the red spots and rash disappear, and fever leaves. SECOffDAEY SCAELET PEVEE. After and while the fever and eruptions are going off, the poison is thrown back into the blood, more or less. If a cold is now taken, or any imprudence in eating, or by costiveness, or over-work, or exercise, most dangerous symptoms often come on. The head swells all over, with burning heat and fever. The head and eyes are often attacked, and the face swells. Universal dropsy often takes place. To prevent secondary symptoms, which are often fatal, especially to grown-up delicate ladies or youths, for at least three weeks 4* 42 DR. S. S. FITCH'S after scarlet fever has left, keep in the house; avoid all possibility of taking cold, all through scarlet fever, and now. Let the diet be very light and simple; avoid all excesses of any kind. Keep warmly clothed. Take three times a day a portion of the chlorate of potash, as before directed, and some gentle physic. The best of all is my Cathartic Pills, daily, from the beginning of scarlet fever to the end of it, and at least three to four weeks after all show of the fever has ceased. If you cannot get my pills, use some other physic; but do not fail to take something daily to move the bowels all the time I have mentioned. These are the remedies I advise. I never lost a case of scarlet fever in my life. Smithfield, Rhode Island, March 6, 1866. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—In the summer of 1864 I called to see you at the City Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. My health was very poor. I had not been able to do any work to speak of for three or four years. I could not walk any distance, and it tired me very much to ride. I was very weak, and felt fatigued all the time. My head troubled me: for several years it seemed like something pressing on the brain. I had a very bad throat, my voice being weak ; and at times a hoarseness would come on that would last several days, and sometimes I could not speak aloud. I was very short-breathed, especially if I went up-stairs or up a little rising ground. I was very much bloated. You told me you thought / you could make me pretty well. I commenced to doctor, and in a few weeks I was able to do considerable work. I can now walk four or five miles at a time and ride without being tired. When I first called to see you, it tired me so to ride that it would take me a week to get over it. I don't know but I feel as well now as ever I did. It is astonishing to see what a change there is in me; and I would say to the afflicted, call and see Dr. S. S. Fitch, for if he tells you he can help you, you can rely on his word. I think your treatment for the scarlet fever is excellent. I had five children sick with this fever at one time. I doctored them after your prescription; they all recovered, while many around me lost their children. I earnestly desire that you will live many years FAMii^Y" PHYSICIAN. 43 to do good and enjoy life; and the prayer of my heart is that you may be strengthened and sustained, and may the Lord bless you abundantly, is the sincere wish of one that feels that she owes her life to you with the help of our heavenly Father. Yours, truly, Mrs. MARTHA W. ELLIOTT. MEASLES. This is a catching disease, of an eruptive character. Once having it, you rarely have it again, if ever. It is somewhat like the scarlet fever, and has red patches come out on the skin. Scarlet fever comes out in red points all over, and a red, burning skin; but measles come out in red patches, and very little raised up, whilst between these patches the skin is natural. Measles usually begin with a cough, which may be on some days before the eruption appears. The disease goes off in five to six days, and, if not wholly cured, is apt to fall on the lungs, producing asthma, or bronchitis, or consumption. It often attacks the eyelids, affecting them for years, if not cured; whilst scarlet fever is more apt to attack the ears internally. Treatment of Measles, Measles require to be watched; and if the cough is bad, take my Pulmonary Pectoral, or some good cough medicine, and if they do not come out well, put the feet in hot water, and rub some of my Life Ointment on the front of the chest, on the arms, and calves of the legs. If a high fever, and the measles do not come out well, put the patient in a wet sheet for one or two hours, and cover up warm; this will usually produce sweating and bring the eruptions out perfectly all over. As the measles are going off, treat them in all respects as I have directed in scarlet fever: observe the same rules for diet, and avoid all excesses or exposures, and, above all, take a little cathartic medicine daily for three or four weeks. Measles rarely ever affect the throat. If there is any cough left after measles, cure it, by all means. Do not let it alone, as it is apt to lead to consumption, especially 44 DR. S. S. FITCH'S in those predisposed to it. If the eyes or eyelids are affected, keep taking gentle cathartic medicines daily. Wear wet ban- dages over tho eyes every night, and keep the patient in a dark room until all trouble of the eyes is removed. Let no relic of measles remain on you, if you wish for future health. ERYSIPELAS. This disease is of the same family as the scarlet fever, only it has no eruptions, and may occur many times in the same indivi- dual. It is produced by colds, irregularities in diet, and by some kinds of food in some persons, and chiefly by an erysipelatous humor in the blood. It attacks all parts, but chiefly the face and head. Redness, heat, burning, and swelling of the parts affected, are its marked symptoms. A high fever often comes on. Erysi- pelas often terminates fatally in old or debilitated or dissipated persons, or when it goes to the brain, or where mortification takes place in any part. It often commences with a chill, and when the person is very bilious. Treatment, In the beginning of this disease, put the feet in very hot salt and water, or in wood ashes and hot water. Keep the feet in and the water hot for fifteen to thirty minutes, so as to induce some perspiration if possible. Take also a potion of physic, such as rhubarb and magnesia, my Cathartic Pills, my Bilious Powder, or, if the person is of a full, robust habit, he may take a large dose of Epsom salts and senna. At least, take some good physic, that will thoroughly cleanse the stomach, gall-bladder, and bowels. Something to move the bowels should be given every day until the disease is well. Externally, Apply cloths dipped in ice-water and changed as often as they get warm. My Life Ointment is admirable, rubbed on freely, and then covered with cloths dipped in cold water. A poultice of bruised cranberries cold put on to the affected FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 45 part is often excellent, no matter how much the part is swelled. Give at the same time the following mixture:— Recipe.—Chlorate of Potash............................one ounce. Boiling Water.................................half a pint. In severe cases, give one tablespoonful of this every half-hour. After the patient is better, give this in reduced doses one to two , hours apart. All the time keep up a free action of the bowels. Let the diet be light and in moderate quantity, and such as agrees with the patient. If the stomach is loaded or disordered, the erysipelas often returns. Avoid taking colds, and keep the bowels free with a little daily physic, and the stomach in proper order. This usually prevents all erysipelas in any one, how much soever they may be predisposed to it. Erysipelas is easily cured if timely treated as I direct. WHOOPING-COUGH. I need not describe this disease. It is catching to those who have never had it. It very rarely occurs a second time in the same individual. It usually lasts twelve weeks, and if beginning in the fall often continues all winter. It is sometimes fatal. It is extremely dangerous to those who are predisposed to consump- tion. When it occurs in a house, nearly every person in the house will have a cough, and sometimes extremely severe. This i called chin-cough, and is very dangerous to those predisposed to consumption. Cure it, by all means. Treatment of Whooping-Cough. The bowels should be kept perfectly free by castor-oil or senna; the diet should be light and never load the stomach. Syrup of ipecac, or a little blood-root tea, or a little lobelia, is very good. The best thing I ever saw is my Pulmonary Pectoral, taken three times a day from the beginning of the disease until it ends, A little Life Ointment may be rubbed on the spine occa- 46 DR. S. S. FITCH'S sionally, or on the front of the chest. A Burgundy-pitch plaster put between the shoulders is excellent. My Pulmonary Pectoral and Life Ointment, used as I have directed, and observing the other directions, the disease will be robbed of all its fatality, and its severity and duration lessened at least one-half. Flannel should be worn next the skin, and woollen socks, and avoid taking cold, because bad colds very much aggravate the disease. If any pain is experienced about the chest, use the Life Ointment freely, or some good liniment. Never let any relics of whooping-cough remain about your chest or throat. Stop all cough, pain, short breathing, &c. TYPHOID FEVER. It Is often the case that persons take a cold, or overdo in some way, or by great anxiety or mental trouble will feel very poorly and much indisposed, with failing appetite, or none, and night chills, with a little fever, or none; sometimes costive, at other times slight diarrhoea. In this state a physician is called. The disease, he says, is typhoid fever, and at once large doses of quinine are given, and these doses are repeated. The head, at first lightly affected becomes fearfully oppressed; the patient soon becomes drowsy and heavy,—answers if spoken to; pretty soon, in two to six days, if this course be continued, he becomes delirious, and this confirms all in the belief that it is typhoid fever, and typhoid fever is only to be cured by using large doses of quinine, brandy, calomel, &o. The skin is hot and dry; throbbing temples; burning hands; dry, black, furred, parched tongue; no appetite; bowels slow, or a watery diarrhoea. In these cases the patient rarely lives over fifteen days: some live longer and some die sooner. I most eolemnly believe that nearly all the deaths from typhoid fever would be prevented if proper treatment were pursued. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 47 Treatment of Typhoid Pever. In nearly all diseases of the human system, obstruction to some of the functions of life exists: somewhere there is too much of something, somewhere there is too little, and this something too much is in nearly all cases a poison in the blood which oppresses some part,—it may be the brain, the nerves, the throat, the lungs the heart, the stomach, the liver, the bowels, the kidneys, the skin, the bones, the joints, &c. The fever, pain, and all the unhealthy actions of the system are caused by the efforts of nature to get rid of this obstruction, this poison, this something too much. The remedies used should assist nature, not promote or exag- gerate the disease. In this idea is contained the whole philosophy of medicine. To get rid of this offending substance we must open all the principal outlets of the system, the principal of which are the skin, the bowels, and kidneys. When this low-state threatening fever begins, do all you can to open the skin and excite free perspiration. For this purpose we use hot mustard foot-baths: let the water come as high up the limbs as possible. Wood-ashes may be used, or mustard, or both. Keep up the heat of the water long enough, say one hour, until the patient is in a perspiration as free as possible. On going to bed, after the foot-bath, or before, give a large dose of extract of dandelion and senna, so as to freely move the bowels. Every day take a portion of physic,—pills, or dandelion and senna, or my Pills, or Biliary Powder, or Stomach Bitters. Sponge the body over twice a day with strong soap and water, strong soap-suds. Do this when the fever is on. The skin may be sponged with saltpetre and water freely, and cold if the fever runs high; cold wet cloths may be kept on the head, forehead, &c, all the time if the head is hot; onions boiled hot, or hot boiled potatoes, may be kept on the soles of the feet all the time, day and night. The diet should be very light at first, consisting only of floui or Indian-meal gruel well boiled. After the fever abates, chicken soup, or beef- or mutton-soup, no grease, and a little stale bread may be used three times a day or so. Do not urge the diet, or gratify a craving appetite; be most careful until the patient is well. 48 DR. S. S. FITCH'S Drinks.—The patient may at all times drink as much as ha pleases of any herb drink, warm or cold, as he wishes. After the fever is over ne may take a little good whisky, or brandy, or wine, as he wishes, all moderate at first. By beginning early and pursuing this course there is not one case in fifty but what will recover. Remember, whatever else you do, give some sort of physic every day. This will prevent the fever from settling on any part. TYPHOID FEVEE EELAPSES. Many die from a relapse in typhoid fever after getting nearly well. Avoid all causes of relapse. These causes are overdoing, over-exercise, overwork, and over-eating, going out too soon, &c. &c< In cases of a relapse, treat them just as you did at the first attack. In case the patient is nervous and trembly, strong va- lerian tea may be freely drunk, or the scullcap, or the ladies'- slipper root tea. Drink as much of these as you please. By treating the patient in this way, and by avoiding quinine entirely until the fever is well, and using it sparingly at any time, by using no calomel whatever, the patient will get well and not be injured in his constitution at all. How to Prevent Taking the Fever. If you are much with typhus or typhoid fever, take daily a good portion of pills or rhubarb, or something to move the bowels kindly every day. If you do so, you will never take it. You can never take the yellow fever, how much soever exposed to it, if you move your bowels freely every day with pills or physic, and keep the skin clean. YELLOW FEVER. I need not describe yellow fever, or where it prevails. This is too well known. It is an enemy that kills in a very short time if not promptly cured. Its treatment admits of no delay. I only give you a perfect cure: it will not fail you. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 49 Treatment. On the first show of the disease, drink one or two quarts of strong, warm herb tea, such as boneset or any of the mints. In ten minutes or so after drinking the tea, take a lobelia emetic and vomit yourself for an hour or more. Do it most faithfully. Vomit yourself as nearly to death as you can and not die. Take an" open chair,—say a split cane, or such open-bottomed chair,— place under it a saucerful of burning rum or alcohol; take off all your clothing, sit on the chair and have blankets put all around you, so as to be entirely covered except your head, but so arranged as to allow the vapor of the burning alcohol to pass all around you. Perspiration will run off you as water. Sit on this chair thus perspiring until you faint and fall off the chair. Let them take you up and give you one-half a pint, a tumblerful, of castor-oil. Now be placed in bed and covered up warmly; you will sleep some and sweat several hours, say five or six hours: on awaking, your oil will freely operate and you will be perfectly well. You must lay in your bed fourteen days, and take only water-gruel, not a bit of solid food. Take not the least exercise; keep close from the air, &c, during the whole fourteen days. If you do not do this you will have a relapse, and must be treated exactly as at first. If exposed to yellow fever, take some pills or physic every day, so as to move your bowels freely every day, and you will not take the fever. Besides this, avoid all irregu- larities, and eat no fruit or any food that can disturb your sys- tem. When you leave the yellow-fever district, pursue the same course as regards irregularities, &c, until you have been away from the infected district for at least fourteen o?ays. In visiting all hot or tropical climates, never swallow the pulp of any fruit: only swallow the juice, and spit out the pulp wholly and entirely. CHOLERA MORBUS. I do not now speak of Asiatic cholera, but of cholera morbus. This disease usually occurs in summer and the early fall months. It is caused by improper food and by taking cold after eating such food. 5 50 DR. S. S. FITCH'S Treatment of Cholera Morbus. When it first begins, unless in a very old or very feeble person, do not check the vomiting or purging, as it is an effort of nature to expel offending and dangerous matter, but drink very freely of Btrong spearmint tea hot, with sugar or milk in it, or both, as you please. As soon as the stomach is somewhat sweetened, give a good portion of butternut-bark tea, or my pills, or castor-oil. Ten drops of laudanum and one tablespoonful of brandy may be given with the physic. Let the patient put his feet in excessively hot water for twenty or thirty minutes, with mustard in the water. Now lie down in bed, cover up very warm and get into a perspira- tion. In one to six hours the physic will operate freely, and all trouble will be over. Keep quiet a day or two, and eat only of gruel. This is the way cholera morbus generally ends. In some rare cases the remedies are not used soon enough, or it occurs in old or very weak people, in which case treat it as I have told you; also give every ten to thirty minutes one teaspoonful of the com- pound tincture of gum guiacum, and with ten to forty drops of laudanum. Flannel or cotton cloths may be dipped in very hot salt and water and applied to the pit of the stomach and over tho bowels. Hot mustard-water may be used. If, however, the complaint does not yield, use some of my cholera remedy, of which you will find the prescription in the article on the Asiatic cholera. Black-cherry brandy is excellent, and so is blackberry brandy. Take a little: do not urge medicines beyond what is necessary. Keep* the patient quiet as possible, and get him into a free, full perspiration. After it is over, keep quiet a few days, and eat only very light food. ASIATIC CHOLERA. I need not describe this disease. One case never occurs alone. Single solitary cases are only cholera morbus. Asiatic cholera, usually termed cholera, never prevails except epidemically, and, yf course, attacking many people. FAMILY THYSICIAN. 51 Symptoms. It usually gives its warning by one or more days of a slight diarrhoea of a watery, almost colorless, discharge, by which it differs wholly from cholera morbus, which never gives much warning. No pain attends the diarrhoea. After one or more days of diarrhoea, vomiting and purging begin, with sudden collapse or sinking of the system, which, if not relieved, soon ter- minates fatallv. Cholera has been in the United States only four times in thirty- four years. Only three periods of cholera were of much extent. Cholera usually appears in the warm season of the year, and rarely continues in any locality longer than twelve weeks. When cholera prevails, it is well known that those who live right ail-but never have it; but any imprudence in living, exposure, excesses, overdoing, dissipation, or improper food, are almost certain to bring it on. How to Avoid Cholera, If possible or convenient, leave the cholera district and reside where the cholera does not prevail or exist. Take with you all you can, and twelve weeks of such seclusion and all danger or fear of cholera will be over. Never go to a cholera district or return to one you have left until the cholera has entirely ceased at least four weeks. Many have lost their lives by returning too 60on to a cholera district. During a whole cholera season live discreetly, wherever you are Should you be obliged to remain where cholera is, do as, 4 follows- keep yourself clean and all your premises where you reside remove all nuisances and all filth of every kind. Avoid taking cold, avoid all excesses and imprudences of every description. For breakfast, eat stale bread, also toast, good Gutter and a little hashed meat, or beef-steak, mutton-chops, &c., and tea or coffee, if accustomed to use them. For dinner, well- cooked, sound meat, well-cooked potatoes, bread, boiled rice &c For tea, same as breakfast, but no meat; and no supper at all. What Not to Eat. Eat no fruit at all, either cooked or raw. Eat no tomatoes, no corn, no cabbage, no raw vegetables of any kind. Eat no apple 52 DR. S S. FITCH'S dumplings, no shell-fish, no fresh fish, no smoked fish, or smoked meat, no bananas, no pine-apples nor oranges, no sweet potatoes, no nuts, no pastry, no hard-boiled eggs, and no heavy rneals late in the day; no melons, no cucumbers, no pickles:—in fine, eat nothing that can disagree with your stomach: run no risks and make no experiments in your diet. I have seen a whole family swept away by one lobster. Keep your bowels free by habit of a daily evacuation. If ne- cessary to this, you can chew a little rhubarb, but take no drastic physic, especially salts. My Stomach Bitters may be taken after each meal, so as to keep the bowels regular; avoid costiveness or drastic physic. Never go to sea, or on any long voyage, in any ship or steamer that leaves a port where cholera prevails, as cholera is almost certain to break out on such ship or steamer. Cholera on ship- board is an awful disease. Treatment of Cholera. On the first show of cholera diarrhoea, if you have been exposed to cholera or are in a cholera district, put one tablespoonful of common salt into a tumbler, half a pint of hot water, and one teaspoonful of ground red pepper; drink this off; in a few minutes it will vomit you freely. This will, in nearly all cases, break up the cholera. Live on gruel three days, and you will be well. If the cholera goes on, take three drops of camphorated spirits every fifteen' minutes, and also a little brandy. Take every measure to keep warm, and lie as still in bed as you can. I give you here a cholera remedy which is most admirable. Use it when you can get it. Perfect Cholera Remedy. ' Recipe.—Gum Camphor..................................... 1 oz. Laudanum.......................................... I oz. Red Pepper........................................ 1 0z. Oil of Spearmint................................. \ oz. Oil of Cinnamon.................................. \ oz. Oil of Cedar....................................... J oz. Oil of Hemlock.................................... } oz. Alcohol.............................................. 12 oz. Mix. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 53 Directions.—Take fifteen drops to a teaspoonful in a wineglass to a gill of hot water often, until relieved. No one, travelling or resident where cholera is found, should be without this remedy: it is excellent. If you have eaten any offending substance, whatever, that might hurt you, take a good portion of stimulating physic, such as my Stomach Bitters, in large doses, or my pills, or any good stimulating physic, and keep quiet for a day or two. Do not in a cholera district be afraid to take a little stimulating physic, so as to keep the bowels, stomach, and liver free, and not loaded at all; but do this, above all, if you have eaten any of the forbidden articles, or any bad, indigestible, or fermentable or acid food, or if you have overloaded your stomach and feel symptoms of stomach or bowel disturbance. Is Cholera Catching? Answer yourselves this question. Are you more liable to have cholera where it is, or where it is not ? If you are more liable to take it where it is than where it is not, then in that place it is, somehow, catching. After recovery from cholera, avoid a relapse as you would death itself. But for a relapse use the remedies you used for the first attack. To the foregoing on cholera, I append the directions and expe- rience of the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, who has been for many years a resident in Constantinople, as a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. His remarks on the use of injections where vomiting takes place are excellent. His whole directions are worthy of great confidence. * * * "Having been providentially compelled to have a good degree of practical acquaintance with it, and to see it in all its forms and stages during each of its invasions of Constantinople, I wish to make my friends in Maine some suggestions, which may relieve anxiety or be of practical use. "1st. On the approach of the cholera, every family should be prepared to treat it without waiting for a physician. It does its work so expeditiously that while you are waiting for the doctor it is done. "2d. If you prepare for it, it will not come. I think there is no disease which may be avoided with so much certainty as the cholera. But providential circumstances or the thoughtless indiscretion of some 5* 54 DR. s. s. fitch's member of a household may invite the attack, and the challenge will never be refused. It will probably be made in the night, your physician has been called in another direction, and you must treat the case yourself, or it will prove fatal. ';3d. Causes of attack.—I have personally investigated at least a hundred cases, and not less than three-fourths could be traced di- rectly to improper diet, or to intoxicating drinks, or both united. Of the remainder, suppressed perspiration would comprise a large number. A strong, healthy, temperate laboring man had a severe attack of the cholera, and after the danger had passed I was curious to ascertain the cause. He had been cautious and prudent in his diet. He used nothing intoxicating. His residence was in a good locality. But after some hours of hard labor and very profuse per- spiration, he had lain down to take his customary noon nap, right against an open window through which a very refreshing breeze was blowing. Another cause is drinking largely of cold water when hot and thirsty. Great fatigue, great anxiety, fright, fear, all figure among inciting causes. If one can avoid all these, he is as safe from the cholera as from being swept away by a comet. "4th. Symptoms of an attack.—While cholera is prevalent in a place, almost every one experiences more or less disturbance of di- gestion. It is doubtless in part imaginary. Every one notices the Brightest variation of feeling, and this gives an importance to mere trifles. There is often a slight nausea, or transient pains, or rum- bling sounds, when no attack follows. No one is entirely free from these. But when a diarrhoea commences, though painless and slight, it is in reality the skirmishing party of the advancing column. It will have at first no single characteristic of the Asiatic cholera. But do not be deceived. It is the cholera nevertheless. Wait a little, give it time to got hold, say to yourself, 'I feel perfectly well, it will pass off,' and in a short time you will repent of your folly in vain. I have seen many a one commit suicide in this way. "Sometimes, though rarely, the attack commences with vomiting. But, in whatever way it commences, it is sure to hold on. In a very few hours the patient may sink into the collapse. The hands and ^feet become cold and purplish, the countenance, at first nervous and anxious, becomes gloomy and apathetic, although a mental restless- ness and raging thirst torment the sufferer while the powers of life are ebbing. The intellect remains clear, but all the social and moral feelings seem wonderfully to collapse with the physical powers. The patient knows he is to die, but cares not a snap about it. " In some cases, though rarely, the diarrhoea continues for a day or two, and the foolish person keeps about, then suddenly sinks sends for a physician, and before he arrives ' dies as the fool dieth.' "COURSE OF TREATMENT. "1st. For stopping the incipient diarrhoea.—The mixture which I used in 1818 with great success, and again in 1855, has during this epidemic been used by thousands, and although the attacks have been more sudden and violent, it has fully established its reputation for efficiency and perfect safety. It consists of equal parts by mea- FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 55 Bure of one part each of laudanum and spirits of camphor, and two parts of tincture of rhubarb. Thirty drops for an adult, on a lump of sugar, will often check the diarrhoea. But to prevent its return . care should always be taken to continue the medicine every four hours in diminishing doses, twenty-five, twenty, fifteen, ten, nine, when careful diet is all that, will he needed. "In case the first does not stop the diarrhoea, continue to give increasing doses—thirty-five, forty, forty-five, sixty—at every move- ment of the bowels. Large doses will produce no injury while the diarrhoea lasts. When that is checked, then is the time for caution. I have never seen a case of the diarrhoea taken in season which was not thus controlled, but some cases of the advanced diarrhoea, and especially of relapse, paid no heed to it whatever. As soon as this becomes apparent, I have always resorted to this course. Prepare a teacup of starch, boiled as for use in starching linen, and stir into it a full teaspoonful of laudanum for an injection. Give one-third at each movement of the bowels. In one desperate case, abandoned as hopeless by a physician, I could not stop the diarrhoea until the seventh injection, which contained nearly a teaspoonful of laudanum. The patient recovered, and is in perfect health. At the same time I used prepared chalk in ten-grain doses, with a few drops of lau- danum and camphor to each. But whatever course is pursued must be followed up, and the diarrhoea controlled, or the patient is lost. "2d. Mustard poultices.—These should be applied to the pit of the stomach, and kept on till the surface is well reddened. "3d. The patient, however well he may feel, should rigidly observe perfect rest. To lie quietly on the back is one-half the battle. In that position the enemy fires over you, but the moment you rise you are hit. " When the attack comes in the form of diarrhoea, these directions will enable every one to meet it successfully. "4th. But when the attack is more violent, and there is vomiting, or vomiting and purging, perhaps also cramps and colic pains, the following mixture is far more effective, and should always be resorted to. The missionaries, Messrs. Long, Trowbridge, and Washburn, have used it in very many cases, and with wonderful success. It consists of equal parts of laudanum, tincture of capsicum, tincture of ginger, and tincture of cardamom seeds. Dose, thirty to forty drops, or a half-teaspoonful in a little water, and to be increased according to the urgency of the case. In case the first dose should be ejected, the second, which should stand ready, should be given immediately after the spasm of vomiting has ceased. During this late cholera siege no one of us failed of controlling the vomiting, and also the purging, by, at most, the third dose. We have, however, invariably made use of large mustard poultices of strong, pure mustard, applied to the stomach, bowels, calves of the legs, feet, &c, as the case seemed to require. "Collapse.—This is simply a more advanced state of the disease. It indicates the gradual failing of all the powers of life. It is diffi- cult to say when a case has becone hopeless. At a certain point the 56 DR. S. S. FITCH'S body of the patient begins to emit a peculiar odor, which I call the death-odor, for when that has become decided and unmistakable, I have never known the patient to recover. I have repeatedly worked upon such cases for hours with no permanent result. But the blue* color, the cold extremities, the deeply-sunken eye, the vanishing pulse, are no signs that the case is hopeless. Scores of such cases in the recent epidemic have recovered. In addition to the second mix- ture, brandy (a tablespoonful every half-hour), bottles of hot water surrounding the patient, especially the extremities, sinapisms, and friction, will often in an hour or two work wonders. "Thirst.—In these and in all advanced cases, thirst creates intense suffering. The sufferer craves water,* and as sure as he gratifies the craving the worst symptoms return, and he falls a victim to the transient gratification. The only safe way is to have a faithful friend or attendant who will not heed his entreaties. The suffering may be, however, safely alleviated and rendered endurable. Frequent gargling the throat and washing out the mouth will bring some relief. A spoonful of gum arable water or of camomile tea may frequently be given to wet the throat. ' Lydenham's White Decoction' may also be given both as a beverage and nourishment in small quan- tities, frequently. In a day or two the suffering from thirst will cease. In a large majority it has been intense for more than twenty-four hours. "Diet.—Rice-water, arrow-root, Lydenham's White Decoction, crust-water, camomile-tea, are the best articles for a day or two after the attack is controlled. Camomile is very valuable in restoring the tone of the stomach. "The Typhoid Fever.—A typhoid state for a few days will follow all severe cases. There is nothing alarming in this. It has very rarely proved fatal. Patience and careful nursing will bring it all right. The greatest danger is from drinking too freely. When the patient seemed to be sinking, a little brandy and water or arrow-root. and brandy have revived him. In this terrible visitation of the cholera, we have considered ourselves perfectly armed and equipped, with a hand-bag containing mixture No. 1, mixture No. 2 (for vo- miting, &c.), a few pounds of pounded mustard, a bottle of brandy, and a paper of camomile flowers, and a paper of gum arabic. "I lay no claim to originality in recommending this course of treatment. I have adopted it from suggestions of able and expe- rienced physicians. Having been the only doctor of many poor families living near me, I have tried various remedies recommended by physicians, but I have found none to be at all compared with the above. During the recent cholera, I cannot find that any treatment has been so successful as this. "Contagion.—The idea of contagion should be abandoned. All the missionaries who have been most with the malignant cases day after day, are fully convinced of the non-contagiousness of the cholera. The incipient attacks, which all have suffered from, are to be attributed to great fatigue, making the constitution liable to an attack. Yours, truly, C. Hamlin." * Query, cold water? FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 57 DYSENTERY. This disease is of frequent occurrence in the hot season of the year and in the earlier part of the autumn. Causes of Dysentery. This is almost universally contracted by eating improper food and at the same time taking cold. When neglected too long or badly treated, it is often fatal. Treatment, As soon as a show of diarrhoea or dysentery is noticed, at once take a portion of physic, as, equal parts of dandelion and senna extract, or castor-oil, or magnesia and rhubarb, or my Stomach Bitters, or my pills, in doses adapted to the strength of the patient and to their age, and give a little physic daily until the disease is well. At the same time as you give physic you may give, if the patient is any way prostrated and weak, a tablespoonful or so of black-cherry brandy, or blackberry brandy, or blackberry-roots boiled in milk and a little loaf-sugar and brandy put to it. Drink freely of this. Solution of tannin, or oak-bark tea, all are excel- lent, and may be used as you have them at command. Never omit the physic; and never give opium or laudanum at the begin- ning of dysentery until the bowels have been well evacuated by using the physic. Diet, Let the food be light and cooling; say, boiled milk, and boiled rice and milk. "Wheat flour boiled thoroughly in milk and thick- ened to a gruel, and eaten freely, is excellent. In the beginning of dysentery, when it has been on only two to four hours, put one tablespoonful of table-salt and a wineglassful of vinegar into a half-pint of boiling water; sit down and sip this a mouthful at a time, so as in a half-hour to drink it all. An old man who got this remedy from my grandfather told me he had kept house forty years, had raised many children and apprentices, had often witnessed fatal dysenteries in his neighborhood, but in his own family and dependants this salt and vinegar was all he ever used, 58 DR. S. S. FITCH'S and had never failed with it to cure all cases in his own family. No matter what you have eaten, he says, this Avill cure it if used on the first attack. In very bad cases of dysentery and no relief on account of no remedies or improper remedies, you should still give physic, and a suppository of one or two grains of solid opium introduced up the rectum and left there, and the patient keeping still, will often soon stop all traces of dysentery. Wild-cherry brandy, or brandy and laudanum, with castor-oil, may be very freely and liberally used in all advanced stages of dysentery or bloody flux. The feet should be kept warm. Flannel worn over the stomach and bowels, and all traces of dysentery will dis- appear. SUMMER COMPLAINT; OR, DIARRHOEA OF YOUNG CHILDREN. This disease sweeps off thousands of young children annually, [t is caused almost wholly by indigestion, which is much aggra- vated by hot weather, bad air, and by teething, and, above all, by improper food. No child need ever die of this disease when it is properly fed. Very much depends on its food. First, let the child wear soft, warm flannel over its whole per- son, and stomach and bowels; change this often enough to have it clean. Let the child eat no fruit or vegetables of any kind whatever, and not a bit of meat, or pastry, or cakes, or hot bread. The diet should be its mother's milk, and panada, which is bread and milk boiled together well; or cow's milk one-half water and thickened with good flour, and boiled for one hour or more, so as to be perfectly cooked. This is an excellent article of food for the child. In place of wheat flour, rice flour is excellent, boiled as much as you boil wheat flour and milk, &c. Carefully notice the child's gums, and if teeth are coming, so as to be plain and distinct, the gums may be lanced; but do not do this until the gum is fully lifted up, so that on cutting the gum the tooth is at once fully exposed. To cut the gums before this FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 59 is to injure the child very much. Rubbing \he gums over freely with a little fine salt very much helps the teeth to come through. If the mouth is very hot, put little pieces of ice in the child's mouth occasionally, and this will cool it very much. The child, whilst the diarrhoea is on it, should take a little physic every day or two, say five to twenty drops or half a ter spoonful of castor-oil. This is most excellent. Liquid magnesi is very good,—one teaspoonful daily in its milk. One tablespoonful of lime-water daily, put in its food, is very useful, and should not be neglected. Tincture of rhubarb is valuable. Do not give opium or any of its preparations, as they are so apt to bring on fits and kill the child. A teaspoonful of wild-cherry brandy once 01 twice a day, put in the food, after using physic, is excellent. If you have no wild-cherry brandy, a little brandy and water, put on wild-cherry bark, is very good. Keep the child's feet warm with woollen socks, &c. Change of air. If it is possible, give the child a change of air at any sacrifice; give it sea-air. I have seen them restored by sea-air, when all hope had disappeared. Do not give up the child; if you cannot have sea-air, go to a lake- shore or to the mountains. Nursing children are not apt to have summer complaints; but if they do, the mother should be very careful of her own diet. Children should never be weaned whilst teething, or in hot weather or late spring. The fall and winter months are best. If a mother cannot nurse her child, a healthy wet-nurse should be procured if possible. Children should be nursed, if possible, until they have cut their first teeth. Children under four years of age should never be exposed to extremes of weather. If children are costive, or are very fretful, crying, &c, there is nothing better for them than a little castor-oil. Beware of hard, indigestible food being given to your little children: awful fits and spasms arise from it. Teething and hard, indigestible food cause nearly all the fits. Some children may eat this food and live: yet it is true that nearly all fits arise from it, and nearly every case of diarrhoea. A flannel cloth, wet in brandy or whisky, or salt and water, may be worn over the bowels and kept warm. It may be bathed daily in a little brandy or alcohol, or whisky and water. 60 DR. S. S. FITCH'S SICK-HEADACHE. This disease commonly affects persons before forty years old,—. seldom after. After a time it usually turns to nervous headaches, and often to neuralgic headaches, &c. True sick-headache is almost always produced by indigestion, acidity, and bile in the stomach, or by a closure of the gall-ducts; very frequently it is accom panied by sick stomach and retching, or full, free vomiting. Cure. Put the feet in very hot water, and add hot water from time to time; mustard or wood-ashes may be added. Keep the feet in this hot water for half an hour. Repeat it every day, or twice a day, until the headache is well. If there is much vomiting, drink freely of warm spearmint tea, and, as the vomiting subsides, take a good dose of any good bitter pills, or a portion of dandelion and senna tea, my Bilious Powder, or Stomach Bitters, or something to move the bowels freely and thus carry off all the bile. Boneset tea is an excellent drink in these cases. Be careful to eat nothing that you know causes bile or produces indigestion. Where pre- disposed to it, a cold or excitement will bring it on. Do as I have directed, and you will soon get over these headaches. For relief from nervous or neuralgic headaches, if not cured by what I have already directed, apply to me; all are soon cured. SEA-SICKNESS. This complaint is too well known to require description. It is usually very curable. I give a recipe for a remedy I have usually found all that is necessary for a cure; obtain it, and follow the directions. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 61 Moths, Freckles, Brown and Yellow Spots, on the Skin, Face, Neck, Arms, <&c, and Pimples, Eruptions, Sore, Chapping Lips, &c, and Swelled Faces and Noses. I mention these complaints to say they are all perfectly curable. I have had the supreme pleasure of restoring a great many lovely ladies to their earliest beauty, by restoring their complexion to perfect health. Read carefully the letters of Miss Martha Haines Butt, and of Miss Mary Jones, pages 31, 32, 33. MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR. The hair of children should be kept cut until ten years of age m females, and in males as late as you please. The great object with the hair is to have a full head of glossy hair and not to have it fall out. Loss of the Hair. The hair is usually lost by the following causes:— 1st. From fever in the head. Long-continued headaches with fever, and from fevers where the head is affected. 2d. From skin diseases which affect the scalp. I have seen a full head of hair utterly lost in a few days by a skin disease attacking the scalp. 3d. The hair is lost by being pulled out in shampooing and combing, and tying up tight so as to be straining on the roots whilst tied up. In one section of Germany it is the fashion to tie all the hair on the top of the head into a club as tightly together as possible, and as close to the scalp as possible. In a few years nearly all the females are bald on the top of the head, and this before they are twenty-five years old. The hair should never be combed at all with a fine-tooth comb, unless the hair is very thick and strong. Dandruff should be washed out, not combed out. Only use a very coarse comb about the hair. Keep the scalp and hair clean by washing it with pure cold water. A little borax put in the water 6 62 DR. S. S. FITCn's makes a famous lather all through, equal to any soap and far neater. After fully washing with this, smooth the hair with a very coarse comb. Every gentleman should dip his head in cold water every day of his life,—the colder the better. This usually saves .f the hair, prevents all catarrhs and fevers, and is most excellent for the brain and for nearly all headaches. Animals shed their hair twice a year; at these periods the human hair is apt to be loose, and drops out easily. When loose, do not comb it, but leli it alone as much as possible. Wet it freely and smooth it witt your hands as well as you can. It will soon become tight Shaving the head to have the hair come out thick, usually doe& much injury, and is rarely beneficial, as far as my observation goes. All diseases of the scalp should be cured, or the hair may be lost. Scalp diseases are usually easily cured. For curing Gray Hair, &c. I append the best hair-dye I have ever known. Observe the directions for using it. Cutting the Hair. The hair should never be cut too short, as this is apt to stunt its growth, especially in old people. The hair may be cut when- ever required. It is well to trim it about once a month. Some urge that the hair should be cut only in the first and second quarters of the moon,—that is, in the moon's increase. It certainly could do no hurt to adopt this course. My Hair Restorer is a perfect remedy for falling hair and recent partial or general baldness, and will make the hair very thick and glossy. BURNS. The treatment of burns is very easy, if understood. Numbers perish or suffer dreadfully by burns, who could have been at once relieved. I will mention a few things which are perfect: you may use them with confidence. You need look no further, as any one of these will cure burns. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 63 Treatment. At the instant of the burn, cover the part with very cold or ice water, or snow, for a short time. A poultice of Indian meal and buttermilk, to thickly cover the whole burn, is most excel- lent. It stops the pain in a few minutes, or, at any rate, in a little while, and all will be lulled to rest. Keep this on two or three days until the burning and heat and inflammation are all gone, and then you may dress it with a salve made of beeswax and lard, or sweet oil; make it so as to be soft and pleasant and not irritating. If the lard or sweet oil are rancid, they may make the salve or ointment acrid and irritating, and so inflame the parts. Spread the salve on soft cloth, 'cotton, &c. Wood-Soot and Lard. This is one of the best preparations for a burn known, how- ever extensive it may be. The soot should be rubbed perfectly fine, and then carefully mixed with the lard,—one full tablespoon- ful of soot to three tablespoonfuls of fresh or sweet lard. Mix it perfectly together, and spread it on fine cotton cloths, the softer the better. If the burn is extensive, as on the limbs, extremi- ties, &c, then tear the cotton cloths into strips, two and a half to three inches wide, and spread the ointment on to these, and apply it carefully so as to cover all the parts perfectly, without any wrinkle, and utterly prevent all folds of the skin, or two opposite surfaces falling together, as, if they do, they will grow together. If two or more fingers or toes are burned or scalded, in dressing the part, put the dressing between each finger or toe, and keep it there on the cloth, so that the fingers may not grow together in healing; and do this with all surfaces that might grow together. This dressing may be keot on until the parts are perfectly well. It may be removed if you wish to take it off, &c. You can spread fresh and put it on again. You will find it a most reliable and excellent preparation. It takes out pain and soothes, often in ten minutes. If scalded all over, this is one of the best preparations I ever knew. White-lead paint, as prepared by the painter to use and ready to use, is also admirable for a burn. It may be put on with the paint-brush and be at once most efficacious. 64 DR. S. S. fitch's BRUISES. Frequently children and grown persons get bruised, &c. The best remedy is to put the bruised part in ice, and keep it in ice, or, if you cannot put it in ice, put it in ice-water frequently changed, so as to keep the bruised part very cold. Do this until all the pain has left, and then wrap it up- in a soft cloth wet in laudanum or tincture of arnica, and keep it on until well, which will be soon. In all cases of bruises on the face or about the eyes, put on at once a piece of ice and keep it on for some hours until all the swelling or pain is gone; then put on a cloth wet and kept wet in spirits of camphor. Do this, and in a day or two all stain of a bruise will be gone. MANAGEMENT OF THE TEETH FROM INFANCY TO AGE. A lady or gentleman having clean, regular, beautiful teeth will always be attractive and rarely fail of being beautiful. A good set of teeth contributes very much to lengthen life; whilst the loss of the teeth most surely tends to shorten it. Decayed, ugly, irregular, dirty, stained teeth are most offensive and most repul- sive, rendering beauty impossible. Diseases of infancy and childhood often greatly injure the teeth. In my remarks on the diseases of infants, I have said all I need say about cutting the gums, &c, and bringing out the first teeth. After the infant teeth come out, they should be kept clean and free from decay as possible. My tooth-powder may be used daily, or as often as you please, on the teeth and gums of young children, from the appearance of the first tooth until the first set of teeth are fully grown, and during the continuance of this set until the second or permanent set of teeth have all come. A tooth-brush need not be much used, but the tooth-powder may be applied with the finger,—say once or twice a week; and daily, if there is much fever, Or swelling of the gums, or heat, or cank%r FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 65 about the mouth. As the second teeth begin, the first ones should be loosened gently with the fingers, so that they may come out without pain, and all come out without interfering with the growth or regularity of the second set of teeth. The second set of teeth are from the sixth to the twentieth year before they are all fully grown. Notice that these teeth come out regularly and stand free in their places. If too much crowded or lapping one over the other, have side or back teeth enough extricated to give room for all the rest to come into their places. Keep the teeth clean and pure with the tooth-powder, which may be used once or twice a week, and always with benefit. Give the teeth room, by taking some out, if much crowded. Keep them clean with the tooth-powder and cold water, and let your children be brought up on plain, wholesome food; as little pastry and nieknacks as possible, free open air and exercise, and not too much confinement or study, and they will have regular, healthy, and beautiful teeth, for which they will bless you all their days. Of course, when possible, employ a good dentist to watch over, and advise, and do all that is necessary for the teeth. In sickness and fevers, use the tooth-powder daily if you can. This tooth-powder is perfect, giving health and Rweetness to the mouth and gums, and cleanliness, whiteness, and brilliancy to the teeth, and can never do any hurt. GOITRE, OR SWELLED NECK. This disease commences in a swelling at the root of the thro:;I in front. It is a swelling of the thyroid gland. Sometimes the swelling will take place only on one side of the throat, at other times both sides of the throat, sometimes both sides and front. The swelling at times becomes enormously large, so as to lie out on both shoulders. It is most repulsive in appearance, and at times destroys life. Causes of Goitre. Goitre is no doubt produced by a humor in the blood which settles on the thyroid gland and produces the swelling. Drinking C* 66 DR. S. S. FITCH'S mountain- or snow-water has been supposed to produce this hu- mor, and in this way the goitre. This disease is oftener found in mountainous districts. In great numbers of cases that I have examined, I have always noticed a disposition to scrofula or a humor in the blood. I have often noticed it in the plain, open country, not very near mountains. Curability. Goitre is in the commencement very curable. I have often cured it in eight weeks. When it is of long standing and of large size, the further growth can be stopped, and the injurious effects upon the breathing be relieved. The radical cure in such cases is only the work of years, but can be done by using proper temedies long enough. ST. VITUS' DANCE (CHOREA). I will not describe this disease. I always cure it. You may tpply to me with perfect confidence. A cure is certain, no matter how hard the case. Do not let it run on long, as it may do per- manent injury to your child. EPILEPTIC FITS. I will not describe these fits, only to say I often cure them. If y<>u write me about them for opinion or advice, be very particu« far to tell all about the case. HOW TO HAVE GOOD HEALTHY LUNGS. This can always be obtained by having a large, full chest, that plays free and full. By breathing properly, you can have a good chest. As often as you please, take long, full, deep breaths. Draw pure air into your lungs as long at once as you can. Do this as many times a day as you choose. Keep your chest and person erect and straight, avoid all stooping as far as possible, aud you will have good lungs. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 67 BOYS AND GIRLS AT SCHOOL. ^ Boys and girls should go to school together until of full mar- riageable age. An exclusive girls' school makes the girls a kind of nuns, timid, nervous,, shy, and health imperfect, frightened at the other sex, awkward and constrained in manners, with very few acquaintances unless they have great advantages of society at home. Exclusive boys' schools make the boys almost savages. They contrive to set up a sort of society among themselves and to exist ■without female society. Finally, they become shy of young ladies, are bashful among them, but bullies and blackguards a/xiong themselves. In this state of mind they leave school with but few female acquaintances and not partial to ladies' society. The step is now short to the club-room, billiard-saloons, gambling- and drinking-saloons, avoiding the church and assem- blages where there are ladies. Thus thousands go to destruction. All these evils are wholly prevented, and the sweetest life-long friendships are formed, by both sexes associating at school and in every stage of their education. God's holy, law, as developed in all nature, is that men and women shall live together, and of course should be educated together; and in all happy communities they are. Here the boys learn courtesy, manners, polish, and confidence. The girls de- ,. velop all their gracefulness, become confident, courteous, and -^tractive, and learn to suitably prize and not to shun the society of the opposite sex. To both sexes the mutual advantages and benefits are beyond all enumeration. This association becomes the best part of their education, without which no man can de- velop the high-bred, courteous gentleman of which he is capable. Nor can any woman without it attain to those highest graces and accomplishments of manners, dignity, courtesy, and taste, which would render her absolutely irresistible with the opposite sex and a mighty controlling power in society. 68 DR. S. S. FITCH'S LAWS OF LIFE. There are now living in the United States a great many per- sons who are over one hundred years old, some one hundred and ten, some one hundred and twenty, and even over this age. It is usually rather felt than expressed, that this great longevity results from a coincidence of accidents. It is not realized that it is a law of life that the age of men and women may attain to over one hundred years, and under equal circumstances all may attain to one hundred years. God is not partial. His laws are equal. Let any person live in accordance with the laws of life, using seasonable remedies for any deviations from health, and he may calculate with much certainty upon living to one hundred years. The laws of life, and the laws for the preservation of life, are few, are simple, are easily stated and easily remembered. The first law of life is the full and harmonious development of the whole system, so as to give us perfect symmetry of person. The second law is to have air and the person pure. The third law is to have food varied in kind, and sufficiently nutritive to sustain-all the functions of the system. The fourth law of life is that all we eat or drink must leave the system within a moderate period of time. To do this, it is indispensable that all the great emunctories, or outlets of the system, should be open, free, and unobstructed. The emunctories are the bowels, the kidneys, the skin, and lungs. If any of these are obstructed, or sluggish in the per- formance of their functions, good health cannot long be main- tained. Hence, free breathing of pure air; wholesome food—enough, and no more ; pure skin, and free bowels and kidneys, are indis- pensable to health and long life. With all this, never over-work the system, either as a whole or in part. Two days' work in one will soon lay low the strongest man or woman. In reading the histories of such workers, we usually find premature death the consequence. Great mental efforts should be avoided, and moderation, both in mental and physical efforts, be maintained. I doubt if any person ever died of old age, under eighty years; FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 69 and the most would reach one hundred years before dying of old age. It is a very common idea that the infirmities of a system a little worn by time, and much by labor, are caused by age, and r innot be relieved. I have always found the diseases of elderly jersons as curable and manageable as those of younger ones. They must be doctored with an eye to the fact that the aged, in tneir constitutions, become measurably like children, and must not be treated with harsh or hurtful medicines. It has been my delightful task, in a great many cases, to restore the aged to good health, and seeing them recovering their strength and enjoying life as pleasantly as in their best days. I think from fifty to eighty years of life, if in perfect health, are as utlightful as any other periods. CAUSES OF PREMATURE DEATHS. There are four great causes of sickness and premature deaths. First, a common cold, or checked perspiration. At least three- fourths of all the diseases originate from a cold or checked per- spiration ; this neglected, and hosts are sent to premature graves. I will not describe a cold, but only tell you how to cure it. When you find you have a cold, if any way serious, put your feet in very hot water at bedtime. Keep them in this hot water at least ten minutes. Salt, or wood-ashes, or bleaching soda, may be added, if you choose,—two tablespoonfuls of salt or soda, or half a pint of wood-ashes, to six quarts of very hot water. Ke

question of time, depending on the recuperative powers of the system. Do not expect that a disease of long standing can be cured in a week; but take time enough, and use remedies until you are well; then use remedies until your health is all confirmed, 72 DR. S. S. FITCH'S. when you may confidently expect tov live many years in good health. You will still, like other people, be liable to take cold, or contract fevers, or meet with accidents; but learn to use reme- dies promptly and faithfully, and you will soon get well, so that year after year your health will become strong and permanent. Keeping good health every day will certainly insure you a life extending to eighty or one hundred years. AH who would live long should have occupation and a purpose in life. It is of the first importance that we should have employ- ment profitable and pleasant, if possible, but, at all events, pleasant, —reading some, but physical exercise and labor more. Never be idle. Do something good, something useful, every day of your lives. Thus far I have spoken of physical laws. Now let me speak of moral ones, and their effects upon longevity. If you would live long and see -good days, cultivate all the virtues and all the affections ; outwardly lead a life of morality, inwardly a life of piety. Live close under the wings of the Almighty. So appreciate God and his gifts that you shall love him. So treat all that they shall love }rou. Do as you would be done by, and be not an unequal judge in this matter. If there is a sight more deplorable than another, it is that of a person whom no one loves. I will not attempt to describe them; but such have existed. Never lose an opportunity of doing a favor. It is seed that will produce happiness all your life. Drive selfishness from your heart. By this course, no remorse or evil passions will dis- turb your conscience or rack your system, and your memories in old age will be as pleasant as were your hopes in youth. Time will embrace you gently. In physical strength and mental beauty, you will tread lightly past your hundredth year. In the fulness of your days, God will lift the veil, and you will pasa from time fearless and happy. FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 73 Throat-Diseas6 and Loss of Voice for Twenty-five Years per- fectly Cured. Jeffersonville, Indiana, October 22, 1854. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Dear Sir :—In 1828 I began to lose my voice. In six months I was entirely speechless. I tried the best physicians in five different States, without benefit. I applied to you last spring. I was then speechless, and coughing almost incessantly day and night, with short breathing, and pain in the left shoulder. I commenced using your remedies and following your advice strictly, and the result is my voice is perfectly restored, and I am entirely free from bad feelings, which had never left me fof one hour in twenty-six years. I lived a mute twenty-five years, but for the last two months can talk and sing as in my youthful days. My health is good. Very truly, yours, Mrs. LUCRETIA LEWIS. Case of Consumption Cured. Oberlin, Ohio, March 25, 1866. Dr. S. S. Fitch : My dear Sir:—It is about three months since I wrote, the ' improved condition of my health not requiring it. I can but fail when I attempt to express the sense of gratitude I feel that God has been pleased to direct me to one through whose agency health, that most desirable earthly blessing, has been regained. I can- uot forbear giving a synopsis of my case. In 1862 I was attacked with bleeding of the lungs, which my physician told me came only from the throat; but the attending weakness and prostration convinced me that it came from a more vital part. After several weeks, I seemingly recovered. Six months later, was attacked again, and bled now profusely. After a lapse of about the 3ame length of time, had a third and still more violent attack; and thus the disease continued growing on me, accompanied by a severe cough, night-sweats, pain in the chest and sides, wasting of fledh, and general debility and prostration. I consulted the most 7 74 DR. S. S. FITCH'S talented and experienced medical men in the State, who pro- nounced me labelled, said my lungs were full of tubercles, and that a few months at most would confirm their opinion. Was unable to attend to business; and, being aware that I was con- stantly and rapidly failing, I despaired of ever being any better, and my friends gave me up, as gone in consumption. I was advised by one who knew of your successful treatment of that disease, and as a last effort, to see you; and, I must say, with little " hope I went to your office in New York, the 6th of February, 1865. You gave me remedies, which I began using immediately after my return, using them regularly and carefully as directed. It was but a few weeks until I began to realize that the current had turned. My cough was allayed, pains subsided, appetite improved, strength accumulated; in short, life seemed renewed. There were times, however, when I became discouraged, because of a relapse occasioned by exposure or a cold; but I could but know that I was steadily improving, and in July, having used your medicines six months, I returned to my business, and since then have not been interrupted at all by lung difficulty, and have labored from ten to eighteen hours per day, and have gained twenty pounds. I now eat well, sleep well, and feel well,—in fact, am in better health than I have been for six years. Had I yielded to the prevailing prejudice, that all pretension to cure consumption is quackery, I should inevitably ere this have yielded to the penalty of this most fatal error. Remembering your kind and attentive care, and appreciating your success, I remain, my dear sir, ° Yours, very truly, L. R. DRAKE, Prof, of Penmanship Union Business Institute. Conclusion of a very interesting Case of Long Illness. Newport, Rhode Island, April 16, 1866. Dr. S. S. Fitch: Dear Sir:—I write to-day, not to ask for medicine or advice but to tell you how well I feel. I have continued to improve in health ever since I saw you. It is true, I am not entirely free FAMILY PHYSICIAN. 75 from aches and pains, and get tired very easily; still, I am most happy to call myself well. I am not taking any medicine now, I do not feel the need of it. Let me thank you once more for your kindness to me. I have but one regret about not needing medical advice; and that is, I dislike very much to lose sight of one who has been so generously kind to me and taken such a / interest in me. You will ever be remembered most kindly by i * * * * Asthma Cured, 128 Jackbook Street, March 28, 1866, London, Old England. Dear Sir:—I am anxious to send you a testimonial to testify to the good I have received from you. I was afflicted with asthma for many years, and the attacks at last were of a nature so severe as to cause my eyes to appear starting from my head, my com- plexion to turn black, and the perspiration to pour from me. Night after night I was unable to lie down in bed, and my suffer- ings so great that I have not been expected to live until morning. My medical adviser said he could do no more for me,—that I could not recover. My friends, also, considered my case hopeless. ] then sent for you, and by your kind and skilful treatment and taking your invaluable medicine, I am thankful to say that in four months I was quite restored to health. I find it quite im- possible to express my heartfelt thanks to you; but you will ever have my unbounded gratitude for the inestimable good I hav received from you. I remain, dear sir, Yours, gratefully, MARGARET JACKER. HAIR-DYE. Crystals Nitrate of Silver.................. Aqua Ammonia.............................. Pure Water..................................... Mix. i oz. 9. << 76 DR. S. S. FITCH'S FAMILY PHYSICIAN. Apply to the hair with a tooth-brush. No washing is necessary, either before or after the application; only let it dry at first. With all I put up, I forward more minute directions than I can give here. COLOGNE WATER. Oil of Lavender.................................................. 80 drops. " Rosemary................................................ 160 " " Lemon..................................................... 240 " " Bergamot................................................. 240 " " Cinnamon................................................. 6 " " Neroli.,7................................................... 320 " Attar of Roses................................................... 48 " Musk............................................................... 16 grs. Alcohol............................................................ 1 gallon. TOOTH-POWDER. Peruvian Bark, powdered....................................... 3 oz. Gum Myrrh, powdered.......................................... i " Nut-Galls, powdered............................................. J " Cuttle-Fish Bone, powdered.................................... $ " Chloride of Lime.................................................. J " Oil of Bergamot................................................... 60 drops. Mix, and pulverize all perfectly. Use once to three times a week. It has no superior. FOR SEA-SICKNESS. Tinct. Guaiaci Composita............................................ gii. " Veronica Virginica (Pulvis), " Jalapa (Pulvis), " Rhei (Pulvis), " Senna fol. (Pulvis), " Spiritus Mentha Viridis................................ £5 gii. Aqua Calcis............................................................ Oi. Mix. Dose is one tablespoonful every six hours until wholly weU. i CANCERS. I have in many instances cured cancers where they j have not broken out, and cured them byinternal medicines f and external applications, but no caustics or any thiag of { that kind. I do it by curing the cancer humor in the blood. Many cancers that have broken out are curable in this way. References given if required. I WORMS. There are several varieties. The stomach and long round worms are best cured by the use of the Carolina Pink; all the apothecaries keep it, and will direct its proper use. The Pin worms are best cured by drinking one table- spoonful to a wineglassful of strong tea made from the bark of the hog, walnut, or bitter walnut. Use it until well. Take it three times a day. SORE LEGS. These are occasionally met, with awful sores of many years continuance. I have doctored and cured every one that has ever been placed under my care, and they are soon cured. Best references given if required. I cure all of them, and all sores. N. B.—This book is sent to any address and no pay required until it is received, read, and fully approved. Give State, County, Town, Post-Office. Most excellent medicine for Diarrhoea and the green evacuations of children :— Gentian, powdered, 9ii. Colombo, powdered, 9ii Bayberry Bark, 9i£. Carbonate of Ammonia, 3ii. Gum Myrrh, Zlj. Gum Guaiac, 3i. Mix carefully. Put this to half a pint of brandy and half a pint of water. Let it stand two days; shake it well when you use it, and take one teaspoonful for a child, one tablespoonful for an adult, after each meal, in a little water. Case of Throat, Lungs and Stomach, long diseased, Cured. Dr. S. S. Fitch : On the sixth day of February, 1866, I called on you in this city. I had a bad cough four years, raised blood and a great deal of phlegm and matter. My throat was so sore and closed up that at times it seemed to mo I must choke to death. I suffered cruelly from dyspepsia and distress in my stomach. Often after meals, < I would feel as if I had swallo"wed a handful of needles. I suffered terribly from other complaints. I had utterly despaired of any cure. My father and grand- mother died of consumption. Your remedies, in a few months, cured mo wholly in all respects. What a delightful summer I have passed! I have taken some cold this fall, but for this, my health is excellent. Eefer to 63 Wetbosset Street, Miss H-----M. S ■ Providence, K. I. Case of Consumption Cured. Dr. S. S. Fitch : Two years ago, last August, I called to see you. I had had a cough three years; disease called true Pulononary Consumption ; raised a great deal, much reduced, discouraged, no remedies useful, know not what to do. My brother sent me to you—yon encouraged me. For three months hardly any gain, even worse. I say this because many not better soon, or even worse, give up, who by good counsel and perse verence would have got well. You encouraged me. Alter three months I gained rapidly, in ten months cough was gone, I was well. In May left off flannels, took cold and a bad relapse; was worse than ever ; your remedies again faithfully used, cured mo. My brother, not half so ill as I was, applied to yeu two weeks after I did, declined treatment as not sick enough and died of con- sumption in ten months. I believe wiCh your remedies he would now have been living. I most urgently entreat others to seek your assistance. Gratefully I thank you for your interest in me and my cure. No. 1 Broad Stbeet, Miss A. W. PECKHAM. Newport, R. I., Nov. 14th, 1806. Case of true Heart Disease Cured.—Case of Capt. Geo. W. Cobb. Da. S. S. Fitch : January 10, 1866, I called on you at your office in Boston. I had been ill a long time, and could obtaiu little or no relief from any one. I had severe pain In my left breast and side, in my heart, back, shoulders, 4c. Great crowding and sense of fulness and suffocation in my left chest, a great deal of palpitation, stoppage, aad fluttering and hard beating of my heart. Breath very short, which on exercise increased so much, that I could walk but very little, or do any work, or take any bodily exercise. I was wholly given up as an incurable.. I have now been under your care ten months. I am very well. I have been as well the last summer as in twenty years past. I have recommonded many in- valids to you, and your success with them excites my admiration and wonder I would say to all invalids troubled with short breathing, palpitation, pain, headache, dizziness, esp3c;ially elderly er fleshy persons, go at once to Dr. S. s' Fitch for relief. I feel as if twenty years have been added to my life. (Signed,) GEO. W. COBB Diqhton, Mass., Nov. 10th, 18t>6 ,/J»L«r; V< Cc