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ARMED FORCES MEDICAL LIBRARY

       Washington, D. C.

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PRESENTED TO
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   IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WISHES OP THE


 Eev. HENEY W. DUCAOHET, M.D., D.D.,

   Rector of St. Stephens Church, Philadelphia,
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BY HIS RELICT,
ANN D. DUCACHET.
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                          zfno  .


           OBSERVATIONS

                  ON THE


   EPIDEMICAL DISEASES

                    OF


             MINORCA.


       FROM THE YEAR 1744 TO 1749.


             TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A short Account of the Climate, Productions, Inhabitants, and
          Endemial Distempers of Minorca.


       BY GEORGE CLEGHORN, M. D.
      Professor of Anatomy in the University of Dublin.


             WITH NOTES, &c.

         BY BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D.
   Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine in the
             University of Pennsylvania.


          SECOND AMERICAN EDITION.



             PHILADELPHIA:
           PRINTED FOR F. NICHOLS.
               William Fry, Printer.
                   1812. 
     District of Pennsylvania, to wit:
  »*♦******    gE IT remembered> That on the seventeenth
  J L. S. * day of October, in the thirty-seventh )'ear of the
  »***»•**£ Independence of the United  States  of America,
 A. D. 1812, Francis Nichols, of the said district, hath deposited
 in this office, the title  of a book, the right whereof he claims
 as proprietor, in the words following to wit:

     " Observations  on  the Epidemical  Diseases of Minorca.
       " From the year 1744 to  1749. To  which is  prefixed a
       " SJiort  Account  of the Climate, Productions,  Inhabi-
       " tants, andEndemial Distempers of Minorca By George
       " Cleghorne, M  D. Professor of Anatomy in the Univer-
       sity  of Dublin. With  Notes, &c. By Benjamin  Rush,
       " M. D.  Professor' of the  Institutes  and  Practice of
       " Medicine in  the  University of Pennsylvania. Second
       " American Edition."

   In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United  States,
intitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing
the copies of Maps,  Charts,  and Books,  to  the  authors  and
proprietors of such copies during the times therein  mention-
ed."—And also to the act, entitled, " An  Act supplementary
to an Act, intituled, " An Act for the encouragement of learn-
ing, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the
authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein
mentioned," and  extending the benefits thereof to the arts of
designing, engraving,  and  etching historical and other prints."
                            D. CALDWELL,
                    Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. 
                    TO THE

     STUDENTS OF MEDICINE

                     IN THE

        UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.


     GENTLEMEN,

 1 HE following work  contains a greater mass of
practical knowledge in  a  small  compass, than  any-
book perhaps of the same kind in medicine. It  has
passed through many editions, and it now occupies
a place  in the libraries of most of the physicians in
the British empire. Its merit consists chiefly in the
number and importance of its facts, which afford
the surest passport of a medical book to present and
future generations.  The notes which I  have added
to this first American edition of this valuable work,
are intended to point out a  few of its errors, but
chiefly to impress  those remarks, upon your minds,
which accord  with the diseases and  mode  of prac-
tice that are  common in the United  States. The
notes to which I allude, are distinguished from those
of the author, by the references being made by means
of the letters of the alphabet.
   Permit me to recommend to your  imitation the
same practice in improving the science of medicine,
which has been pursued by the author  of this work.
 It consists, as you will perceive, in  delivering  dis-
9 
iv
DEDICATION.
eases from the insulated place they held in systems
of nosology, and connecting them with climate, sea-
son, aliments,  drinks, dress,  and national manners.
To enable you to imitate our author with success, it
will be  necessary to record  facts as they occur.
" Studium sine  calamo,  somnium," said the Latin
poet. The same thing may be said of the most ex-
tensive practice, where notes are not made of dis-
eases.   A  correct  knowledge of  them, however
strongly impressed upon the mind at the time they
are seen, will pass out of the memory like a dream
in the course of a few years.  By recording the facts
which relate to them, the extremes of youth and age
may be  made to meet in  a middle point, or in other
words, the benefits of long experience may be anti-
cipated  in early life.  The book now in your hands
is a proof of the truth of this remark. It was com-
posed and published before the author had attained
the thirty-fourth year of his  age.
   In composing the notes which I have added to this
work I  have taken  it for granted that you are ac-
quainted with the principles of  medicine  which I
have taught in the  university of Pennsylvania, and
of course I have omitted an explanation of them  in
the occasional references I have made to  them.
   I shall conclude this dedication by subjoining the
following account of the life of our author extracted
from Dr. Benjamin Hutchinson's Biographia Medi-
ca, from which )tou will discover some other of the
means, beside  those  that  have been mentioned, by
which he acquired his knowledge and reputation  in
his profession.
   " Dr. George Cleghorn was born of reputable pa- 
DEDICATION.
V
 rents at Granton, in the parish of Crammond, near
 Edinburgh, on the 18th of December, 1716. His fa-
 ther died in 1719, and left a widow and five chil-
 dren.  George, who was the youngest son, received
 the  rudiments  of his  education in the  grammar
 school of Crammond, and in the year 1728, was sent
 to Edinburgh, to be further instructed in the Latin,
 Greek, and French; where, to a singular profkiency
 in these languages, he added a considerable stock of
 mathematical knowledge.
   " In the beginning of the year 1731 he resolved to
 study physic and surgery, and had the  happiness of
 being placed under the tuition of the late Dr. Alex-
 ander  Monro, a name that will  be revered in that
 university, as long as science shall be cherished and
 cultivated. This great professor was  esteemed  by
 all, but especially by those who  were more imme-
 diately under his direction.  It was the lot of young
 Cleghorn to live under his roof;  and, in one of his
 letters, his  pupil appeared to dwell with peculiar
 pleasure upon this circumstance,  observing that4 his
 amiable  manners, and unremitting  activity in pro-
 moting the public welfare, endeared him  to all his
 acquaintance, but more  particularly to those who
 lived under his roof, and had daily opportunities  of
 admiring the sweetness of his conversation, and the
 invariable  benignity  of  his  disposition.'  For five
 vears he continued to profit by the  instruction and
example of his excellent master, visiting patients  in
company with him, and  assisting at the dissections
in the anatomical theatre; at the same  time he at-
tended in their turn the lectures in botany, materia
medica, chemistry, and the theory and practice of hie-
                       a 2 
VI
DEDICATION.
 dicine; and by extraordinary diligence he attracted
 the notice of all his preceptors.
   " On Dr.  Fothergill's  arrival from  England at
 this university, in the year 1733,  Dr. Cleghorn was
 introduced to his acquaintance, and soon became his
 inseparable companion.  These  pupils then  studied
 together the different branches of science under the
 same masters, with equal ardour and  success; they
 frequently met to compare the  notes  they had col-
 lected from the professors, and to communicate their
 respective observations. Their  moments of relaxa-
 tion, if that time can  be called relaxation, which is
 devoted to social studies, were spent in a select so-
 ciety of fellow students, of which  Fothergill,  Rus-
 sel, and Cuming, were associates; a  society  since
 incorporated under the  name of the Royal Medical
 Society of Edinburgh.
  " Early in the year 1736, when young Cleghorn
had scarcely entered into his twentieth vear, so great
 had been  his progress, and so high a character had
 he acquired, that, upon the recommendation of Dr.
 St. Clair,  he was appointed surgeon in the  22d re-
 giment of foot, then stationed in Minorca, under the
 command of general  St. Clair.  During a residence
 of thirteen years in that island, whatever time could
 be spared from attending the  duties of his station,
 he employed,  either in investigating the nature of
 epidemic diseases, or  in gratifying the early passion
 he had imbibed  for anatomy, frequently dissecting
 human bodies, and  those of apes, which he had pro-
 cured froni Barbary,  and comparing their structure
 with the  descriptions  of Galen  and  Vesalius.  In
 these pursuits  he was much assisted by his corre- 
DEDICATION.
vn
spondent Dr. Fothergill, who, he acknowledges, was
indefatigable in searching the London shops for such
books as he wanted.
  " In 1749 he left Minorca, and went to Ireland with
the 22d  regiment,  and in the autumn of 1750 he
went  to  London,  and, during  the publication  of
' The Diseases of Minorca,' attended Mr. Hunter's
anatomical lectures. In the publication of his book
he was materially assisted by Dr. Fothergill. Of this
work the following eulogium  has  been pronounced
by a competent judge: ' It forms  a just  model for
the imitation of future medical writers;  it not only
exhibits  an accurate state of the air, but a minute
detail of the vegetable productions of the island, and
concludes with medical observations important in
every point of view,  and in some  instances,  either
new,  or applied in  a  manner  which  preceding
practitioners had not admitted.'   It  is  a practice
for which we stand  indebted to  Dr. Cleghorn, to
recommend  acescent  vegetables in low, remittent,
and putrid fevers, and the early and copious exhibi-
tion  of  bark, which  had  been interdicted, from
mistaken facts, deduced from false theories.
   " In 1751 the doctor settled in Dublin; and, in
imitation of Monro and Hunter, began  to give an-
nual courses of anatomy.  A few years after his re-
 sidence  in Dublin  he was admitted into the univer-
 sity as lecturer in  anatomy.  In the year 1784 the
 college of physicians of that city elected him  an
 honorary  member; after which,  from  lecturer  in
 anatomy, he was made professor, and had likewise
 the honour of being one of the original members of
 the Irish academy  for promoting  arts and sciences,
 which is  now  established  by royal authority.  In 
Vlll
DEDICATION.
  1777, when the royal medical society was established
  at Paris, he was nominated a fellow ofit.
    " About 1774, on the death oi his only brother in
  Scotland, he sent for his surviving family, consisting
  of the widow and nine children, and settled them in
  Dublin  under his own eye,  that he might have it
  more in his power to afford them that protection and
  assistance of which they might stand in need.  His
  eldest nephew,  William, he educated in the medical
 profession; but after giving him  the best education
 which Europe could afford, and getting him joined
 with himself in the lectureship, the doctor's pleasing
 hopes were  unfortunately frustrated  by  the young
 gentleman's death, which  happened  about the year
 1784.
   " Dr. Cleghorn, with an acquired independence,
 devoted his moments of leisure to farming and hor-
 ticulture.  But his  attention to  these  employments
 did not diminish his care of his relations, who, from
 a grateful and affectionate regard, looked up to him
 as a parent:  the  duties of  which  station he so ten-
 derly  supplied, as to  induce  Dr.  Lettsom, from
 whose memoirs this  account is taken, to apply to
 him  the words of Horace, ' Notus in fratres animi
 paterni.'  Dr. Cleghorn died in December 1789."
  With cordial  salutations, I  am,  gentlemen, verv
respectfully your sincere friend,
                        BENJAMIN RUSH.
   September 1809 
TO THE
       SOCIETY  OF  SURGEONS

                       OF

          HIS MAJESTY'S ROYAL NAVY.

     GENTLEMEN,

jA.S many of you must be sensible, how little the
best information we can acquire in this temperate
climate, qualifies us for treating the diseases which
are frequent in warmer latitudes, with the  desired
success,  I take the liberty to address the following
sheets to your society.
  They contain, it is true, an account of the diseases
only of a small, remote part of the British dominions;
but of a part in which numbers of his majesty's sub-
jects, beside  the  natives and those  employed in the
protection of the place, are often brought together,
both in time of peace and war: and as the qualities
of the air, and the course of the seasons in Minorca
correspond nearly with those in several other parts
of the world, to which our  fleets frequently repair,
it  is  probable  that the  diseases may likewise  be
similar.
  Would all who practise physic in our factories and
colonies abroad embrace the opportunity which their
situation affords, to make proper observations on the
sick, and communicate them to the public, we should 
X
DEDICATION.
 soon have a more  exact and ample history of dis-
 eases, than we are yet possessed of; and future prac-
 titioners would be  enabled to shun the dangers into
 which many have fallen, and to conduct those com-
 mitted to their care through the disorders to which
 they  are exposed, with satisfaction and honour to
 themselves, and no small benefit to their country. It
 is therefore  with great pleasure that  I see this is
 particularly recommended, in the plan for publishing
 medical  observations, which you  have lately esta-
 blished, and will, it  is hoped, prosecute  with the
 vigour which so useful an institution deserves.
   For my own part, I must confess, I had not been
 long in Minorca ere I had great reason to wish that
 some of the practitioners who had been there before
 me, and who must have seen how  widely the predo-
 minant distempers in  this island differ from those in
 England, had been  at the pains to furnish their suc-
 cessors with some hints, some observations, by which
the fatal consequences frequently  attending  these
 diseases, might  have  been timely foreseen, or hap-
pily prevented.
   Being  therefore  fully  convinced, that  some re-
marks of this nature might  be useful to those who
should afterwards practise in this island, I determin-
ed to observe and record, with the utmost care and
impartiality, whatever should appear conducive to a
thorough knowledge of its diseases and their cure;
imagining that, next to the immediate care of the
sick, this would be the most essential service, which
one in my station could render to the public.
   With this view, in the year 1743, I began to keep
a diary of the weather, to  remark  the course of the 
DEDICATION.
'xi
seasons,  to  describe the diseases  which they  pro-
duced, and that commonly in  the  chambers  of the
sick: which diary I continued, with no small  labour
and assiduity, in the midst of an extensive practice,
both among the English and Natives, till  the  year
1749, when the removal of the regiment, in which I
have the honour to serve, obliged me to leave the
island, and furnished  me with leisure for revising
my observations,  and  collecting, from a vast  multi-
tude of  cases,  such  general remarks as  appeared
worthy to be communicated to the public.
   You will observe that amongst  the epidemics of
Minorca, tertian fevers  make the most considerable
part.  The diversity of their types, the violence of
their symptoms, their  fallacious intermissions,  their
sudden,  and  too frequently  pernicious events,  ren-
dered it necessary to give an explicit account of themj
and the more so, as they seldom appear in this man-
ner in  the northern  parts  of  Europe;  though in
Greece,  in Italy, and the adjacent countries,  it is
evident  from the  remains  of  antiquity,* and the
writings of the most judicious moderns,f that  they
ever have  been,  and  still are,  very  frequent,  and
that with a surprising constancy and uniformity of
symptoms; though to  one who never had an  oppor-
tunity of observing them in all shapes, nor seen them
amply described, they have  the appearance of great
irregularity and confusion.

  * Hippocrat. Aphor. § iii.  No. 21, and De Morb. Vulg. Lib.
vit. Asclepiad. apud Cxi. Aurel. de Morb.  Acut. Lib. ii. Cap. x.
Galen de Morb. Temp, sub finem.
  t River. Lib. xvii. § iii  Cap. i. Lancis. Epid.  Torti Thera-
peuu Special. Bianch. Hist. Hepat. p. 3, 8cc. 
Xll
DEDICATION.
   And it is more than probable, from the accounts
of several physicians* and travellers, that epidemi-
cal tertians are not wholly confined to the coasts and
islands of the Mediterranean; but that they  are
equally frequent and destructive in many other parts
of the globe, and perhaps may be  deemed the anni-
versary autumnal distempers of most hot countries
in the world.  t
   A tertian, it is true, when  once discovered, may
for the most part be readily cured, as we  have so
safe and efficacious a remedy as  the  bark in our
hands. But in warm climates, such is the rapid pro-
gress of this distemper, that it is requisite we should
know it in the beginning, that no opportunity may
be lost of giving the remedy in a sufficient  quantity
to avert those dangers into which the sick are other-
wise very soon precipitated: yet the  variableness of
its aspect, and its frequently personating other acute
diseases, render this often difficult to the most ex-
perienced; and much  more so to those who have
seldom or never seen such tertians, as they are only
now and then to be met with in England.
  These considerations  induce me to believe, that
the account of them contained in the following pages,
will neither be unacceptable nor useless to  many of
your society; and particularly to those, who, by their
station in his majesty's service, are often obliged to
take care of numbers  of their fellow subjects, in
climates  exposed to such disorders; whilst  at the
same time their quick transition from one place to

  * Spigel. de  Semitertian. Lib. iii. Cap. i. Tennent on  the
Diseases of Virginia, p. 12. Warren on the Fever of Barbadoes,
p. 70. 
DEDICATION.
xiii
another, prevents their acquiring a competent know-
ledge of the various epidemics from their own ob-
servation.
  To you therefore, gentlemen, I address these re-
marks with the utmost deference and esteem, being
in hopes, that the motives which prevailed with me
to offer them to you and the public, will sufficiently
plead my apology to both, for  any imperfections
which may appear in this performance, with regard
to method or expression. I am,
                Your most humble servant,
                            G. CLEGHORN.
b 
 
                CONTENTS.


                    INTRODUCTION.
The Air in Minorca............Page 1
The Seasons of the Year............    2
Heat and Cold   .   ;.............    2
Winds......;...........    3
Rain, and other Meteors............    4
The Soil, and its Productions.....*.  .  .   .  .    6
Corn....................    7
Wine....................    7
Pulse.....................    8
Roots, Sallads, and Pot-herbs..........    9
Fruits  and Trees cultivated ..........'.   11
                indigenous..........21
Minerals.................26
Fish  . •..................27
Cattle    ..................
Domestic Fowl...............ZX
Wild Fowl.................32
Water Fowl................32
Birds of Passage..............32
Eatable Snails...............34
The natural Temper of the Minorquines  .......   34
Their Diet................35
Their Festivals and Public Diversions.......37
Their ancient Usages.............39
Endemia) Diseases    .............42
      Obstructions of the Abdominal Viscera  ....   42
      Hemorrhoids   .  .  .  ..........44
      Ulcers of the Legs   ...........44
      Ruptures...............45
      Sore Eyes..............   45
      Nephritic Pains......'......45
      Convulsion of the Jaw in Children......46
      Accidents from endemial Causes......47
Their Notions of Witchcraft and evil Spirits.....48 
xvi
CONTENTS.
                      CHAPTER I.
 The Weather described from the Year 1744 to 1749    Page 49
 A Thermometries Table...........73

                      CHAPTER If.
 A short Account of the epidemical Diseases from 1744 to
    1749.........\........75

                     CHAPTER III.
 Tertian Fevers, why so called..........85
 The Diversity of Tertians occasioned by the different Types
   of their Periods, viz.
      Simple Tertians, true and spurious......88
      Double Tertians............88
      True, Spurious, and Subin^rant Double Tertians .   89
      Triple Tertians.............89
      Semitertians.....<l........  .   qq
      Intermittent, Remittent, and Continual Tertians .   90
      Anticipating and Postponing Tertians.....91
 The Diversity of  Tertians occasioned by the different
   Symptoms of their Paroxysms    ........91
 Lipyria, Febris Syncopalis, Assopes, Elodes, &c.  .   .  .   92
 The Constancy of Nature in the Course of Tertians   .  -   93
 Their most frequent Form in their Beginning   ....   94
      In their Progress............95
      In their State and Declension........96
 Signs of Security in Tertians   .  .........98
      of Danger...............gg
      of Death, and when to be expected......101
 Appearances on opening the Bodies of the Dead  :   .  .  104
What Species of Tertians are most common in Minorca .  106
Management of the Non-naturals in the Cure of Tertians  107
 Of Bleeding................  114
Of Vomiting and Purging...........if 7
When Tertians may be left to  Nature  ,......119
When they require the Bark..........120
When Purgatives should be joined with the Bark  ...  123
When Cordials............:   .  .  123
Prejudices against  the Bark considered......J25
Its Use recommended in several Cases, where forbid by
   Authors   .-.„..,.,..,,.   #     jog 
                    CONTENTS.                xvii

The Cure of the Symptoms in Tertians .  ....  Page 132
Acute Pains in the Back and Limbs........132
Vomiting and Purging.............132
Restlessnes and Head-achs...........133
Hemorrhages from the Nose..........133
Pain and Inflammation in the lower Belly ......  133
Coma .  .  .  i#  ...  .$...........133
Hiccough   .....  .4...........134
Abscesses near the Hip  .j...........134
Parotids......  /*...........134
Of Relapses of Tertians, their Prevention and Cure   .   .  135
Of sporadic Tertians.............136
The Frequency of epidemical Tertians  in many Parts of
   the Globe................137
The Bark  recommended by the best Practitioners of dif-
   ferent Nations..............138

                     CHAPTER IV.
Of the Sudamina or Rasjl...........139
Of the Essere, called Faffls in Minorca    ......140
Of the Cholera Morbus^............  141

                     CHAPTER V.
In what  Manner Dysenteries begin........143
How they terminate, and the Appearances in such as die
   of them.................144
Ipecacuanha and VitrumiAntimonii recommended in some
   Dysenteries   .   .  v............146
The antiphlogistic Method in others........147
Hardened Excrements commonly collected  in the  Guts,
   when the Ilium, Colon, or Rectum is inflamed  .  .   .  148
Calomel with  Opium, the best Remedy to dislodge them .  148
Of old inveterate Dysenteries..........149
Opium of great Service in them.........149
In what  Sort of Dysenteries the Bark is successful   .   .  150

                     CHAPTER VI
General  Remarks on the Summer and Winter Fevers   .  152
Of the Pleurisy in the Year 1746.........154
Its treacherous Remissions...........157
On what Days the Patients died  ........  158 
xviii                CONTENTS.
Appearances in the dead Bodies <■■■..  .  .  ~  .   •     Page 159
A Case of an Abscess in the Liver/........160
The natural Evacuations which terminate Pleurisies  .  .  161
The capital Remedies in the Cure  of Pleurisies   .   •  •  165
Othor collateral Helps............*69
Of the inflammatory Diseases, epidemical at the same
   Time with the Pleurisy  ..**......••  170
Extracts from Letters concerning the Pleurisy   .  ,  .  .  171

                    CHAPTER VIL
Of the  Smallpox in the Year 1742......-  ■   174
Of the  Smallpox in 1746 .  .  ...........176
Their pestilential Disposition..........177
Two Cases cured by the early Use of  the antiphlogistic
   Method   ................181
Three, wherein this Method failed   ........   181
The Danger of the  natural Smallpox,  and the Safety of
   Inoculation...............184 
 
 
THE
            INTRODUCTION.


 W HEN  I determined to write upon the  fevers,
which have, of late years, been  epidemical in Mi-
norca  I thought it would not be improper,  in the
first place,  to give a short account of the nature of
the climate; the qualities of the soil, and its produc-
tions; the manners of the inhabitants, their diet and
way of life;  and to mention some other diseases to
which they are peculiarly subject.
   The  following introduction is intended for  this
purpose; and the reader will easily discover by the
style, that it  was composed during my residence in
that island.
   The  air  is much more  clear  and  pure  than in
Britain; being seldom darkened with thick fogs: yet
the low valleys are not free from mists and unwhole-
some vapours; and in windy weather the spray of
the sea is driven over the whole  island; as is evident
from the briny dew found on the  leaves of vegetables
growing in the most inland parts of  it. Hence it is,
that utensils of brass or iron are extremely suscepti-
ble of rust, in spite Of all endeavours to preserve
them; and  household furniture, if not frequently ex-
posed to fire  or the sun, contracts a mouldiness, and
is destroyed by the moisture.
                        A 
2
INTRODUCTION.
   The summers are dry, clear, calm, and hot; the
 autumns  moist, warm, and unequal;  at one  time
 perfectly  serene, at another cloudy and tempestuous.
 Nor are  the summer and  autumnal seasons of one
 year much different from those of another. During
 the winter, storms of any kind, are neither frequent,
 nor of long continuance (though sometimes  very
 Violent);  and whenever they cease, the weather re-
 turns to its  usual serenity. The spring is always va-
 riable, but bears a stronger resemblance of the winter
 than of the summer season.
   The changes of heat and cold are neither so sud-
 den nor so  great in this  climate as in  many others.
 In the  compass of  a year,  the mercury in Fahren-
 heit's thermometer seldom rises much above the 80th,
 nor falls below the 48th  degree; and though it  has
 been observed, in extraordinary seasons, to reach the
 87th, and descend to the 41st degree; yet it  attains
 not usually  to  either of these extremities, nor con-
 tinues at them long. In summer there is scarcely ever
 a difference of four or five degrees between the heat
 of the air  at noon, and at night; and in winter the
variation is still less considerable.
   What I have said with regard to the  thermome-
ter, is  to be understood of one  kept  within  doors,
and so situated, as neither to be affected by the solar
rays, nor the influence of a fire. For if it be exposed
to the summer's sun, it will rise 12, 14, or 16 degrees
higher than  in the house; and in other seasons, the
difference  between  the  air in the shade, and that
heated by the  direct rays of the sun, is  frequently
found much greater. Yet even in the dog days, the
heat of the atmosphere, at;  least in  open places, 
INTRODUCTION
3
 where there is a free circulation of air, seldom sur-
 passes that of the blood of a man in health.
   The winds  about  the vernal and autumnal equi-
 noxes, and sometimes during the winter,  are  ex-
 tremely boisterous.  In the other  seasons they  are
 usually moderate; and according to  the seamen's
 observations, they rarely blow in the same direction
 near the islands adjacent to the gulf of Lyons, as in
 the  open sea.
   During the summer, in the mornings and evenings,
 there is commonly a perfect calm:  but the middle of
 the  day is cooled by refreshing breezes,  which rise
 in the  east, and following the course of the  sun,
 increase gradually till two or three o'clock in  the
 afternoon;  and  die  away insensibly as night  ap-
 proaches.  This renders the intense heat of  the sun
 less  dangerous and inconvenient; but if these  breezes
 intermit for a day, the natives themselves" grow lan-
 guid and inactive from the sultriness of the season.
   The  northerly winds in general are cold, dry, and
 healthy; they dispel the mists, and make a clear blue
 sky;  whilst those  which  blow from the opposite
 points render the air warm, moist, and  unhealthy.
 That the influence of the  north wind is superior to
the rest, is evident from hence, that the tops of all
the trees incline to the south, and the branches on
the north side  are bare and blasted. The next to it
in force is the northwest.   Both these winds are fre-
quent towards  the close of winter, and  in  spring;
and  as  they are  dry and  cold, they shrivel  up the
leaves of the vegetables, destroy their tender  shoots,
and  are often  excessively  detrimental to the vine-
yards and  rising corn. The  piercing blasts, which 
4              INTRODUCTION.
blow  at the same season from  the  northeast, as
they are moister, and more frequently attended with
rain, are not so prejudicial. The south and southeast
Winds are  by much the most unhealthy. In whatever
seasons they blow, the air is foggy,  and affects the
breathing;  but in  the summer they  are  sultry and
suffocating. An excessive dejection of spirits is then
a universal complaint; and, on exposing the thermo-
meter to the rays  of  the  sun, the  mercury has fre-
quently risen above  the  100th degree.  The west
wind is usually drier than the south:  the east is cold
and blustering in the spring, and sultry in the sum-
mer.
   The weather in this climate is generally fair  and
dry; but when it rains, the showers are heavy, though
of short continuance; and they fall most commonly
in the  night.
   The  sky in summer is clear,  and  of  a beautiful
azure, without clouds or rain; but moderate dews
descend regularly after sunset.
   As  the  autumn draws near, the weather becomes
less serene; whirlwinds  and  thunder are frequent.
In the nights, lightning, and those  meteors called
falling stars, are very common.
   At that season  water spouts are often seen in the
neighbourhood of the  island; and sometimes they
break  upon the shore.  Lucretius* has described

    * Nam fit ut interdum tanquam demissa columnn,
      In mare de coelo descendat; quam freta circum
      Ferviscunt, graviter spirantibus incita flabris,
      Et quscunque in eo, turn sunt depvensa tumultu,
      Navig'ia, in summum veniunt vexata periclum.
                                  De Rer. Nat. 1. yj. 
INTRODUCTION.
5
them elegantly;  and  the  various  shapes  in  which
they appear, are  well  represented by Dr.  Stuart in
the Philosophical Transactions.*
   About the autumnal equinox a sudden  alteration
in the weather ensues; the skies are darkened with
clouds,  and the rain falls in such quantities, that the
torrents thereby occasioned,  pouring from the hills,
tear up trees by the root,  carry away  cattle, break
down fences, and  do considerable mischief  to the
gardens and vineyards. But  then these anniversary
rains are much more violent than lasting, always fall-
ing in sudden heavy showers, with intervals of fair
weather. As they come after a long scorching sum-
mer, they are very acceptable and beneficial; for they
mitigate the excessive heat of the air,  give a check
to the epidemical diseases, and by softening the sun-
burnt earth, render it capable of being cultivated.
They  are   commonly  accompanied with thunder,
lightning, and squalls of wind for the most part from
the north.  Such  storms as these are seldom seen in
cold countries; but they are frequent enough in  war-
mer climates; and  the  description  given of them by
Virgilj is equally just and  poetical.
   Hail  and snow   are  often  intermixed with the
rains which fall in winter  and in spring; but the
snow, for the most part, dissolves immediately; and
ice is here  an uncommon appearance.
   It is  not my design  to give a geographical account
of the island, its  situation, harbours, cities, and other
particulars  of this nature: these may  be  met  with
elsewhere.  I shall only observe that the whole  of it

   * Plate 1. vol 4. Part II.     f vir£- Georg. 1. i. ver. 322.
                       A2 
o
INTRODUCTION.
 is what  the sailors term low land; excepting a few
 hills near the  center, of which the most considerable,
 named Toro by the inhabitants, may be discovered
 from sea,  in  clear weather,  at twelve or fourteen
 leagues' distance.
   The surface of the  island is rough  and unequal;
 and in many places divided by long narrow vales of
 a considerable depth, which are called barrancos by
 the natives. They begin towards the middle of the
 island, and after several windings, terminate at the
 sea. The southwest side is more  plain and regular
 than towards  the northeast;  where  the  hills are
 higher, with low marshy valleys between them, the
 soil less fruitful, and the whole tract unhealthy to
 man and beast. Near the towns and villages the fields
 are well  cultivated, and inclosed by stone walls: but
 the rest, for the most part, is rocky, or covered with
 woods and thickets. There are some pools of stand-
 ing water,  and but very few rivulets; one  cannot
 therefore easily account for cardinal De Retz's mis-
 take, (see his Memoirs) when he describes a number
 of streams pouring into Mahon harbour; unless we
 suppose him to have seen it in the  rainy season.
  The soil is light, thin, and very stony, with a good
 deal of sea salt, and some calcareous nitre intermix-
 ed. In most places there is so little earth, that the
 island appears to be but one  large irregular rock,
 covered here  and  there with mould, and an infinite
 variety ol stones. Notwithstanding this, it is not only
extremely proper for vineyards, but produces more
wheat and  barley than could at first sight be imagi-
ned. And, if the peasants may be credited, it would
always yield a quantity of corn and wine sufficient 
               INTRODUCTION.              7

for the natives, did not the violence of the winds,
and the excessive drought of the weather, in different
seasons, frequently injure their crops.
   The fields commonly lie fallow for two years, and
are sown the third.  About the latter end of winter,
or the beginning of spring, they are first broken up;
and next autumn, as soon as the rains fall, they are
again ploughed, and prepared for receiving the pro-
per seeds.  The tillage is neither a laborious, nor an
expensive work; for a plough so light as to be trans-
ported from  place  to place,  on the ploughman's
shoulder,  and to be drawn by a heifer, or an ass
sometimes assisted by a hog, is sufficient for opening
so  thin a  soil. The later the  harvest happens, the
more plentiful it proves.  The  barley is usually cut
down  about the  20th  of Mav new style,  and the
wheat is reaped in June;  so that the whole harvest
is commonly got in  by midsummer day.  The grain
is not threshed with flails  as in  England, but trodden
out on a smooth piece of rock by oxen and asses, ac-
cording to the practice of the eastern nations.
   In the planting  of vines it is customary to lay a
large stone on every slip; this is  a protection, as
Virgil observes,  (Georg. 2.)  against the excessive
heat of the sun, which would otherwise, in so  shal-
low a soil,  deprive it of all moisture; and at the same
time prevents the  mould  from being washed away
by the immoderate rains. September is the season for
the vintage. After the grapes are trampled,  but be-
fore they are pressed, they are sprinkled over with
powder of alabaster,* in  order to  give the wine  a

  * Called by the natives Par ell.  It is got out of the same pits
with the plaster of Paris. 
8
INTRODUCTION.
 brighter red colour.  Such wines as are made with
 care, from the  fruit of old vineyards,  still deserve
 the commendations formerly given them by Pliny.*
 And they have  one property, seldom to be met with
 in wines of this complexion. I mean that of keeping
 the body open,  which renders them less heating, and
 therefore less prejudicial.  But since the commence-
 ment of the war, as Mahon harbour has become the
 rendezvous for  ships of different nations, the quan-
 tity of the  wine has been more regarded by the pro-
 prietors, than its quality.  Hence the greater part of
 it grows sour in the beginning of the summer:  and
 this  is probably the principal reason why dysenteries
 have of late years been both more frequent and more
 fatal than usual.
  The natives hangup clusters of ripe grapes (1) to
 the ceilings of their chambers, in order to dry for
 winter store.  The sapa vini (2), together  with va-
 rious roots and  fruits preserved by being boiled in
 it, amongst other uses,  makes a considerable part of
 their bill of fare on fast  days.
  In some  places there are  fields of hemp (3), flax (4),
 and tobacco (5): they likewise sow beans (6), chich-
lings (7), chich  pease (8),  two species of the  kidne)r

  * Lib. 24. C. 6. Vina Balearica conferuntur Italic primis.
  (1) Uvx Pensile s, Panjois.
  (2) Arrop.
  (3) Cannabis, Canem.
  (4) Linum, Lli.
  (5) Nicotiana,  Tabach.
  (6) Faba, Favas.
  (7) Lathyrus, Guixcs.
  (8) Cicer, Ciurous, Garravans«s. 
INTRODUCTION.              9
 bean (l), and lentils (2):  these being a considerable
 part of their diet at such times as they are prohibited
 from eating meat, by their religion. There are a few
 pease (3) in the vineyards and gardens; but these
 are commonly reserved for the tables of the wealthy.
    In the  moist fenny grounds they plant quantities
 of canes (4), which they make use of instead of laths,
 to support the tiles, in the roofs of their buildings.
 They have also in some few places  Indian wheat (5),
 Job's-tears (6), and Indian reed (7): the  hard, stony
 seeds of the two last  being perforated and strung,
 serve them as beads for their rosaries.
    Their gardens  are more for use than show, and
 furnish most  kinds of potherbs, roots, and sallading,
 in great plenty: and the herb market of Mahon has
 been as  useful to  the British fleet in restoring the
 health of the  sailors, as the harbour  in refitting and
 securing  the ships. There are at all  seasons, cabba-
■ ges (8), coleworts  (9), lettice (10), spinage (11), en-

    (1) Phaseolus. The common white large kidney bean is called
 Mongeta.-  a smaller sort with a black spot in its middle Fesol or
 Guixon.
     (2) Lens, Llentias.
     (3) Pisum, Posols.
     (4) Arundo donax, Canya.
     (5) Mayz, Blad de las indias.
     (6) Lachryma Job, Lagrimas de viu.
     (7) Cannacorus, Mariettas.
     (fi) Brassica capitata, Cols capdelladas..
     (9) Brassica aperta, Cols abertas.
     (10) Lactuca, Llatugas.
     \\\)  Spinachia, Espinachs. 
 10              INTRODUCTION.

 dive (1), beets (2), parsley (3), cresses  (4), leeks (5),
 onions (6),  garlick  (7),  sellery (8), radishes (9),
 horse radish (10), sage (11), mint (12), sweet marjo-
 ram (13), wild marjoram (14), thyme (15), &c. You
 have besides these  in winter,  carrots (16), parsnips
 (17), turnips (18), artichokes (19), asparagus (20), and
 colly-flower (21): in summer, love-apples (22), mad-
apples (23), guinea-pepper (24),  together with va-
rious kinds of cucumbers (25), pompions (26), musk-
melons (27), and water-melons (28) in great plenty

    (1) Cichorium sive Endivia, Escarolas.
    (2) Beta, Bledas
    (3) Apium sive Petro selium, Jullivert.
    (4) Nasturtium, Murrisa.
    (5) Porrum, Porras.
    (6) Cepa,  Cebas.
    (7) Allium, Alls, Ai'as.
    (8) Apium dulce, Apits.
    (9) Raphanus, Pavas.
    (10) Raphan. rust. Cochlear. Spec. Ravat de cavall.
    (11) Salvia, Sauvia.
    (12) Mentha, Herba sana.
    (13) Majorana, Morredux.
    (14) Origanum, Orenga.
    (15) Thymus, Them.
    (16) Daucus, Bastenagues.
   (IT) Pastinaca, Xarovias.
   (18) Rapum, Naps.
    (19) Cynara, Carxofas.
   (20) Asparagus, Esparachs.
   (21) Brtissica cauliflora, Colsjlos.
   (22) Lycopersicon, mala Aurea,  Tomatiis,  7^...j;\v.,^ .
   (23) Melongena, mala insana, Aubergimas.
   (24) C.ipsicum, Pebres.
   (25) Cucumis, Cubombros.
    (26) Pepo, Carabasas.
   (27) Melo, Melons.
    [23) Anguria, Sindrias. 
INTRODUCTION.              H
and perfection.  But as the climate is liable to severe
droughts, every garden is  supplied with a deep well;
from whence, by means of the Persian wheel,* the
gardener fills his reservoir, and from it conveys
the water, by stone  canals,  to the different beds as
occasion requires.
   Beside the  fruits  common in  England, such as
cherries (l), apples  (2),  pears  (3), apricocks (4),
plumbs (5), peaches (6), medlars (7), mulberries (8)r
quinces (9), and  walnuts  (10); several others ripen
here,  which  in colder countries seldom or never
come to perfection, even with the help of a hotbed;
such as the large juicy pomegranates (11), of which
there  is great abundance  in every  garden; lemons
(12), citrons (13),  and oranges  (14), which are  all
of late years become very  common in  this island;
the almonds (15), which thrive perfectly well in this
soil;  and the Indian figs (16), which are the princi-

   * See a Figure of the Persian Wheel in Shaw's Travels
    (1) Cerasus, Cireras.
    (2) Malus, Pomas.
    (3) Pyrus, Pyras.
    (4) Armeniaca,  Aubercoes-
    (5) Prunus, Prunes.
    (6) Persica, Presechs.
    (7) Mespilus, Nesples.
    (8) Morus, Moros.
    (9) Cydonia, Codons.
    (10) Nux Juglans, Nous.
    (11) Punica, J\fagranas.
    (12) Limones, Llimons.
    (13) Citreum, Cidros.
    (14) Aurantium, Teronges.
    (15) Amygdalus, .Merlas.
    (16) Opuntia vulgo Herbariorum, Figas Morifca? 
 12             INTRODUCTION.
 pal sustenance of whole families in September. The
 prickly shrub that bears them grows wild among the
 rocks, and is often made use of as a fence to their
 gardens. To these  may  be  added  some fruits  of
 smaller esteem,  as the jujubes (1), the true services
 (2), Neapolitan medlars (3), and the berries  of the
 nettle tree  (4).
   In enumerating the trees which adorn their gar-
 dens, I must not omit the cypress (5), laurel (6),
 poplar (7),  Egyptian thorn (8), bead-tree (9), and
 a beautiful species of dog's-bane (10).  Neither can I
 forbear to  mention the figtree (11), which not only
 produces large  quantities of excellent fruit,  (some
 kinds of it, two  crops in a year) but affords a conve-
 nient shade, under which the peasants usually regale
 themselves. Nor must the palm tree (12) be past over
 in silence; for although the dates in this country never
 come to perfection, yet its  inner branches, when
blanched, serve  as ornaments for their processions
on Easter Sunday; and the others  are used by the
children in passion week,  for striking  the  earth,
which  is superstitiously  termed by the inhabitants,
beating of Judas.  The minds of  the people  are  at

   (1) Zizyphus, Gingols.
   (2) Sorbus legitima, Serves.
   (3) Mespilus folio Apii lacin. C. B. Azarolas,
   (4) Celtis, Lotus, Lladons.
   (5) Cupressus, Cipre".
   (6) Laurus, Llore".
   (7) Populus, Poll.
   (8) Acacia, Aroma.
   (9) Azederach, Suclemoro.
   (10) Apocynum, Sed4.
   (11) Ficus, Figuera.
   (12) Palma, Fasct. 
                INTRODUCTION.              13
that time so inflamed by the sermons of their priests,
that it is dangerous for the Jews to be seen abroad.
   The vegetables hitherto mentioned are produced
by culture. I come next to speak of the indigenous,
which grow spontaneously in the island; and as there
is a vast variety of these, I shall not pretend to treat
them so fully as the subject deserves; nor am I equal
to the  task, botany,  though  sometimes  my amuse-
ment, never having been my study: all I shall aim
at is briefly to point out the most remarkable  amongst
them.
   In the first place may be mentioned such plants as
serve the natives for sallading  and pot herbs; viz.
succory (l), prickly rock asparagus (2),  alexanders
 (3), buckshorn plantain (4), goat's-beard (5), fennel
 (6), hawkweed (7), purslane (8),  sow-thistle (9),
 sorrel  (10),  water-cresses (11),  capers  (12), and
 samphire  (13).
   To the same class belong borrage  (14),blites (15),

     (1) Cichorium, Camarotjes.
     (2) Asparagus, Corruda, Esparachs.
     (3) Smyrnium, Cugulls.
     (4) Coronopus, Cornicellis.
     (5) Scorzonera, Tragopogon, Cuxa de dona.
     (6) Fceniculum, Fenoi.
     (7) Hieracium, Cascunias.
     (8) Portulaca, Verdulagas.
     (9) Sonchus, Llecsons.
     (10) Acetosa, Vinagrellas.
     (11) Sysimbrium, Crexechs.
     (12) Capparis, Taparas.
     (13) Crithmus, Fenoi mart-
     (14) Borrago, Borratjes.
     (15) Blitum, Blets. 
14
INTRODUCTION.
beets (1), orrache  (2), dandelion (3) and  spading
poppy (4). The luxury of the  present age, seldom
or never, indeed, allows  these  a place at the  table;
but in times of scarcity they have served as common
food; particularly in  the  year 1685,  when a swarm
of locusts had destroyed the harvest.
   Of medicinal  plants  there  is such variety, that
barely to recount them, will (I am afraid) be tedious.
Common wormwood (5), sea-wormwood (6), brank-
ursine (7), true maiden-hair (8), agrimony (9), win-
ter cherry (10), chickweed (11), male pimpernel (12),
female pimpernel (13), common rest harrow (14), yel-
low rest harrow (15),  snap-dragon (16), goose grass
(17), friar's cowl (18), cuckow-pint (19), spleen-wort
 20), rough spleen-wort (21), brook-lime (22), black
    (1) Beta, Bledas.
    (2) Atriplexi
    (3) Dens Leonis, Caxal de veia.
    (4) Lychnis species, sive spumeum papaver, Coulisse.
    (5) Absynthium vulgare, Donzell.
    (6) Absynth. maritimum, Donzell mari.
    (7) Acanthus, Camera.
    (8) Adiantum verum, Falzia.
    (9) Agrimonia.
    (10) Alkekengi, Orvalfi.
    (11) Alsine, Tina.
    (12) Anagallis flore phoeniceo.
    (13)   nagallis flore csenileo.
    (14) Anonis vulgaris, Resta bovis.
    (15) Anonis lutea viscosa, spinis carens, C. B. Motxe*
    (16) Antirrhinum,  Cullons de gat.
    (17) Aparine, Amor de Hortola & Rabosa.
    (18) Arisarum, Frare Cugot.
    (19) Arum, Rapa.
    (20) Asplenium, Dauradella.
    (21) Lonchitis.
    (22) Veronicse species, becabunga. 
                 INTRODUCTION.              15

briony (1), bugloss (2), ox-eye (3), shepherd's purse
(4), marigold (5), small red centaury (6), small yellow
centaury (7), germander (8), ground-pine (9), great
celandine (10),hemlock (11), male-cistus (12), female
cistus (13), golden flowered samphire (14),sow-bread
(15), hound's-tongue (16), long-rooted sweet cyperus
(17), wild carrots (18), great dragons (19), viper's bu-
glos (20), dwarf-elder  (21),  golden cassidony (22),
horsetail (23), wild rocket (24), base wild rocket (25),
sea-holly (26), bank-cresses (27), giant fennel (28),

    (1) Tamnus, bryonia nigra.
    (2) Buglossum, Litngua bovina.
    {3) Buphthalmum, Bulichs.
    (4) Bursa pastoris, Bosa de Pastor.
    (5) Calendula, Lleva Trial.
    (6) Centaur, minus vulgar. Centaur6.
    (7) Centaur, min. flav.
    (8) Chamsedrys, Usinetta:
    (9) Chamxpitys, Iva.
    (10) Chelidonium majus, Celedonia.
    (11) Cicuta.
    (12) Cistus flore rubro, Stepa.
    (13) Cistus flore albo.
    (14) Asteris species, crithmum chrysanthemum, Salsone.
    (15) Cyclamen, Pa de Pore.
    (16) Cynoglossum, Llepasera.
    (17) Cyperus longus.
    (18) Daucus Sylvester, Bastenagues salvages.
    (19) Dracunculus major, Papa mascle.
    (20) Echium.
    (21) Ebulus, Ebul.
    (22) Elichrysum, Mansinillas.
    (23) Equisetum, Coua de Cavall.
    (24) Eruca, Ruca.
    (25) Reseda.
    (26) Eryngium. Cardpanical.
    (27) Erysimum.
    (28) Ferula, Canyafellera. 
16              INTRODUCTION.

fern (1), fumitory (2), dog's-grass (3), greater turnsol
(4), mule's fern (5), St. John's-wort (6), hypocistus
(7), glass-wort  (8), wild cucumber (9), sharp-point-
ed dock (10), hart's-tongue (11), wood sorrel (12),
mallows (13), white hoar hound  (14),  stinking hoar
hound (15), base hoar hound (16), dog's mercury (17),
sciatica cresses (18), Roman fennel-flower (19), broom
rape (20), peony (21), corn poppy (22), yellow  flow-
ered horn poppy (23), pellitory of the wall (24), tho-
rough wax (25), periwinkle (26),  ivy (27), honeysuc-

    (1) Felix, Falguera.
    (2) Fumaria, Fumisterra.
    (3) Gramen caninum, Grain.
    (4) Heliotropium majus, Girasol.
    (5) Hemionatis.
    (6) Hypericum, Transflorina, Herba de san yuan.
    (7) Hipacistus, Margalidettas.
    (8) Kali, Sosa.
    (9) Cucumis asininus.
    (10) Lapathum acutum, Paredellas.
    (11) Lingua cervina, Llengua de Cera.
     (12) Oxys, rujula.
     (13) Malva, Mauves.
     (14) Marhubium album, Malrubins.
     (15) Ballote, Malrubins bords.
     (16) Stachys.
     (17) Mercurialis, Malcorages.
     (18) Nasturtium sylvest. Iberis, Murrissa  bard.
     (19) Nigella,  Niella.
     (20) Orobanche.
     (21) Pseonia, Patnpelonia.
     (22) Papaver  rubr. Rose Has.
     (23) Papaver corniculatum.
     (24) Parietaria, Mains.
     (25) Perfoliata.
     (26) Pervinca, Proenga.
     (27) Hatdera, Eur a. 
INTRODUCTION.
17
kle (1), bind-weed (2), burnet (3), common plantain
(4), water plantain (5), knot-grass (6), polypody of the
oak (7), flea-wort (8), cinquefoil (9), small madder
(10), butcher's broom (11), willow-wort (12), round-
leaved water pimpernel (13), scabious (14),shepherd's
needle(15),seaonion(16),figwort(17) greater house
leek (18),smaller house leek (19), water-parsnip (20),
night-shade (21), louse-wort (22), thorn  apple (23),
white  mullein (24), vervain (25), swallow-wort (26),
(1) Capv'ifoliam,'Madreselva.
(2) Convolvulus, Corregiola.
(3) Pimpinella sanguis orb. Pantinella.
(4) Plantago, Plantage.
(5) Plantago aquatica.
(6) Polygonum, Ceutnous.
(7) Polypodium, Polipodi.
(8) Psyllium, Uerba pucera.
(9) Quinquefolium, Pau de Christ.
(10) Rubia minor.
(11) Ruscus, Brusc.
(12) Salicaria.
(13) Samolus.
(14) Scabiosa, Scabiosa.
(15) Scandix, pecten Vener.
(16) Scilla, omithogalum, Ceba marina.
(17) Scrophularia, Herba pudent.
(18) Sedum majus, Consolva.
(19) Sedum minus.
(20) Sium, Apits de Sichia.
(21) Solanum, Morella.
(22) Delphinium, staphisagria, Mctapot.
(23) Stramonium, Orval.
(24) Verbascum, Trapo.
(25) Verbena,  Herba  Verbena.
T26) Asclepias.
                     B2 
18
INTRODUCTION.
navel-wort (l),  common nettles (2), and Roman
nettles (3).
   To these we may add such  others as have been
transplanted formerly  from  foreign countries, but
are now so far naturalized here  as to grow wild  in
several places; such  as the  American  night-shade
(4), the Mexican jasmine (5), the passion flower (6),
the great spurge  (7), and the aloes  (8): which last
seems to have  been industriously cultivated near the
farm houses, as a remedy for the accidents to  which
country labourers are much exposed; it having for-
merly been in  great esteem (as Ave learn from  Dios-
corides*) for healing recent wounds.
   Beside these there is a number of aromatic plants,
which thrive luxuriantly in this soil, and by imbalm-
ing the air with  fragrant exhalations contribute  to
preserve as well  as restore the health of the  inhabi-
tants:  the principal of these are lavender cotton (9),
starwort (10), mountain-mint (11), horse-mint (12),

    (1) Cotyledon, Umbilic. Vener. Cocas de Parets.
    (2) Urtica vulg.  Ortigas.
    (3) Urtica Romana.
    (4) Phytolacca, Rems de tnoro.
    (5) Jallapa flore  purpureo, yuan de Notxe & Pedro de Notxe,
    (6) Granadilla, Passionera.
    (7) Ricinus,  Cagamutxe.
    (8) Aloes, Azibare.
    * Lib. ii. cap. 23. Aloe nascitur in Arabia, Asia, et aliis
(ocis maritimis, inutilis quidem succo extrahendo, sed conve-
niens recentibus vulneribus, si contusaemplasU'iformi, adplice-
tur.
    (9) Santolina, Abrot. fsem. Camomela.
    (10) Asteriscus foliis ad florem mollibus. An asterisc. annuus
aquat. patul. Tourn?
    (11) Calamintha.
    (12) Mentha, Merttastrum, Mendastra 
INTRODUCTION
19
penny-royal (l),  flea-bane  of  various  kinds  (2),
clary (3), poley-mountain (4),  Syrian herb mastick
(5), rue (6), French lavender (7), water-germander
(8), St. Peter's wort (9), and strong smelling clover
(10).
   The garlick makes  so considerable a part, both of
their food and physic,  that it deserves to be  more
particularly mentioned. Several  kinds  of it  grow
here in such plenty that the milk  of the cattle, and
even the  meat itself, frequently  participate of  its
taste.  The  only  sort which the  natives use  is  a
scorodo-praswn (11),  milder  than the  garden  gar-
lick, and sweeter than the leek. What is commonly
eaten  by  the  soldiers and  sailors  is another more
acrid species, with a triangular stalk (12).
   Of the thistle tribe, the following deserve  our no-
tice: the milky (13) and golden thistle (14) are  both
esculent; the  flowers  of the  prickly Avild artichoke
(15) serve, instead of rennet, to  curdle milk. In May

    (1) Mentha, Pelugium, Puriol.
    (2) Asteris species, Conyzse, Olivarda.
    (3) Sclarea, horminum, Tarach.
    (4) Polium montanum, Polio.
    (5) Chamaedrys maritima, incana fruetsc. fol. lanceol. Frigola.
    (6) Ruta, Ruda.
    (7) Stxchas, Tumani.
    (8) Chamaedrys pallust. Scordium, Scordi.
    (9) Ascyrum exiguo folio, flore magno, Stepara groga.
    (10) Trifol. bituminosum.
    (11) Allium capite sphaerico, folio latiore, Porradolls.
    (12) Allium caule triangulo.
    (13)  An  Carduus  lact.  peregrin, maj. sem. fusco?  Card
Gallofe.
    (14) Scolymus chrysantherri, ann.  Caderlinas.
    (15) Cynarasylvestris. 
20
INTRODUCTION.
the bees  feed chiefly on  the white flowered star
thistle (1), which  affords the  finest honey; and the
broad yellow flowered fish thistle (2) yields a coarser
sort, about a month later.
   The bounds to which I propose to confine  myself
will not permit me to  enumerate the different spurges
(3), whereof the arborescent are the most beautiful;
nor the orchis's, among which those that resemble
the bee (4),  and butterfly  (5), have the preference;
much less will they allow me to describe the various
species of linarias  (6), sea-lavender (7), rattle grass
(8), and the  vast profusion of ranunculus's (9), and
geraniums (10), which enamel the meadows:  yet, I
cannot  omit a few plants,  with bulbous  roots, and
liliaceous flowers, which are a peculiar ornament to
the fields; viz. a white star of Bethlem (11),  a blue
muscari  (12), a flesh-coloured corn flag (13), vernal
daffodill (14), with a  yellow cup, an autumnal daffo-
dill with a large white flower (15), snow-drop (16),

    (1) Carduus stellat. sive calcitrapa, flore albo,  Card- Blanc
    (2) Carlina. Arcana flore luteo patulo, Card. Segrelle.
    (3) Tithymalus, Lletrera, Baladre.
    (4) Orchis fucum referens.
    (5) Orchis papilionem referens.
    (6) Linaria, one kind is called Gallfave.
    (7) Limonium.
    (8) Pedicularis.
    (9) Ranunculus.
    (10) Geranium.
    (11) Ornitliogali species, an lilium  Alexandrinum? Lin
Bord.
    (12) Muscari, Aiasas.
    (13) Gladiolus, Cdtells.
    (14) Narcissus medio luteus.
    (15) Narcissus maritimus C. B. Azucena.
    (16) Narcisso-leucoium, Aiasas. 
INTRODUCTION.              21
saffron (1),  meadow saffron (2), Spanish  nut (3),
and two species of asphodell (4), both of which are
luxuriant in the richest soils, and from their flowers
the bees  extract  a considerable share of the  finest
honey.
   Besides, in all  the uncultivated parts of the island
thick evergreen bushes of mastick (5), mock-privet
(6), and  dwarf olive (7), sprout up in  such  abun-
dance, that the broken surface of the ground is at
all seasons covered with an agreeable verdure.
   Intermixed with these is  an immense quantity of
myrtle (8), sweet gum cistus (9), and rosemary (10);
which jointly perfume the air with an exquisite  fra-
grance;  and from the  flowers of the last a  delicious
-kind of honey is  collected early in the spring.
   There is also a great deal of the strawberry shrub
(11,) heath of various kinds  (12), and a long coarse
grass (13) on which the goats and black cattle feed,
when they are deprived of better sustenance by the
severity of the winter.

     (1) Crocus, Safra.
     (2) Colchicum.
     (3) Sisyrinchium.
     (4) 1.  Asphodelus albus non ramos C. B. 2.  Asphodehis
minor foliis fistulosis, 1. Porraces, Albuens, 2. Cebollas.
     (5) Lentiscus, Mata.
     (6) Phillyrea, Ledern.
     (7) Oleastellus,  Ullastre.
     (8) Myrtus, Murta.
     (9) Cistus labdanifera, Stepara stepa-
     (10) Rosmarinus, Romani.
     (11) Arbutus comarus theoph. Arbose,
     (12) Erica, Bruc mascle, brucfemelle & sipel
     (13) Graminis species, Carex. 
22             INTRODUCTION.
   Shrub-trefoil (l), stinking  bean-trefoil  (2),  sea-
grape (3), shrub-mullien (4), sloe-tree (5), dwarf-
palm (6),  widow-wail  (7), and another  kind  of
spurge-olive (8), beside that which affords the gra-
tia cnidia (9), likewise grow in several places:  But
brambles  (10), wild  roses  (11), and some other
thorny bushes (12), are every where so common, that
it  is requisite  for those who would pass through the
thickets,  to dress like the peasants, in short jackets
and leathern spatterdashes.
   Hitherto I have treated  of the lower vegetables:
I proceed next to the trees.  And here  I must again
mention  the myrtle, mock privet, lentiscus,  and ar-
butus, as they often rise  to  the  height of trees; and
mixing with pines (13), wild olives (14), and great
holm-oakes  (15), which never  lose their verdure,
supply the cattle with shelter during the excessive
hot  or  cold  weather; and  with leaves to feed on,
when the summer's sun, or  the blasts of the winter,
have destroyed the grass of their pastures.
    (1) D(;-ycenium monspeliens.
    (2) Anagyris foetida, Garrove bord.
    (3) Ephedra anabasis bellon.  Trompera.
    (4) Phlomis  fruticosa.
    (5) Prunus Sylvester, Prunone", Arrinone".
    (6) Palma humilis folio flabelliformi, Garbaions.
    (7) Chamelxa tricoccos.
    (8) Thyme bea lanuginosa foliis sedi minor. C.  B. P.  Pala
marina.
    (9) Thymelsea fol. lini, Matapoll.
    (10) Rubus, Romaguera.
    (11) Rosa sylvestris, Gaverera.
    (12) 1. Genistse spinosse species. 2. Vel. Hierac. vel. Dent.
Leon- species, 1. Argelaguera,  2. Saccorell.
    (13) Pinus, Pi.
    (14) Oleaster, Vllastre.
    (15) Ilex,  Usinas. 
INTRODUCTION.
23
  But it is not the cattle alone which have been fur-
nished with food from these woods and thickets; for
in times of famine the inhabitants of this island have
been obliged to have  recourse to acorns, wild dates
(1), the berries of the myrtles, the bramble, the ar-
butus, and  the like;  which, if we may believe the
poets,* was the nourishment of the primitive race of
mankind.
   From the qualities of the soil, and the abundance
of uncultivated fruit which it  produces, one  might
justly expect,  according to Virgil's remark,! that
the olive would thrive well in this island; yet the
natives take so little care to propagate  it,  that they
are  obliged  to  import almost  all their  oil  from
France, Spain, and  Majorca;  and as they purchase
it with ready  money, it is a  considerable detriment
to the country.  I know it is commonly alleged that
they cannot have olives of their own growth in plen-
ty and perfection,  because  there  are  but  few hills
high enough to protect them from the cold northerly
winds: but I have been well assured by several very
 good judges in such matters, that there  are many
 places, particularly in the Termino of Ferarias, where
 this tender fruit might be sufficiently sheltered; and
 that the want of this  most useful  commodity is ra-
 ther to be ascribed to the inattention and neglect of

     (1) This is the fruit of the Palma humilis folio flabelli
 formi.
     * Lucret. lib. v. Virgil's Georg. lib. ii. Ovid's Mctaif
 lib. i.                 .  .
     f Difficiles primum terrae, collesque maligni
       Tenuis ubi Argilla, et dumosis calculus Arvis,
       Palladia gaudent sylva vivacis Olivae,
       Indieio est, tractu surgens Oleaster eodem
       Flurimus, et strati baccis sylvestribus Agri.
                                 Virg. Georg. lib. ii 
24
INTRODUCTION.
the people, than to any other cause. I have likewise
been assured, that a Spanish governor of this island
made use of his authority in obliging the inhabitants
to cultivate the olive; and that his endeavours would
have had the desired effect, if they had been  duly
seconded in succeeding times. Wherefore  it were to
be wished that some of his British successors would
follow so laudable an example;  for without their as-
sistance it is to be feared, that a people so tenacious
of the customs of their ancestors will scarcely come
into a new project, however  advantageous it might
prove to posterity.
   From the berries of  the mastick  they extract an
oil (as Diodorus Siculus tells us they did in his
time) which is commonly used for lamps, and some-
times by poor people for frying fish;  in which case
they previously  correct its astringency by dipping in
it a piece of soft bread.  The leaves of the myrtle
are very serviceable in  tanning  their leather, and in
dyeing their cloths black, which is a favourite colour
among the Spaniards; and its tough flexible boughs,
being properly twisted, make the  best and most du-
rable rope for the Persian wheel abovementioned.
  The berry-bearing savine  (1) grows to a conside-
rable height in several places near the sea coast; and
the marshy valleys afford  plenty of oziers (2), and
tamarisk (3), of which the islanders make hoops for
their casks.  The carob-tree  (4), the hawthorn (5),

    (1) Sabina folio cupressi, C. B. Savina.
    (2) Salix viminea, Viine.
   (3) Tamariscus, Tamarell.
    (4) Ceratia, Garrove.
   \5) Mespilus apii fol. sylv. spin. Spinal 
INTRODUCTION.             25
and evergreen privet (l) are likewise to be met with
in the woods; as also a few specimens of the agnus
castus (2).'*
   And  now  having taken  a  view of the vegetable
kingdom, it would be no difficult task for me to show,
that the indigenous plants  are  well  adapted to the
nature of the climate, and wisely calculated for pre-
serving or restoring the health of the inhabitants:
but as it would be tedious to descend  too far into
particulars, I shall only observe, that even the shape
and figure of the trees seem to be somewhat more
than  merely the  effect of chance.  None of them
grow tall or  lofty;  they never lose their leaves;  and
the greater part of them have  their trunks so bent
by the  north wind,  that their tops, which are broad
and bushy, stretch out  almost  horizontally towards
the south, and  furnish a commodious shelter to man
and beast, against all  inclemency of the weather.
What still makes them fitter  for this purpose is the
numerous climbers that  are  commonly joined with
them;  particularly the traveller's joy (3), and prick-
ly bind-weed (4), which are often so interwoven with
the wide spreading branches of the lentisc and wild
olive, as to render  the retreat  which they afford al-
most impenetrable by rain or sun.   Had  not nature
provided such a necessary cover, few or  no  animals

    (1)  Alaternus, Llampugai
    (2)  Vitex, Alloch.
    * The reader may be pleased to take notice, that the Latin
names are those by which they are described by Tournefort; the
others, in Italics, are those by which the natives distinguish
them.
    (3)  Clematis, Fid. Auba.
    (4)  Smilax aspera, Arritges 
26            INTRODUCTION.
could live on these rocks  in the tedious scorching-
summers; nor could they well  endure the  heavy
rains and chilling blasts to which the climate is liable.
   From what has been said it sufficiently appears,
that these evergreen woods and thickets, which na-
ture has surprisingly raised upon a rock, are not
only a great ornament to this island, but of infinite
advantage to the inhabitants; as they furnish them
with fuel, and their cattle with food and shelter; and
as the  finer soil is washed away by the anniversary
rains, their fields would soon become barren, if they
were not constantly supplied with fresh manure from
the leaves of the vegetables,  intermixed with the
dung of the animals which feed in the woods.  The
natives, therefore, are much to be  blamed in  felling
so many of their trees,  and stubbing up the roots so
rashly, as they have done of late years, for immediate
profit,  since the damage will soon be  sensibly felt,
and not easily retrieved, by their posterity.
   The  mineral kingdom  affords  less variety here
than any other pari of nature's works. The soil is of
two kinds, whereof one is light, blackish, and verv
fruitful;  the other, called terra agra by the natives,
is  a heavy,  barren, redcoloured earth.  There is a
potter's clay, of which  they make  tiles, bricks, and
a coarse kind of earthenware.  Limestone and plas-
ter of Paris  are found here in  great abundance, and
supply the inhabitants with different sorts of cement
for their buildings.  The stone commonly used in
building is  a white soft grit, which  is  easily  cut
into any form, and quickly cemented  by means of
the plaster of Paris; so that  they raise walls  and
turn arches  with  great expedition. But in many 
INTRODUCTION.
27
places of the  island, especially towards the north-
east side, the only stone to be  met with is  found in
shivers, like slate. In caves  not far from Ciudadella
is an infinite number of beautiful stalactites, some of
which are hard enough to admit of a polish. There
are some fossil shells; but no  kind of metal, as far
as I  know,  occurs  in  Minorca;  though there  is a
good deal of metallic ore in the small island of Cc-
lumba adjoining to it.
   With respect to the animals, I shall only mention
such  as  are used for food  by the inhabitants;  be-
ginning with the fish, of which there  is both plenty
and variety. Some  of them  are to be caught at all
times either in the bays or harbours, or in  the deep-
er water at sea;  whilst  others come regularly in
shoals at  certain seasons  of the year:  but  as many
of them are unknown in Britain, or at least have no
name in our language, I must refer the reader to the
bottom of the page,# where he will find inserted the

          * Pisces litorales,    Peix litoral.
    (1) Polypi prima species Rondeletii, Pop yuen.
   (2) Polypi secunda species Rond. Pop ver.
   (3) Loligo magna Rond. Eluja.
   (4) Loligo parva Rond. Calemar.
   (5) Sepia Rond. Sipia.
   (6) Urtica, Ortiga.
   (7) Anguilla  Salv. Anguila.
   (8) Conger Rond. Congre.
   (9) Murama omnium Autorum, Morena mascle, yfemdc
   (10) Salpa Rond. Saupa.
   (11) Sargus Rond. Sarch.
   (12)         Morruda.
   (13) Scaras Onias Rond. Variada.
   (14) Sparus Rond. Esperai.
   (15) Aurata Rond. Orada. 
28
INTRODUCTION.
names given them in  Minorca,  and those bestowed
on them by the best authors  who have treated on
fishes.

             Pisces  litorales,     Peix litoral.
    (16) Melanurus Rond. Oblada.
    (17) Mormyrus Rond. Mabre.
    (18) Erythrinus Rond. Rubellio Aldr. Pagell
    (19) Pagrus Rond. Pagre.
    (20) Dentex sive Synodon Aldr. Dental.
    (21) Coracinus Rond. Curbai.
    (22) Buglossus, seu solea Rond- Llenguada-
    (23) Passer Bellonii, Pedas.
    (24) Cantharus, Cantara.
   . (25) Lupus Rond, Llop.
    (26) An  Acarnan Rond? Besuc.
    (27) Scorpius major Rond. Gesn. Cap rotx Rotje.
    (28) Scorpius minor sive Scorpaena Rond. Gesn. RaseU Scor-
pera.
    (29) An  Anthiae secunda species  Rond.? an Phycis Rond.?
Mollera, Molle.
    (30) Mullus Barbatus Rond. Moll.
    (31) Channa Rond. Serra.
    (32) Merula Salv. & Rond. Mero, Enfos.
    (33) Turdus varia specie, Tort musot, fiavasado, Bonos, pin?
fado, Grivia.
    (34) An  Cestreus Rond.? Llisa.
    (35) An mugil Cephal. Rond.? Cap pla.
    (36) Julis Rond. Donzella.

          Pisces testacei iSf crustacei, Peix de Closca.
    (1) Astacus Rond. Grumav.t.
    (2) Locusta Rond. sive Carabus, Llangosta.
    (3) Squilla lata Rond. Sigala.
    (4) Pagurus, Cabre.
    (5) Cancri varii,  Cranchs peluts, reals, yueus.
    (6) Squilla parva, Gambe.
    (7) Echinus varia specie, Voga mari.
    (8) Pinna magna, Nacre.
    (9) Pholas, Datil.
    (10) Testudo marina, Tortuga- 
INTRODUCTION.               29"
   The island abounds with cattle, sheep,  and  goats,
which furnish the inhabitants with cheese  and  wool,
both for their  own use, and for exportation. As  lard
or oil is commonly used in  dressing their  victuals,

             Pisces litorales,     Peix litoral.
     (11) Museums, Muscle.
     (12) Tellinae, Cluisas.
     (13) Ostreum, Ostia.
     (14) Lepas, Patella, Pagellida.
     (15) Pecten, Cupina gravada.
     (16) Cancellus, Hermitan.
     (17) Cochlea varia specie, Comes & Caragols.
     (18) Murex, Corns defell.
     (19)   ,      Pau de Cabrit.

          Pisces Pelagii.      Peix de alt al mur.
     *(1) Phocasna Rond. Delfi.
     *(2) Centrine Rond. Peix pore.
     (3) Squatina Rond. Escat, Escat vexigal.
     *(4) Zygasna Rond. Llunada.
     (5) Catidus maximus, forte Canicula saxatalis Rond. Gats.
     (6) Catulus major vulg. Canicula Arist. Rond. Aldr. Gatons,
Pintarotge.
     (7) Mustelus lacvis primus salv. Masola.
     (8) Galeus Acanthias, Spinax Aldr. Caso.
     (9) Xiphias Piscis, Peix de Espasa.
     (10)  Pastinaca Aspera Bellon. Romaguera.
     (11)  Pastinaca mar. l<ev. Bellon. Ferrasa.
     (12)  Aquila Bell. & Salv. Mila.
     (13) Rana Piscatrix, Buldroy.
     *(14) Torpedo, Tremulo.
     (15)  Raia varia specie,  Ratjada,  Caputxi, Clavell, Clavell
 borrell, Cardayre.
     (16)  Faber sive Gallus mar. Rond. Gall, Peix de san Pedro.
     (17)  Milvus Salv. Hirundo Rond. Xurigue-
     (18)  Mugil alat. Rond. Hirundo Plin. Uranola.
     (19)  Cuculus Aldr. Gallina, Gallinetta.
     (20)  Lyra. pri'jr Rond. Grenau, Peix de san Rafael.
     (21) Mullus imberbis Rond. potius Cuculi species,  Cabot de.
 la >nar,
                            C  2 
30               INTRODUCTION.

they make but little butter, and this by a  very  sin-
gular process. They boil the whey, which is pressed
from  the curd in making  cheese,  and  skim off the
part which rises to the top;  when  they have collect-
ed a proper quantity of this, they work it a considera-
ble time with their bare feet or arms, the only method

          Pisces Pelagii.     Peix de  alt al mur.
    (22) Gurnardus griseus, Uliora, Baluerna.
    (23) Draco sive Araneus Plinii, Arana.
    (24) An Ophidion Rond.? an Acus lumbriciformis Willough.?
Drago, Saltan cono.
    (25) Uranoscopus, Callyonimus, Rata-
    (26) An Perca marina Rond.? Serran imperial.
    (27) An Stromateus Rond? Llampuga.
    (28) Pompilus, Pampul.

                 Pisces gregales autumnales.
    (1) Acus vulgaris oppian. Aguia.
    (2) Sardinia Rond. Sardina.
    (3) Thrissa Rond. Alatx.

                  Pisces gregales hyemales.
     1) Pelamys Bellon. Amia Rond. Bonitol.

                  Pisces gregales vernales.
    (1) An Thynni species? Sirvia, Sirviola
    (2) Sphyrxna, sive Sudis Aldr. Espet.

                  Pisces gregales JEstivi.
    vl) Scomber, Veirat, Cavallar.
    (2) Trachurus Aid. Saurell.
    (3) Maenje duplex species, Mora & Xucla.
    (4) Smaris, Gerretts.
    (5) Boops Rond. primus, Voga.
  <  (6) Encrasicholus Aldr. Anxove, Aledroc.

    Note. In the above catalogue offish it is to be observed that
IVilloughby's names are commonly made use of; and  such as are
marked with an asterisk are seldom or never brought to table. 
INTRODUCTION.
31
of churning with which they are acquainted; then by
the addition of cold water the butter which floats upon
the surface is separated; and after being washed is
boiled till the watery particles are evaporated. By this
process it  acquires, when cold, the taste  and consis-
tency of a  thick, sweet, oil.
  Beef and mutton, though commonly lean, are eata-
ble throughout the year: but in the spring, while the
grass is tender, the latter is in its greatest perfection;
and the former in summer, when the cattle feed on
the stubble and leaves of the evergreens.
  The goats are fattest in autumn, and  are slaugh-
tered from September to January, chiefly for  the
use of the  common people.
  But of all the kinds of meat none is  here in so
great plenty  and perfection as  pork; nor is  any
other so much  esteemed  by the natives.  It is in
season from September to Lent. Bacon is to be had
at all times; and, being fried or boiled, is commonly
eat with bread for breakfast. They enrich their broth
with hog's lard;  and  from the same animal  they
make a great variety of puddings, particularly sau-
sages (sobreassados), scarce inferior to^those from
Bologna.
  They  have likewise plenty of rabbits; as  also
hedgehogs, and land  turtles, which are  sometimes
eat by the  poor.
  Their domestic fowls are turkeys (1), geese (2),
ducks (3), cocks and hens (4), in great numbers.

   (1) Gallo pavo sive meleagris, Galls de India.
   (2) Anser domesticus, Ojas.
   (3) Anas domestica, Anades-
   f4) Gallus gallinac. & Gallina, Galls Cf Gallinas. 
32
INTRODUCTION.
   In the woods and fields (besides various kinds ot
 owls and birds of prey,  which I pass over, as they
 never make a part of diet) we have  ring doves (l),
 red legged partridges  (2), stone  curlews  (3), quails
 (4), blackbirds  (5), solitary  sparrows (6), nightin-
 gales (7), gold-finches (8),  and  an infinite number
 of other small birds.
   Wild ducks of different kinds (9), wigeons  (10),
 teal (11),  coots  (12), and several sorts of water hens
 (13), are  common about the  ponds and marshes;
 kings-fishers (14) are  frequent about the  shore; and
 flocks of rock-pigeons (15)  breed in  the caves and
 hollows, formed by the dashing of the waves  round
 the  coasts.
   Beside  all these, swifts (16), swallows (17),  sand
 martins  (18),  turtles (19),  bee eaters  (20),  hoo-

    (1) Palumbus torquatus Aldr. Tudons.
    (2) Perdix ruffa, Perdius.
    (3) Oedicnemus Bellon. Charadrius Gesner. Sabellins.
    (4) Coturnix, Gualleras.
    (5) Merula vulgaris, Torts.
    (6) Passer solitarius, Melleres.
    (7) Luscinia seu Philomela, Rossinols.
    (8) Carduelis,  Carderneras.
    (9) Anas fera, varia specie, Anades rosas de coll blau, sayar-
-n-i. soteras.
    (10) Penelope.
    (11) Querquedula, Anadons.
    (12) Fulica, Fotges.
    (13) Gallinula varia specie, Polio's de Riu Gallets de Riu ti-
-'."•as.
    (14) Ispida, an Veterum Alcyon?
    (15) Columba rupicola, Coloms.
    (16) Hirundo Apus, Vinjolas.
    (17) Hirundo domestica, Uranellas.
    (18) Hirundo riparia, Culs blanchs.
    (19) Turtur, Tortora.
    C20) Merops sive Apiaster, AbeyrcU 
INTRODUCTION.              33
po's (1), and sky larks (2), arrive here in the spring,
and, after bringing forth their young, leave the island
in autumn.
   Woodcocks  (3), snipes (4),  a  small sort  of pi-
geon (5),  green and gray plovers  (6), redwings (7),
fieldfares  (8), oxeyes (9),  chaffinches  (10),  star-
lings (11), foreign quails (12), and daker-hens  (13),
make their appearance about the end of October, and
remain during the winter. Cranes (14), wild geese
(15), and  curlews (16), sometimes stop here, as if it
were to recruit themselves for a further flight; and
now and then we meet with a flamenco (17).
   It is observed that the flesh of  such fowls  as feed
on land frequently tastes of mastick or garlick; and
the water fowl are  best in  bad weather, when the
 storms prevent their going to sea, and living  upon
 fish.
   But as several  of the animals  abovementioned
 are only to be met with at the tables  of the opulent,

     (1) Upupa Aldrov. Puputs.
     (2) Alauda, Turrolas.
   -  (3) Scolopax, Segues.
     (4) Gallinago minor Aldr. Begasines.
     (5) An Columbalivia Gesner.r  Xexels.
     (6) Pluvialis viridis &cinericea. Kilots C'juyes.
     (7) Turdus iliacus, Torts borrell.
     (8) Turdus pilaris.
     (9) Fringillago, Ulls de bou.
     (10) Fringilla, Pint ana.
     (11) Sturnus, Estornells.
     (12) Coturnix, Gualleras babarescas.
     (13) Ortygometra, an Rallus terrestris:
     (14) Grus, Gruas.
     (15) Anser ferus, Ojas salvages-
     (16) Numenius sive Aquata.
     (17) Phxnicopterus, Flamencos 
34             INTRODUCTION,
the plentiful provision of snails (l), with which na-
ture has furnished this island, are of infinite service
for the maintenance of the poorer families, who eat
them boiled, after  having been kept within doors
long enough to lose their earthy taste.  In dry wea-
ther, when they are in their prime, they lurk in the
chinks of the  earth and crannies of  the rocks, and
commonly stick together in large clusters like grapes;
which probably induced  the  Romans to  give them
the name  of  cochlea:  cavaticw: but  in wet moist
weather, they leave these places of retirement  in
quest of food, and are frequently to be met with on
the stalks of the asphodells, the shoots of the vines,
and other vegetables; for what Pliny says of their
never coming out of their caves, or feeding on greens,
is  intirely fabulous.  Lib. viii. cap. xxxix.
   Having given these short hints relating to the na-
tural history of  Minorca, I shall now  describe the
temper  and manners of the people, so far as may be
necessary to introduce an account of  their diseases.
   The natives of this island are commonly thin, lean,
and well built, strong and active, of a middle stature,
and an  olive complexion. Their hair, for the most
part, is  black and curled; in many chesnut coloured;
in  some red. In a word,  the young people are either
of a sanguine  or choleric constitution; while those
of more advanced years  become dry, meagre,  and,
what the ancients called  atrabilious.  Such is the na-
tural  impetuosity of their temper, that the slightest
cause provokes them to anger; and they are equally
incapable of forgiving  and forgetting an  injury.
(1) Caragols,Boves, Mongetas, Caragolins 
               INTRODUCTION.             35

Hence it is, that quarrels about the merest trifles
daily break out even among  neighbours  and rela*
tions; and family disputes are hereditarily transmit-
ted from father to son. Thus, though lawyers and
pettifoggers are very numerous in this  country, yet
there are still too few for the clients.
   They do not commonly live to so great an age as
the inhabitants of more northerly countries; though,
perhaps, they are equal in this respect to their near-
est neighbours on the continent. Girls *oon arrive at
maturity, and soon  grow old.  The menses, for the
most part, appear before fourteen, and frequently at
eleven years of age; in some they  return twice a
month; in others,  every three weeks,  and continue
 from three to seven days. Both sexes are, by consti-
 tution, extremelv amorous. They are often betroth-
 ed to each other while children, and marry at four-
 teen.  The women have easy labours, and commonly
 return in a few days to  their usual  domestic busi-
 ness.  Lest the family should become too numerous
 for their income, it is  a  practice among  the  poorer
 sort to keep their children at the breast  for two or
 three years.
    Bread of the finest wheat flour,  well fermented
 and well baked, is more than half the diet of people
 of all ranks.  Rice, pulse,  cuscassowe, vermicelli,
 herbs and roots from  the fields and gardens, sum-
 mer fruits,  pickled olives, and pods of  the Guinea
 pepper, make up almost the other half; so that scarce
 a fifth of their whole food  is furnished from the
 animal kingdom; and of this  fish makes by much
 the most considerable  portion.  On  Fridays,  and
 other fast days, they abstain entirely from flesh; and 
36
INTRODUCTION.
during lent they live altogether on vegetables  and
fish, excepting Sundays, when they are permitted the
use of eggs, cheese, and milk.  Most of their dishes
are high seasoned  with  pepper, cloves, cinnamon,
and  other  spices; many  of them  are  tinged  with
saffron;  many sweetened with  honey or sugar;  and
garlic, onions, or leeks,  are almost constant ingre-
dients. They eat a great deal of oil, and  that  none
of the sweetest or best flavoured; using it not only
with sallads^but also  with  boiled and fried   fish,
greens, pulse, &c. instead of butter. A slice of bread
soaked in boiled water, with a  little oil and salt, is
the common breakfast of the peasants, well  known
by the name of oleagua.  Their  ordinary meals are
verv frugal, and consist of little variety: but on fes-
tivals, and other  solemn occasions, their entertain-
ments are to the last degree profuse and extravagant.
The bill  of fare of a country farmer's wedding din-
ner would scarce be  credited. This custom,  with
many others, they seem to have  borrowed from the
eastern nations.
   People of all conditions use  wine at  their meals;
and though drinking to  excess is not common, yet
the vulgar are not exempted from private debauches,
drains of anniseed water being too much in vogue.
In summer the excessive heat  obliges them to have
frequent recourse to large draughts of cold, water,
the greater part of which is but Aery indifferent; for
the cisterns are seldom clean, and  the  water which
the springs and rivulets afford is  often brackish, and
always hard;  so that it is neither proper for washing,
nor for  boiling pulse, and leaves  a stony crust on 
INTRODUCTION.             37
the sides of the teakettles, and other vessels in which
it has been frequently boiled.
  Though the natives make  three or four plentiful
meals  a day, yet  they are  generally costive; and
many, in perfect health, have  no occasion to ease
themselves oftener than twice a week.
  They are so much addicted to the use of tobacco,
as never to be without a pipe, either in their mouths
or their pockets. In summer almost every one sleeps
an hour or two  after dinner, and  some  follow this
practice throughout the year.
  A fourth of their time is made up of holidays, on
which, though work is  prohibited, sports and pas-
times are allowed.  A considerable  part of those days
is spent in the churches, or in processions: at night
the more sedate divert themselves in their  houses
with music and cards; whilst the young men sere-
nade their mistresses, in the streets, with the jarring
musick of their guitars,  and extemporary love songs
of their own composing.
  In the  interval between  the  harvest and the vin-
tage there is a  number of public  diversions in dif-
ferent  places of the island.  Whether  because the
people have then most leisure, or are in reality more
cheerful from the serenity of the weather, as one of
their proverbs*  seems to hint, I shall not determine.
To their horse and foot races,f  notwithstanding the

  * En lo estiu tout hombre viu. In summer every body is alive.
  f On St. John's day, June the 24th, and the Sunday following.
On St. Peter's day, June 29. On St. James's day, July 25. On
St. Laurence's day, August 10. On St. Bartholomew's day,,
August 24, and the 29th of the same month. On St. Gracia's
day, September 8.
                        D 
38
INTRODUCTION.
 immoderate heat of the  season, men, women, and
 children flock  from all quarters, and expose them-
 selves to the sun in the middle of the day, dancing in
 the open air on the scorching rocks, and rattling their
 castanets in concert with the  music  of the guitar.
 Nor does their mirth finish with the day; as soon as
 it grows dark some pieces of pine tree are lighted as
 a torch in the middle of the street, where the crowd
 assembles, and continues  dancing till morning.
   Every year, on St. Peter's day, June 29, they have
 likewise a diversion in Mahon harbour, which may
 properly be called a boat  race;  and one cannot ob-
 serve the eagerness of the boatmen, and the  solici-
 tude of their  friends  on shore, without calling to
 mind Virgil's description of  a similar contest on
 the anniversary of Anchises's funeral. JEn. v. ver. 129.
   In the carnival too, this people, however grave
 and serious at other times, freely indulge themselves
 in all manner of ludicrous sports and  amusements;
 especially during the  last week of it,  when  their
 revelling and extravagant mirth resembles more the
 ancient bacchanalia, than  the diversions of any mo-
 dern civilized nation:  for night and day the streets
 are filled with people in masks, and dressed in the
 most ridiculous habits; while  the jarring sound of
 castanets, pipes and tabors, violins, guitars, and their
 more  discordant  vocal  music,  heightened  with
 screaming, shouting, and  every wild demonstration
 of intemperate joy, make almost one continued uproar.
  After this  excess  of mirth the fasts enjoined by
their religion succeed,  and continue till  the expira-
tion of lent; at which time  a sheep  or a  lamb is
slaughtered by each family; and on the joyful night 
INTRODUCTION.
39
which puts  an end to this mortifying season, they
endeavour,  as  it were, by one  voracious  meal to
make up  for the abstinence which they have been
compelled to observe. This proves fatal to some, and
would undoubtedly be  so  to many more,  if nature
did not prevent the effects of their intemperance, by
a cholera morbus, or some such relief.
  The last thing to be  taken notice of with regard
to the manners of these islanders, is, that their great
veneration for antiquity, and the  little intercourse
which they formerly had  with  other  nations, have
occasioned a number of old customs to be still kept
here at this day.  Thus, poetical disputes are  much
in vogue amongst the peasants.* One of them sings
some  extemporary verses on  whatever subject he
pleases, and accompanies them with the music of
his guitar: he is immediately answered, in the same
number of  unpremeditated lines,  by another, who
endeavours to excel or ridicule  him; and  this alter-
nate contest lasts, to the no small amusement of their
attentive  companions, until the wit of the rival poets
be  exhausted. These  are  the carmina  amoebcea of
the ancient  Greeks,  in  imitation of which some of
the  pastorals  of  Theocritus  and Virgil were
written. In imitation of the ancients too, it is custo-
mary for lovers to pelt their mistresses with oranges,
as a mark of their regardjf though this is a diver-
sion  reserved  for the  carnival.  The  practice of
throwing  nuts and almonds at weddings, which Vir-
gil mentions  (Eclog.  viii,)  is likewise  retained.

    * These verses are called glossos, and those who excel in
making them, glossodors.
    \ Malo me Galatea petty lasciva puella, &c.
                                Virg. Eck>g. iii. 
40            INTRODUCTION.
Soon after a person is deceased his friends and re-
lations assemble in the house to bewail  their loss,
and commemorate his virtues, weeping and howling
with  all  the seeming agonies of distress; and  that
this was  an ancient custom,  appears by the elegant
and  pathetic funeral dirge,  which we find in  Lu-
cretius  (lib.  vi.)  And in this  island, as  in the
southern provinces of France, and in Italy, the dead
bodies are not nailed up in coffins, but carried in an
open litter to the grave, which, we learn from authors,
was  also practised, on some occasions, among the
old Romans.*  Another instance of their inviolable
attachment to ancient usages, is the manner in which
the women wear their hair; for, contrary to the cus-
tom of all  the neighbouring countries,  excepting
Majorca, they force it with fillets to the back part of
the head, and bind it in a queue of a considerable
length. When the natural locks  are not long enough
for this purpose, false ones are added to supply the
deficiency; ibr nothing is reckoned more unbecoming
than to be destitute of a tail, or to appear with one
too short.  But not to be tedious with too many in-
stances, I shall only add, that in the use of the sling
the present inhabitants of Minorca are no less dex-
trous than their forefathers, who  are  said to have
driven the  Romans off their  coasts  by vollies of
stones (Flor. Epitom. lib* iii.)  The shepherds, or
those that tend the cattle, seldom miss such of them
as fall under their displeasure; and by this means
they have their flocks and herds so much at^command,
that even the cracking of the empty sling is sufficient
    * See Cornelius Nepos on the burial of T. Pomponius
Atticus, and Lispius's Notes on this passage. 
INTRODUCTION.
41
to intimidate them, and bring them together in such
parts of the pasture as their keeper pleases: and as
the cattle are  often maimed and hurt by the severe
chastisement inflicted  by means of this  instrument,
the farmers find it expedient to forbid the use of it
to such of their servants as are of a cruel and mis-
chievous disposition.
   The mentioning of their cattle puts me in mind of
two other singular practices which prevail here, viz.
that of castrating animals by bruising their testicles,
which,  we learn from Albucasis  (Chirurg. p. 2.
cap. lxix.) was customary among the Arabians; and
the way of slaughtering oxen, by thrusting a knife
into the medulla spinalis, immediately  behind the
occiput, which is so much preferable to  the method
of knocking them on  the  head,  that it is surprising
other nations do not fall into it.
   Having gone through what I intended to remark
in relation to the natives, I should  next, according
to the plan of this introduction, give a circumstantial
account of the diet, and common way of life, of the
British  soldiers in this island; but as this would be
a disagreeable task, I shall only observe, that the
excess of drinking is, among them, an universal vice,
confirmed into  a constant habit. Pudet hxc opprobria
nobis, &c.
  But however different the Spaniards be from  the
English, in their meat, drink, exercise, affections of
the mind, and habit of body; yet the health of those
of both  nations is equally influenced by the seasons.
An  epidemical distemper seldom or never attacks
one class of inhabitants, while the other remains un-
hurt; and surprising as  it may  appear,  it is never-
                      D 2 
42
INTRODUCTION.
 theless true, that the peasants, who are remarkable
 for temperance and regularity, and the soldiers, who,
 without meat and   clothes,  frequently lie  abroad
 drunk, exposed to all weathers, have diseases almost
 similar, both  as to  their violence and   duration.
 Hence it is evident how  far  the power of the air is
 superior to that  of the other nonnaturals in produc-
 ing disorders of the animal economy.
   The diseases which, from their frequency in  this
 island, I reckon  endemial, may be divided into  two
 classes; the epidemic, or  such as  affect numbers to-
 gether at particular seasons; and the sporadic, which
 are equally common  at all times of the year. To the
 first belong the rash, essere, cholera morbus, tertian
fevers, fluxes, pleurisies, peripneumonies,  erysipela-
 tous fevers, and those that are accompanied with ca-
 tarrhs: to the second, obstructions  of the  abdominal
 viscera, the haemorrhoids, ulcers of the legs, ruptures^
 inflammations of the eyes, and nephritic pains.
   With respect to the epidemics, it may riot be  im-
 proper to  observe in general, that  acute  fevers  are
 more frequent here  than, in England; that they are
 much more violent,  but of  shorter duration;  that
 they  oftener  terminate  completely by a manifest
 crisis; and in all respects agree much more exacdy
 with  what the ancients have  said  concerning such
 evacuations, and the periods in which they usually
 happen.
   The most common diseases of the sporadic kind
 are obstructions, indurations, and  swellings of the
 glandular  viscera in the  lower belly; together with
 wind in the first passages, and bad digestion.  The
 causes of these obstructions seem to be, in the  first 
               INTRODUCTION.             43

place, a scarcity of good water; for, as Hippocrates
has well observed,* Where there are no rivers, and
the inhabitants are  obliged to drink stagnating,  ill-
scented well water, such must  needs  hurt both  the
belly and the spleen. And it is remarkable, that large
spleens, like those described by Trallianus (lib. viii,
cap. xii,) and hard tumefied livers, are not only com-
mon to the  human  species here, but also to brutes;
particularly  the  sheep  that  feed on  the northeast
side of the island, where the waters are very brack-
ish; though the butchers, to whom this fact is well
known, generally ascribe it to their eating the horse-
mint and pennyroyal, which abound in the pastures.
   Secondly. The intense  and long continued  sum-
mer heats, by dissipating the finest particles of  the
animal juices, necessarily leave the rest of a grosser
and more earthy nature. And  thus is a large pro-
portion of  that kind  of  matter  generated in  the
blood, which the ancients called atrabilious; and this
being deposited in the viscera,  occasions the above-
mentioned obstructions. See Boerhaave's Aphorisms
de Melancholia.
   Thirdly.  Another cause of these obstructions is
the frequency of acute diseases, and more especially
of tertian fevers, which, as  they frequently relapse,
and go off with imperfect crises, weaken the tone of
the chylopoetic viscera, and at last terminate in hard
scirrhous tumors of the  liver and  spleen.
   It is likewise probable that their living so much
upon pulse  and crude vegetables, the abuse of spi-
rituous liquors, their high seasoned diet, their pas-
sionate temper,  and immoderate  use  of venery,  co-
         * De Aere, Aquis, et Locis, sub finem. 
44
INTRODUCTION.
 operate with the causes just now mentioned, in pro-
 ducing the same effects.
   But such is the goodness of Providence, that eve-
 ry climate seems to yield domestic antidotes for the
 endemial diseases.* Accordingly we find that this
 island abounds  with whey,  honey, summer fruits,
 gentle cathartics, hieracea, cichoracea,  and all that
 class of plants and roots with aperient  saponaceous
 juices, which antiquity has recommended as specifics
 or approved remedies in obstructed bowels.
   But in these distempers it is universally allowed,
 that nothing is of so much  advantage as the haemor-
 rhoidal  flux; and therefore,  however frequent and
 troublesome the piles  may be in this climate,  they
 ought to be considered rather as a benefit of nature,
 and a remedy, than as  a misfortune, or a disease;
 more especially as they prevent pleurisies and  peri-
 pneumonies,  according to  the  doctrine of Hippo-
 crates. De Humor. & Epid. lib. vi.
   Baglivi f tells us, that at Rome ulcers of the legs
 are almost incurable, and wounds  in them difficult
 to heal;  while the like accidents  on the head are
 quickly cured without any trouble. The same thing
 happens  here, insomuch that  it is a proverb among
 the natives, " Minorca is good for the head, but bad
 "for the shins."\ This,  perhaps,- is owing partlv to
 the redundancy of atrabilious particles in the blood,
which naturally flowing into the inferior  branches of
the aorta, constantly keep open any outlet through

  * See the quotations from Ray and Benorovinus, in Der-
ham. Phys'u o Theolog. Book x.
  | Prax. Med. lib. i. ;.. 10J
  \ Minorca es bo de Cap y mal de Camas. 
INTRODUCTION.            45
which they have once found the way;  partly to the
large obstructed viscera, compressing the vena cava,
and hindering the free return of the fluids from the
inferior extremities. Hence we find, that  ulcers of
the legs, with black cicatrices (such as  may daily be
seen among the soldiers and Spaniards),  are men-
tioned both by Hippocrates  (De Morb. Intern.)
and Celsus (lib. ii, cap. \ ii,) as the effect of over-
grown spleens.
   And now it plainly appears why ruptures  are so
common in this place; for the other bowels being
swelled beyond their natural size, the intestines are
too much confined; and from the nature of the aliment,
being frequently distended with wind, it is not to be
wondered at, that they often push through the rings
of the abdominal muscles.
   In so hot and dry a country as this all the parts of
the body are  very subject to topical inflammations:
But the eyes  are most particularly affected in  this
way;  which seems to be occasioned chiefly by the
strong dazzling light reflected, during  the summer
season,  from  the white rocks and sand; to which we
may perhaps  add, that the floating particles of salt,
dust, and minute insects,  wherewith the air often
abounds, do  likewise injure the tender texture of
this organ, and give rise to ophthalmias, or increase
them.
  Whatever  dissipates the finer parts of our fluids,
and increases the proportion of earth and fixed mat-
ter (and several such causes I have already had oc-
casion to take  notice of), will be apt to produce
sand and gravel in the urinary passages; though it is
probable, that the calculous concretions and nephri- 
 46             INTRODUCTION.
 tic pains are chiefly  owing to the waters, which,
 as I formerly observed, are mostly hard  and brack-
 ish, and let fall a large quantity of stony sediment
 after boiling.
   The  convulsion of the lower jaw in children ought
 likewise to  be  reckoned among the sporadic dis-
 tempers. And as it is both  very frequent and fatal
 in this  island, and some of the neighbouring coun-
 tries, I shall give a description of it from Hyacin-
 thus Andreas, a Spaniard, who, about the end  of
 the last century, published an abridgment of Rive-
 Rius, under the name of  Praxis Medica Gotholano-
 rum, with  very little addition of his own, excepting
 an account of this disease, which most other authors
 have omitted. In hac urbe nostra Barchinonensi af-
fictantur plurimi infantes,  adeo feroci convulsione
 mandibular  inferioris, ut ea apprehensi, nullo possint
 motu illam  movere, et abhinc  suctus lactis  impeditur
 omnino. Emergit hoc malum  ex causa humiditatis re-
 gionis, et potissimum si matres,prctgnatioms tempore,
 minus sobrie vixerint; et usa fuerint alimentis humi-
 dis, et potibus gelidarum eximzis: et quanquam  istas
 duas inveniamus causas, adeo manifestos, existimo ta-
 men potius  hanc cladem insolescere, ex peculiari call
 vel astrorum infiuxu, quam ex illis duabus: Nam  in
plurimts aliis humidis regionibus laute bibunt mulieres,
 et tamen non afflictantur infantes (ita attestantur
 medicij morbo isto diro, quemadmodum in hac nostra
 civitate, in qua tot interfcit mala ista convulsio,  ac
 variola; aut morbilli.  Unde si in toto orbe premantur
 infantes unico tyranno, nempe variolis,  in hac qui-
 dem civitate,  duplici  confictantur, sciz.  variolis  et
 convulsione mandibularum, quae a nostris  mulier- 
INTRODUCTION.             47
cults et obstetricibus vocantur  barrettas, in  quorum
periculum incurrunt recenter nati, usque ad nonum
sui nativitatis diem, eoque transacto, omne discrimen
cessare docuit semper experientia.  It is needless to
add the remedies prescribed by our author,  who in-
genuously confesses, that the disease is  so seldom
curable, that in twenty years' practice he had scarce
known six recover.
   To these we may add the following hurts arising
from endemial causes.  The children and peasants
are often ulcerated with the caustic milky juice of
the figtrees and spurges, which are common in the
fields: in drinking corrupted waters sometimes leech-
es are swallowed, which  I have known to occasion
extraordinary  symptoms, such as coughs,  nausea,
spitting of blood, &c. to the great surprise of both
the  physician  and  patient,  who were entirely igno-
rant of the cause of these complaints. The pastinacse
marinae, and aquila, wound dangerously with the
stings in their tails; and the scorpius, scorpaena, and
draco, with  the prickles  of their back; (for which
reason the  fishermen are obliged by law to cut off
these weapons before they bring  the fish to market).
In the hot weather the  viper, the land scorpion, and
the small black field spider, are reckoned poisonous.
In the spring the hedgehogs, fagrantes astu ve-
nereo,  are  said to  pollute the  waters, to which
they have access,  and thereby  occasion a strangury
and priapism  to those who drink of them: and at
this season the flesh of these animals has the  same
effect, though it is  wholesome and innocent enough
at other times of the year.  But  as accidents of this 
48
INTRODUCTION.
 class rarely occur, it is  sufficient barely to  mention
 them.
   In the opinion of the  natives no diseases are more
 frequent here than witchcraft, charms, and  evil spi-
 rits. Those nevertheless, I shall entirely omit, hav-
 ing neither leisure nor  inclination to enlarge upon
 the craft of the clergy,  and the  credulity  of their
 flocks: but whoever desires  to  see this subject co-
 piously  handled,  may  consult  the  learned father
 Feijoo, who, in his useful and elaborate volumes on
 vulgar errors, has taken  occasion to expose the tricks
 of those pious jugglers,  who pretend to exorcise evil
 spirits, together with several other impostures of the
 same nature.
  These particulars I thought  it necessary to pre-
 mise, before we enter on the history of the epidemi-
 cal diseases. In excuse  for  whatever errors I may
have committed in this  mixed essay, I hope I  may
be allowed to plead, that I wrote it in a part of the
world, which afforded me very little assistance either
from men or books.
       Qualemcunque igitur venia dignare libellum
       Sortis et excusa conditionem mese.       Ovid.
Minorca, An. Dom. 1747. 
AN ESSAY
                    ON THE


  EPIDEMICAL  DISEASES

                      IN


              MINORCA.


                CHAPTER I.

    Of the Weather from the Tear 1744 to 1749.

I AM sorry that it was not in my power, for want
of conveniency and proper instruments, to determine
exactly the weight of the  air, the quantity of rain,
and the force of the winds: notwithstanding which
omissions, I  flatter myself, the following short ac-
count of the principal variations of the weather, ta-
ken from a diary regularly kept, with very few in-
terruptions,  will neither  be entirely useless  nor
unacceptable: and, in order to  make it better un-
derstood, I shall premise  a  few  explanatory obser-
vations.
  In the first place, in speaking of days and months,
I use the old style, as is customary among the En-
glish in Minorca; though- the natives reckon by the
new: and where it appearechiecessary to distinguish
                      E 
50
OF THE WEATHER.
 the forenoon from  the  afternoon, I have  annexed
 a. m. or p. m. to the particular days.
   Secondly, Wherever a rainy day occurs, without
 any dots  after it, the reader will be pleased to take
 notice,  that  only drizzling rain, or a slight shower
 happened on that day: but if two dots be placed after
 it, in this manner • • it signifies one or more smart
 showers to have fallen: if three dots • • • great rains:
 if four • • • • extreme heavy rains, or rather floods of
 water.
   Thirdly, Wherever the thermometer is mentioned,
 it is to be understood of a large mercurial one, gra-
 duated  according to  Fahrenheit's scale, and kept
 in a proper place within doors; except when I describe
 the heat of the sun's rays; which was measured by a
 smaller instrument of the same kind, hung out at an
 upper window, in the open  street, at a considerable
 distance from the walls of houses. Both these ther-
 mometers, being dipt in snow, fell to the 3 2d degree.
 Both were raised to the  96th, 97th,  or 98th degree,
 by the natural warmth of persons in health. Nor did
 I observe any other  difference between them, ex-
 cepting  that the mercury in  the smaller was sooner
 affected by heat or  cold, and  consequently  a little
 quicker in its motions; which  occasioned its being
 found sometimes a  degree  higher in summer, and
 as much lower in winter, than the quicksilver in the
 large thermometer.
  Fourthly, The height  of the thermometer, at a
 medium, during each month, is calculated from ob-
 servations made about three o'clock in the afternoon,
when the mercury is commonly higher by one or two 
             OF THE WEATHER.           51
degrees in winter, and two or three in summer, than
in the mornings and evenings.
   Fifthly,  The difference between the  heat of air
warmed by the direct rays of the sun, and that in the
shade, is at a medium in summer,  about 13 degrees.
Whenever it was remarkably greater, notice will be
taken of it; as likewise of the most  extraordinary
heights to which the mercury rose, when  the ther-
mometer was exposed to the sun, at other times ot
the year.
   Sixthly,  The mercury seldom or never  sinks be-
low the 48th degree in Minorca, except when sharp
winds  blow from the north, which cause the weather
to seem as intensely cold as it is in England, when
the thermometer  has been ten degrees lower.  And
upon the  descent of heavy rains, particularly in the
autumn, the cold  affects us much more sensibly than
one would imagine, from the alteration of the ther-
mometer.
   These things  being premised, I proceed to de-
scribe  the most remarkable changes of the weather,
in  each month, during the  period of time that pro-
duced the epidemical diseases, which are the subject
of this treatise.

              A.D. MDCCXLIV.
   January was  mild and temperate  in the begin-
ning: but after the rains, about the middle of the
month, it  continued, for the most part,  cold and
cloudy.
   Rainy days, 1, 6, 9, • • 10, • • 11, 14,  15, • • • •
19, • •  with hail, 20 with hail, 24, 27,  30.
   The  first days of February  were  cloudy, cold, 
52           OF THE WEATHER.          1E44.
rainy,  and stormy: from the  4th to  the  19th the
weather  was moderate  and seasonable, without ex-
cessive rains or immoderate cold: from which to the
26th it was fair and warm: but  afterwards to the
end of the month, rough and  stormy  as in the be-
ginning.
  March, during the first week, was sometimes warm
and sometimes cold : but  in the three last weeks
piercing winds blew constantly from the north, with
frequent  rains, and sometimes hail.
  The weather  continued colder, and more  disa-
greeable  than usual, till much  rain had fallen about
the middle of April;  the remainder of which month
was mostly fair and temperate.
  The first fortnight of May was likewise fair and
temperate; the latter part of it dry and wTarm, with-
out any rain.
  June was clear, calm, dry, and sultry, as this and
the two  following months are  constantly observed
to be;  the weather varying much less in these than
in the other months. Rainy day, 9.
  In July the northerly winds were higher and more
frequent  than ordinary, insomuch, that on some days
the cold was more troublesome than the heat; nor
do I ever remember to have felt so little heat in this
month in Minorca.
  Rainy  days,  6, at night • •  • • with thunder and
lightning, 17, p. m.
  Coldest day, 8.          Therm. 70. > Height at a
  Hottest days, 21, 22, 31.          80.5 med. 76j|.

  During the first days of August the northerly
winds  continued; but the  rest  of the month was 
1744.         OF THEWEATHER.            53

either calm, of the breezes came from the south, the
air being very hot and sultry.
   Rainy days,  2, a. m.' 14, a. m.
   Coldest days, 3, 4.        Therm. 73. ? Height at a
   Hottest days, 27, 28, 29, 30.        80. 5 med. 77-^.

   In September the weather is always very unequal;
fair intervals, and short violent storms reciprocally
succeeding each other: but this year the anniversary
rains were not  so constantly attended with northerly
winds as they commonly are.
   Rainy days,  7, a. m. • • • • with thunder and light-
ning, and  at night ••••!!,  at  night, • • • • 15, at
night, • • • • 18, at night, • • • • 19, at  night,
22, at night, • • • • with lightning, 23, at night,
with lightning.
   Coldest days,  17, 26.      Therm. 71.} Height at a
   Hottest days,  1, 2, 3,              76.$ med. 73^.

   In the first part of October the winds were mostly
from the north or northwest, the weather  variable
and unsettled:  but from the 14th to the end of the
month it was calm, warm, and fair.
   Rainy days, 2, at night, 4, at night, • • 5, at night,
•  • 13, a. m. and p. m. • • • •
   Coldest day, 14.          Therm. 65. > Height at a
   Hottest days,  1, 2.                71.5 med. 68JL..

   November was remarkable for  bad weather. All
the first day, and the  second before noon,  it  blew
violently from the north, with heavy rain: from the
7th to the  22d the weather was constantly  cold,
cloudy, and stormy, with hail, rain, and high winds,
                       E2 
54           OF THE WEATHER.         1745.

from the north.  After a few fair  days this month
ended stormy, as it began.
  Coldest day,     Therm. 50. ) H .        med  56<
  Hcrttest day, 1.          67-5    &

  From the first of December to the 13th the air
was cold, but for the most part clear; the wind north
or northwest. But at that time shifting suddenly to
northeast, a violent storm began, and continued with
great fury to the 17th, more especially in the nights,
with hail, rain, and flakes of snow. On the 18th the
weather again cleared  up; but on the 21st it became
cold, stormy, and rainy; and, excepting one fair day
or two, it continued so to the end of the month.
  Coldest days^ 14, 15.      Therm. 44. ~> Height at a
  Hottest days, 26, 31.              57-5 med. 5\±.

              A. D.  MDCCXLV.
  This year began with strong  piercing northerly
winds;  nor did the  coldness of the  air decrease
much before the latter end of January, though the
weather was mostly calm and clear with sunshine.
  Rainy days, 6, at night, • • with hail, 13, at night,
■  • 15, at night, • • 26,  at night, •  • • •
  Coldest day, 6.        Therm. 43. >  Height at a
  Hottest days, 26 to 31.        57.$  med. 52.

  The first week of February was pleasant and se-
rene; the remainder was mostly cold, cloudy,  and
overcast.
  Rainy days, 8, p. m. • • • 11, at night, • •  • 15, • *
21, • • • 24, a. m. • • • 25, 28, • • 
1745.         OF THE WEATHER.           55
  Coldest day, 26.         Therm. 46. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 7, 8.              61-5 med. 55.

  Except the first day, which  was windy, contrary
to custom, March was warm, calm, and dry, without
any storms, the winds being mostly from the south
or west.
  Rainy days, 22, a. m. 23, ■ •
  Coldest day, 1.        Therm. 51.? Height at a
  Hottest day, 12.               63. J med. 59.

  April was likewise warm and temperate, but some-
what  more windy  and  rainy than the preceding
month.
  Rainy  days, 3, 8, 23, • • • 27, 28
  Coldest day, 17.         Therm. 58 > Height at a
  Hottest days, 25, 26.           65-5" med. 61f|.

  On the 19th the therm, in the shade 62, exposed
to the sun 80.
  The heat of the weather increased greatly in May,
notwithstanding  some unseasonable rains,  and nor-
therly winds, about the end of the month.
  Rainy  days, 1, 7, 8, ■  • 16, • • 23, at night,
24, p. m. • • • • 25.
  Coldest days, 1, 2.        Therm. 62.? Height  at a
  Hottest day, 17.                  74.$ med. 68-^..

  On the 4th the therm,  in the shade 65, exposed
to the sun 88.
  The beginning of June was likewise unseasonable,
with rains and northerly winds.  The rest  of the
month was calm, dry, and hot, as usual. 
56          OF THE WEATHER.         1745.
   Rainy days, 4, a.  m. • • • • and at  noon, • • • • 7,
at night,
   Coldest days, 4 to 7.       Therm. 69. ? Height at a
   Hottest day, 28.                   82. $ med. 73|.

   On the 28th the therm,  in the shade 82, exposed
to the  sun 98.
   July was a little more temperate  than usual, the
heat of the air being frequently allayed by breezes
or showers.
   Rainy days,  16, a. m. • • • 17, a. m. • • ■ • and p.
m. • •  • • and at night, • • • • with thunder, 27, p. m.
• • 29, at night, •  • •  • with lightning.
   Coldest days, 21, 22.       Therm. 75. \ Height at a
   Hottest days, 6, 25, 26.           80. $ med. 77if.

   On the 7th the therm, in the shade 79, exposed to
the sun 100.  25th therm, in the shade 80,  exposed
to the  sun 96.
   August, except the first three days, was excessive
hot and sultry, till the latter end, when  the air  was
refreshed by brisk northerly breezes.
   Rainy days, none.
  Coldest days, 1,  23 to 27.   Therm.  74. ) Height at a
  Hottest day, 9.                    82.$ med. 77ff.

   On the 9th the therm, in the shade 82, exposed to
the sun 95.
  The  beginning of  September was very  sultry,
though not always serene. But from  the 12th to the
end it was constantly either cloudy, rainy, or stormy
with violent squalls from the north. 
1745.         OF THE WEATHER.          57
   Rainy days, 12,  at night, • • • • 13, at night, • • •
14, at night,  with  thunder, 16, p. m. • • • • and  at
night, • • • ? with thunder, 17, p. m. •  • • • 18, a. m.
• • • and at night, • • • • with thunder  and lightning,
19, a. m. • • •  • and at night, • • • • 20, •  • 27, * • • •
at night, with  thunder and  lightning, 28, • • 30,  at
night, with lightning.
   Much lightning in the  nights of the 20th,  21st,
and 22d.



   On the  24th the therm, in the shade 73, exposed
to the sun 89.
   The weather during October was fair, pleasant, and
serene,  except the rainy days, and some few others,
the winds  being mostly moderate and northerly.
   Rainy days, 1, a. m. 3,  a. m.  • • • • 7, at night,
•  • • • with thunder and lightning, 8, a. m. • • • • 17,
at night,  with lightning,  25, 26, at night, • •  • 27,
a. m.  • • •
   Coldest days, 29, 30.       Therm. 61.? Height at a
   Hottest days, 1,  2.               69.$ med. 65§f

   Almost all  November was either cloudy  or wet.
From the beginning to the 24th the wind was mostly
from the south, or southwest. Afterwards it changed
to the north, and the air continued cold and damp to
the end of the month.
   Rainy days, 2, 5, 7, at night, •  • • 10, a. m.
and p. m. • • and at night, • ♦ • 11, at night, • • 14,
15, at night, • • •  with hail,  21, a. m. • • 26, • • • 27,
•  • 30, • • 
58           OF THE WEATHER.         1746.
   Coldest day, 27. Th.  50.? „. ,.  . o m,  ,R 6
   Hottest day, 8.       65. $ HeiSht at a metL 58^'

   The  first week of December was  wet and cold,
 with high easterly  and northerly  winds. The re-
 mainder was  somewhat more temperate  and calm,
 the  winds being,  for the  most  part,  southwest or
 southerly.
   Rainy  days, 1,  •  • • 2, • • • 5, at night, • • • 7, p.
 m. • • 12, • • 18, •  • 20, p. m. • • and at night, • • 21, • •
   Coldest days, 5, 6, 9.      Therm. 48. \ Height at a
   Hottest day, 27.                  60. $ med. 53if


               A.D. MDCCXLVI.
   The  greatest part of January was fair and clear,
 with cold easterly  winds.
   Rainy days, 6, • •  • 10, • • 11, a. m. • '23, 31,* ••
 with hail.
   Coldest days, 7, 12.      Therm. 48.? Height at a
   Hottest day, 28.                57.$ med. 52§f

   During February the weather  resembled that of
the preceding month, though somewhat colder, and
more windy.
   Rainy days, 3, • • 6, a. m. •  • • 7, a. m. • • 23, a. m.
• • 28, •  •
  Coldest days, 2, 3, 15.    Therm. 45. ? Height at a
  Hottest day, 20.                 57. $ med 5 ljf.

  On the first  of  March  there  was  a remarkable
storm from the north,  with flakes  of snow  in the
evening. Next morning the  fields were covered with 
 1746.         OF THE WEATHER.           59

 snow a foot deep, which melted away soon after sun-
 rising.  But some  more fell the following night, and
 continued upon the ground for three days ere it melt-
 ed ;  which is so extraordinary a phenomenon in this
 part of the world, that it had never before happened
 above once or twice in the memory of man. From
 the 5th day the cold gradually decreased to the 15th,
 and  afterwards, to the end of the month, we had fine
 moderate weather.
   Rainy days, 13, 14, • • 28, a. m.  • • • 30, a. m.  • •
 31,- •
   Coldest days, 3, 4.     Therm.    42. ? Height at a
   Hottest days, 24, 27, 30, 31.        60.$ med. 54 -^.

   In April.the  weather was exceedingly changeable,
 and  often rainy  or overcast.
   Rainy days,  3,  at night, •  • • • 4, a. m. • • •  • 20,
 p. m. •  • • • 11, • • • with hail, 13, • • • • with a storm
 of wind, 14, 17, at night, • • • • 18, a. m. • • 23, • •
   Coldest day, 13.          Therm. 54.? Height at a
   Hottest day, 30.                  68.$ med. 59||.
   On the 3d th. in the  shade 57, exposed to the sun 83.
         29th              65,                  88.

   May was calm, serene, and seasonable, seldom ob-
scured with clouds or rain, until it drew near the  end.
   Rainy days, 9, 21, 24, a. in. • • 29, 30, p. m. • • • •
with thunder and lightning, and at night, • • • • with
thunder and lightning.
  Coldest day, 11.        Therm. 64. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 4, 5, 18, 20.       70. $ med. 68T\. 
 60          OF THE WEATHER.          1746.

    June, as usual, was dry, sultry, and serene.
    Rainy day, 15th.
   Coldest day, 11.        Therm. 69. ? Height at a
   Hottest days, 26, 27.           79. $ med. 73if.

   The heat gradually increased from the end of June
 to the 20th of July, being very troublesome and un-
 easy, even to those who never exposed themselves to
 the sun. But during the latter part of the month, it
 was mitigated by daily breezes.
   Rainy days, 28, a. m. 29,  a. m. and at night,
 30, a. m. • • • • with  thunder and lightning.
   Coldest days, 8, 29, 30.  Therm. 77. ? Height at a
   Hottest clay, 19.                 87. $ med 80ff

   August was more  temperate  than  the  preceding
 month, the heat being somewhat allayed by the nor-
 therly winds.
   Rainy days, 1, a.  m. 19, a.  m. 27, p. m.  • • • •
 with thunder and lightning,  31, at  night, • • • •  with
 thunder  and lightning.
   Coldest day, 29.        Therm. 70. ? Height at a
   Hottest day,  15.               81.$ med. 76||.

   September began with storms  of wind and  rain;
from the 4th to the 14th it was clear and warm; from
which to the end of the month the sky was constandy
either  darkened with heavy  rains,  or was tempes-
tuous with  strong northerly winds; the Aveather be-
ing much colder  than usual  at  that  season of the
year.
   Rainy  days, 2, p.  m.  • • • • with thunder  and
lightning, 3, a. m. • • • • with thunder and lightning, 
1746.         OF THE WEATHER.           61

and hailstones of an inch diameter, 15, a. m.
16, a. m. • ■ and at night, •  • •  • 17, * * *  • with thun-
der and lightning, 18, • • 19, • • 20, at noon, • • -and
at night, • • • • 22, p. m. • • 23, at night,  • • • • 24, • •
and  at  night,  • • • 26,  and at night, • • • • 28, at
noon, • • • •
  Coldest days, 22, 26.    Therm. 58. ? Height at a
  Hottest day, 13.               74.$ med. 67^.

  The first and last week of October were mostly
pleasant and serene: the two  intermediate weeks
were rainy and overcast; and the  whole month was
uncommonly cold, with northerly winds.
  Rainy days, 8, p. m. and at night, • ♦ •  • 9, at night,
• • •  10, • • • at  night,  • • • • 14,  p. m. • • 18,  20,
p. m. • • • • 21, • • • • with thunder and lightning, 22,
p. m. • • • •. and at night, •  • •  • 30, a. m. • • •  • with
hail.
  Coldest days, 8, 9.      Therm. 54. ? Height at a
  Hottest day, 1.                68.$ med. 58ff

  During November the  weather was calm and sea-
sonable, with much sunshine on the days free from
rain.         »
  Rainy days, 1, at night, • • 2, • • • and at  night,
• • •  • 3, at night,  • • • • 4, •  • • 5, • • 12, at night,  • • •
14, • • 17, a.  m. • •  19, a. m. • • 26, p. m. • • •  •
  Coldest day, 20.        Therm. 54.? Height at  a
  Hottest days, 28, 29.           62. $ med. 57l£.

  In December there was no extraordinary cold wea-
ther, and very seldom high winds;  nor  was the se-
renity of the  sky much interrupted by clouds or rain.
                       F 
 62           OF THE WEATHER.          L747.
   Rainy days, 14, • • • 15, • • 29, at night, • • * 30,
 • • 31, • • • and at night,
  Coldest days, 11 to 15.     Therm. 54. ? Height at a
  Hottest day,                     59. $ med. 56.

              A.D.  MDCCXLVII.
  The weather of January was like that of the pre-
ceding month, but somewhat more wet and cold in
the beginning.
  Rainy days, 1, a. m. • • • 2, p. m. • •  and at night,
■ • • 4, at night, • • 12, • • 14, • •
  Coldest day,  5.       Therm. 50. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 20, 28.           59.$ med.  55-^.

  During the first fortnight of February we had
warm, fair, summerlike  weather:   the third  week
was  rainy  and tempestuous, with  some  hail and
snow; the fourth very changeable, the sunshine be-
ing often interrupted by showers.
  Rainy days, 16, p. m. • • • and at night,  • • •  • 17,
a. m. • • and p.  m. • • with hail and snow, 19, at
night, • • • 21, • ♦ 24, at night, • • 25, 27, 28.
  Coldest day,  18.          Therm. 50. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 5, 10.               62.$ med. 55|f.

  On the 4th  the therm, in the shade  61, exposed
to the sun 78.
  From the  beginning of March  to the  21st the
weather was cold, and often wet; the winds mostly
from the north, and sometimes very boisterous: the
remainder of the month was fair and moderate, with
westerly or southwest winds.
  Rainy days,. 1, 2, • • • 3, • • • and at night, • • • 9, 
1747.         OF THE WEATHER.           63
p. m. 14, a. m. • • 17, at night, • • • 19, a. m. • • 20,
a. m. •  • • with hail.
   Coldest days, 6, 13 to 17.   Therm. 50.? Height at a
   Hottest day, 30.                  63.$ med.  54-if-.

   April was fair and dry, but sometimes very win-
dy ;  in  the  fore part  of the month  especially; and
the wind being then at north did great damage  to
the fields and vineyards. About the middle and  to
the end the southeast prevailed.
   Rainy days, 9, at night, • • • 10, at night, • •
   Coldest days, 2, 3.      Therm. 56. ? Height at a
   Hottest days, 27 to 30.          68.$ med. 61||.

   Betwixt the 1st and the 9th of May the weather was
often disagreeable, with rain, clouds, or much  wind.
But almost all the rest of the month was clear,  calm,
and warm.
   Rainy days, 1, 6, p. m.  • • • 7, p. m. • •  • •  with
thunder and lightning, 8, at noon, • • • 28, p. m. with
thunder and lightning, 29, a. m. • •
   Coldest days, 1, 7 to 10.  Therm. 67. ? Height at a
   Hottest day, 31.                75.$ med. 71.

   On the 4th the therm, in  the shade 70, exposed to
the sun 88.
   June was hot and dry as usual.  On the  27th  of
the month dark clouds suddenly rose from the north,
a little before  sunset, and a  storm of wind succeed-
ed, which lasted all that night.
  Rainy day, 23, a. m.
  Coldest day, 23.    Therm. 71.? „ . ,
  Hottest days, 26, 27.        80.$ Height at amed.76. 
64           OF THE WEATHER.          1747.
   On the. 24th the therm, in the shade 71, exposed
 to the sun 94.
   During July hot suffocating winds with  unwhole-
 some vapours, from the south and east, were pre-
 dominant.
   Rainy days, 6, a. m. •  • • 7, a. m. • • • 18, at night,
 • • •  • 26, p. m. • • •
  Coldest day, 8.  Therm. 73. ? tr .  , .  .      , _. ,
  Hottest day, 21.        84. $ HelSht at a med' 79A-

   On the 12th the  therm, in the shade 80, exposed
 to the sun 99.  On the 21st the therm, in the shade
 84, exposed to the sun 100.
  The beginning of August was intolerably hot; nor
 was  the rest much more  temperate, though it rained
 plentifully about the middle and end of it, the winds
 being most commonly from the east and southeast.
  Rainy days,  9, p. m. 12, at night, • • • • with thun-
 der  and lightning, 15, at night, •  • • • with  thun-
 der and lightning, 16, p.  m. • • • • with thunder and
lightning, 28, at night, •  • • • 29, a. m. with thunder
 and lightning, 30, a. m. • • • and much lightning  at
 night.
  Coldest day, 30.          Therm. 74. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 8, 10, 11.            84.$ med. 80^.

  On the 8th the therm, in the shade 84, exposed to
the sun 100. On the 15th the  therm, in the shade
 79, exposed to the sun 98.
  The slight showers which fell first in September,
rather increased than allayed the warmth of the air:
but the storms of wind and rain about the middle  of
the month put  an end  to the  hot weather for that
season. 
 1747.         OF THE WEATHER.           65

   Rainy days, 8, 11, a. m. 13, p. m. and at  night,
 ....  14? . . . . and at night, • • • • 18, at night,  • • •
 with  thunder  and lightning,  19, •'•  • and at  night,
 • • • • 20, • • • 21, at noon, • • • with hail, 23, p. m. and
 at night, • • • 24, a. m. • • • and at night, • • • • 25, • • 28,
 p. m. • • • and at night, • • • • with thunder and light-
 ning, 29, • • • and at night, • •  • • 30, a. m. • •  • •

  Coldest day, 21.  Therm. 63. ? Hei£rh, atamed 7222
  Hottest day, 10.          81.$ "eight at a med. 7^.

 On the 1st, theth. in the shade 79, exposed to the sun 98.
       2d,                  80,                100.
      10th,                  81,                 98.

   Except a shower  or  two,  and a storm of wind
 from the northeast on the 21st, October was entirely
 calm and serene.
   Rainy days, 4, p. m. • • and at night, • • 17,  p. m.
 • • 19,  p. m. •  • 21.

 Coldest days, 19, 25, 27, 28.  Therm. 62. } Height at a
 Hottest days, 10, 11, 12, 14.          70. $ med.  65fi.

 On the 2d, the th. in the shade 67, exposed to the sun 90.
       9th,                 69,                  86.
     23d,                  64,                  83.
     26th,                 63,                  88.

  Nor was November less serene, though sometimes
more windy,  especially at  the close of the month,
when it blew violently from the north.
  Rainy day, a. m.  • • • with hail.

Coldest day, 27.  Therm. 51. ? R  { h        d 6Q 2
Hottest day, 2.           67.$     5              30

On the 16th, the th. in the shade 59, exposed tp the sun 84.
      22d,                  62,                 82.
      27th,                 51,                 74.
      28th,                 54,                ?9,
                          F? 
>4>o           OF THE WEATHER.          1748.
   From the 1st to  the  6th of December the  wind
 blew strong from the southwest; as it did from the
 southeast from the 20th  to the 24th:  the  other days
 of this month were mostly fair, calm, and agreeable.
 The whole of the month was uncommonly warm for
 the  season,  except  the last day, when the  wind
 changed to the north.
   Rainy days, 8, a. m.  • • • and at night, • • 9,12,
 14, • • with thunder and lightning, and at night, • •
 17, • • 24, a. m. • • •  • 25, p. m. • • • 28, p. m. •  •
 Coldest day, 31.   Therm. 53. ? „ .  .         ,
 Hottest days, 3, 5.        64.5 HeiSht at a med- 58TT-
 On the 5th the th. in the shade 64, exposed to the sun 88.
       6th,                 63,                 84

             A. D.  MDCCXLVIII.
   The sharp northerly wind, which began on the last
 of December, was attended with some hail and snow
 on the 4th, and continued to the 6th of January.  It
 then shifted to the northwest, and though the  wea-
 ther was mostly fair and dry, yet the air  continued
 cold till the rains fell, near the end of the month.
   Rainy days, 2, a. m.  • •  and p. m. • • 5, a. m.
 • • • 6, at night, • • 15, at noon, • • 18, at night, • •
 22, at night, • • • 23, and at night, • •  • 25, p. m. • •
 Coldest day, 4.   Therm.  43. ? TT .
 Hottest day, 22.          57. $ Height at a med. 5 l|f.

 On the 8th the th. in the shade 44, exposed to the sun 64.
      18th'                 50,                 68.

  The weather continued mild and temperate to the
 17th of February, though the rains that  fell in the
second week  were accompanied with high southerly 
1748.         OF THE WEATHER.           67
and southeast winds:  afterwards, to  the end of the
month, we had dry, cold, north and northwest winds,
which did much mischief to the corn.
   Rainy days, 6, at night, 8, 9, • • 10, a. m. • • and
p. m. • • • 11, a. m. • • • 13, a. m. 15, at night, 16, • •
and at night, • « 18, p. m. 25, at night, • • • with hail,
26, p. m. • •  and at night, • •
Coldest day, 21.    Therm. 48.? ,, .  w  .      ,  t„
tr **  * j     * o          ,n ^ Height at a med. 55.
Hottest days,  6, 8.         60.3,    °
Onthe 1st the th. in the shade 56, exposed to the sun 76.
      19th,                 52,                 78.
      24th,                 54,                 80.

   In the beginning of March the weather was win-.
dy, but not  very  cold : between the 10th  and 23d
we had violent storms  of wind,  rain, and hail, with
fair intervals. The end of the month was  remarka-
bly pleasant  and serene.
   Rainy days, 7, p. m. with a little hail,  10, a. m.
 11, at night, • • • 12, a. m. •  • and p. m. •  • with hail
and snow, and  at night, •  • 13, at night,  14, p. m.
 16, p. m. and at night, • • • with thunder  and light-
ning, and snow, 17, • • • 18, • • • and at night, • • 19,
p. m. • • • and at night, • • • • 20, p. m. 21, 30, p. m.
   Coldest days, 19, 21.      Therm. 50.? Height at a
   Hottest days, 27, 29, 30.          63. $ med. 55^-.
On the 14th the th. in the shade 51, exposed the sun 76.
       27th,                  63,               82.

   April was cold and stormy from the 14th to the
20th;  all the rest of the month was calm, clear, and
warm, except the 25th,  when  it rained,  and  blew
fresh from the northwest.
   Rainy days, 6, at night, 14, p. m. • • • with thurr- 
 68           OF THE WEATHER.         1748.
 der, 15, at night, • • • • 16, p. m. • • • with  thunder
 and lightning, and  at  night, • •  • with thunder  and
 lightning, 19, 24, at night, • • • 25, • • 30.
 Coldest day, 16.            Therm. 55.? Height  at a
 Hottest days, 24, 28, 29, 30.          65.$ med. 611*.

   May was clear, calm, and  warm, excepting  the
 15th and 16th days, when it blew violently from the
 north.
   Rainy  days, 20, p. m. 21, p. m.
 Coldest day, 16.         Therm. 61.? Height at a
 Hottest days, 25, 30, 31.          72. $ med. 68-37T.

   About the  middle of June the northeast winds
 blowing fresh for some days, allayed the heat of the
 air, but did great damage to the  fruit trees.
   Rainy day, 26, at noon, • • • ■
   Coldest day,  18.          Therm. 71. ? Height at a
   Hottest  days, 12, 13.              80.$ med. 75§§.

   The first weeks of July were  extremely hot and
 sultry, especially from the 6th to the 16th; the mer-
 cury in the thermometer rising daily above the 80th
 degree. Nor was  the  latter part of it much more
temperate, though  it blew from the north  pretty
briskly on the 17th and 18th, and moderately about
the end of the month.
   Rainy days,  2, a.  m. 16, at night,  17th, at night,
18, at noon, • •  • • 31, at night, • •  • with thunder and
lightning.

  Coldest day, 18.         Therm. 74. ? Height at a
  Hottest days,  14, 15, 16.        84. S med 71 s_
                                  J    ""31'
On the 5th, the th. in the shade 79, exposed to the  sun 96. 
1748.        OF THE WEATHER.           69

  The excessive heat of the season continued to the
19th of August; when it intermitted for some days,
the clouds  threatening rain, with  boisterous winds
from the north, especially in the night time. On the
24th it again became sultry, and continued so to the
end of the  month.
  Rainy days,  3, a. m. 7, at  night, 19, a.  m. with
thunder and lightning, and at night, • • • •
  Coldest days,            Therm. 74. ?  Height at a
  Hottest day, 15.                 85.$  med. 7974T.
On the 9th,  the th. in the shade 77, exposed to the sun 95.
      10th,                 79,                 96.
      14th,                 84,                101.
      15th,                 85,                100.

  In September, though the sky was often overcast,
with signs  of rain, yet the  showers were neither so
heavy nor so frequent as  they commonly are about
this time of the year: but large dews  falling in the
nights, and constant breezes from the north, render-
ed the air temperate, as it commonly is in this month.
  Rainy days, 8,  at night, 9, at night,  with thunder
and lightning, 17, at night, 18, at night, 23, at noon,
•  • • • and at night, • • • • 24, a. m. • •
  Coldest day, 25.         Therm. 66. ?  Height at a
  Hottest days, 7,  8.             80. $  med. 73^|.

  On the 22d the therm,  in the shade 73, exposed
to the sun  96.
  The first ten  days in  October were mostly fair,
clear, and calm, and also the last week  of the month:
all the intermediate days were either wet, or windy
and overcast.
  Rainy days,  1, at  noon, • • 9, p. m. 10, p. m, • * 
70          OF THE WEATHER.         1749.
and at night,  • • • • 11, * • • • 12, at night, • • • • 14,
•  • • 15, • • 19, 20, at night, • •  • • 21, at night, • •
22, 23, at noon, • • • • 27, at noon,
  Coldest days, 12, 13.      Therm. 58.? Height at a
  Hottest day, 7.                   72. $ med. 65|f

  Towards the beginning and  end of November the
weather was temperate and serene. During the mid-
dle part of the month it was frequently cloudy and
cold with dry north winds.
  Rainy days, 8, at noon, • • • • with thunder and
lightning, and at night, • • • • 11, a. m. 20, • • • • 22,
26, • • • •
  Coldest day, 23.        Therm. 53. ? Height at a
  Hottest days, 1, 2, 3.            66. $ med. 58 ^.

  In  December  the wind was either southerly or
westerly: hence  the weather  was never  cold; and
though  some  days were  foggy, yet  by  much the
greater part of this month was dry, clear, and very
pleasant.
  Rainy days, 14, • • • at night,  21.
  Coldest days, 9 to 17.    Therm. 5 6. ? Height  at a
  Hottest days, 27 to 31.           60. $ med. 57|f

              A. D.  MDCCXLIX.
  So mild was the weather in January that it scarce
seemed to be winter. The preceding autumn having
been uncommonly dry, and the  showers  which fell
during the first three months of this year  being nei-
ther frequent nor plentiful, the grain in many places
perished for want of rain.
  Rainy days, 4, a. m. 7, at noon, and at night, • • •
18, p. m. 19,  at night, 20, at noon. 
1^49.         OF THE WEATHER.           71
  Coldest days, 6, 7.       Therm. 53.? Height at a
  Hottest days, 1, 2, 16, 17,       58.$ med. 55^,

  February  was likewise mild and temperate, the
mercury in the thermometer fluctuating between the
54th and 57th degree: a little rain fell on the first
days, a heavy shower on the 12th, slighter showers on
the 22d and 23d; during the rest of this month the
air was clear and dry.
   March was  fair, warm, and without rain, both to-
wards  the beginning  and end;  the  thermometer
standing above the 60th degree. Between the 9th
and 22d  day, frequent storms of rain, with  some
hail, intervened, which sunk the mercury to the fifty
second degree.
   The weather during almost all April was  mild,
clear, and agreeable.
   Rainy days, 7, a. m. • • • and p. m. • • • • 10, p. m.
• • • and at night, • • •
   Coldest days, 8, 9.        Therm. 56. ? Height at a
   Hottest day, 30.                 69.5 med. 62ff

   In May sudden heavy rains sometimes interrupted
 the serenity of the weather; and at the close  of the
 month a strong westerly wind did much damage to
 the vineyards. The harvest this year was so poor and
 scanty  (especially in the northern parts of the island,
 where the droughts were most excessive), that they
 scarcely reaped as much grain as they had sowed.
   Rainy days, 3, p. m. • • • • 11, at noon, • • * • 12, at
 noon, • • • 16, 19, 25, at night, • • •  31, at night, • • •
 with thunder and lightning.
   Coldest day, 4.          Therm. 64. ? Height at a
   Hottest days, 24, 25.            73.$ med. 68£. 
72           6F THE WEATHER.         1749.
   During the month of June the air was dry and ex-
 cessively hot, though somewhat more temperate be-
 tween the 14th and the 25th; frequent gales coming
 from the north.
   Rainy day, 15, p. m.
   Coldest day, 1.          Therm. 69. ?  Height at a
   Hottest day, 30.                 79. $  med. 74j63.

   On the 29th the therm, in the shade 76, exposed to
 the sun 96.
   The weather has seldom been felt so extremely hot
 and sultry as this year in July; the quicksilver rising
 daily above the 80th degree of the thermometer, and
 never falling below the 79th, even in the night time,
 till the rains which fell in the latter part of the month
 had cooled the air.
   Rainy days, 25, at noon, • • • 26, p. m.  • • • •
   Coldest days, 26, 27.       Therm. 77. ? Height at a
   Hottest day, 20.                  86.$ med. 82£.
 On the 3d the th. in the shade 82, exposed to the sun 102.
      4th,                84,                 100.
     13th,                84,                  104.
     14th,                85,                 104.

   In the beginning of  August a general relief of all
his majesty's troops in  the island obliged me to em-
bark for Ireland, and put an end to these observations. 
                OF THE WEATHER.             73

A TABLE showing the greatest, least, and mean height of the mer-
  cury at three o'clock in the afternoon, in each month, from the
  year 1744 to 1749.
| (1744			1745	1746	1747	1748 57 43 51^ •"31	1749
January	G L M		57 43 52	57 48 «023 ^3l	59 50 55TT		58 53 57 ' 54
February	G L M		61 46 55	57 45 51^ J126	62 45 55^	60 48 55	
March	G L M		63 51 59	50 42 54 5 J131	63 50 54-i^ D*31	63 50 5 5-9-J0 3 1	64 52
April	G L M		65 58 61^4 O130	68 54 5922 3:,30	68 56 U130	65 55 61^ U130	69 56 fi223
May	G L M		74 62 «838T	70 64 68^	75 67 71	72 61 68/7	73 64 68A
June	G L M		82 69 731	79 69 73J-2-'^To	80 71 76	80 71 75.21 ' °30	79 69 74-?-' *30
July	G L M	80 70 7fi19	80 75 7712 ' ' 3 1	87 77 80|f	84 73 79 3-' J31	84 74 79-5-"31	86 77 82Jj
August	G L M	80 73 77_2_ 3 1	82 74 772J. "31	81 70 76i£ ' "3 1	84 74 80-34T	85 74 79-^-"31	
September	G L M	76 71 71-2-	80 69 ' .3 0	74 58 67^	81 63 7022	80 66 7<321	
October	G L M	71 65 67 50 56	69 61 65^ "331	68 54 58§}	70 62 65^1 U331	72 58 UJ3 1	
November	G L M		65 , 50 5 8-s-°°30	62 54 01 30	67 51 60^	66 53 5 8-3-	i
1 G December L 1 lM		57 44 5»1	60 48 DO30	59 54 56	64 53 68^	60 56 °' 3 1	1 i
G 
 
75
                  CHAPTER II.

 Of the Rise, Progress, Declension, and Succession of the
   Epidemical Diseases,from the year 1744 to 1749.

               A.D. MDCCXLIV.

 IN the beginning of the year few diseases appeared,
 except some pleurisies and tertian fevers; both  which
 are  common in  Minorca,  and  are frequently met
 with in  all seasons ; the first  being  generally  the
 chief amongst vernal epidemics, as the other is con-
 stantly amongst the autumnal.
   During the  cold  weather in March many adults
 were affected with catarrhs, and almost all the chil-
 dren were seized with a smart fever, attended by a
 cough;  which disorders did not cease till the begin-
 ning of summer.
   As the summer and autumnal weather of one year
 never varies  much from that of another, so the same
 tribes of distempers return regularly with the seasons,
 and succeed  each other in the following order.
   Toward the end of June the young children (who
 constantly suffer  first by excessive heat or cold) are
 attacked with  a  vomiting,  purging,  and periodical
 fever, often  of the  erratic  kind, without any fixed
type, (a)
  (a) This disease among children appears to be what has re-
ceived in the United States the name of the  cholera infantum.
The author mentions it  again in two other places. It is briefly
described in a late publication on the diseases of India, by Mr.
Custis, surgeon of the Medea frigate. Our author's account of 
76      OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, Sec.

   In the  following month tertian  fevers of vai-ious
forms  appear among people of all ages, and spread-.
ing from one to another, by contagion, continue  to
increase daily till about the time of the autumnal
equinox,  when they  rage with  the  utmost fury
amongst persons of all ranks and constitutions, whe-
ther natives or  foreigners. Afterwards  they gradual-
ly decline;  and as soon as  the  winter begins, their
contagion being rendered inactive by the cold, few
persons who have hitherto escaped are infected. Yet
some primary fevers continue to January, and  re-
lapses are exceedingly frequent in the  latter months
of the year.  (£)
   About the time when the tertians begin, the cho-
lera morbus, rash, and  essere, become frequent and
epidemical in a less degree: but are seldom met with
after September,  whilst the  tertians  continue  till
winter.

it accords  with the same disease in our  country, in making its
appearance sooner than the bilious fevers (of which it is a form)
in adults.
   (6) Our author has followed the physicians of the continent of
Europe in supposing tertian  or bilious fevers to be contagious.
They spread only  from the action of an impure atmosphere, and
never extend beyond its influence.  If a  whole family succumb
under it, after  it has affected one of them, it must be ascribed
to the  same air, and to the fatigue or distress of nursing the
person  first attacked, affecting the rest of the family. The  ex-
tinction of this fever by cold, which our author mentions, proves
it to be an atmospherical "disease, for  cold cannot penetrate
houses  to destroy  the contagion.  On the contrary, the shutting
of doors and windows which follows the action of the cold, ought
rather to accumulate and increase it. The small pox, which is a
contagious disease, is not checked by cold weather. 
OF EPIDEMICAL DISEASES.       77
  Diarrhoeas, dysenteries,  and tenesmus,  likewise
make their appearance  as  epidemicks,  in  summer
and autumn: but some years they occur so seldom,
as scarce to deserve that name; whilst in others they
are almost as numerous as the tertians themselves.
  There seems likewise to be a near alliance amongst
all the diseases above mentioned.  Those who have
the rash, or essere, to a great degree, are very liable to
tertian fevers; on the other hand, in the paroxysms of
tertians these cutaneous eruptions are apt to break out.
The cholera morbus sometimes hath its regular pe-
riods, like a tertian, as the paroxysms of tertians are
frequently attended with a cholera. Sometimes a
tertian is  changed into a dysentery; or a dysentery
becomes a tertian; and when one of  these diseases is
suppressed, the other often  ensues;  nor is it uncom-
mon  for  dysenteric fevers  to put  on  the form of
tertians; and for the  fits  of tertians to be regularly
accompanied by gripes and stools, (c)
   It is remarkable that both dysenteries and tertians,
without any manifest cause, are sometimes more uni-
versal and severe in one part of the island in one year
than another; and often  seem, as it were, to attack
particular families with uncommon  severity;  whilst
others in the same place, the same circumstances and
way of life, escape.  Those, however, who live  in low
valleys, or near stagnating corrupted waters,  are
commonly the greatest sufferers.
  To me it appears probable that  all  the  summer
and autumnal diseases are the consequence of nature's
  (c) We see in the whole of this paragraph a striking proof of
the unity of the autumnal disease, however diversified it ma\
he in its seats or symptoms.               G 2 
78      OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, See.

attempting to free the body from noxious humours,
either by throwing them upon the skin, or by con-
veying them through the liver and other organs of
secretion, which open into the intestines.  (*/) And if,
with  the ancients, we allow distempered bile to be
the cause of tertian fevers, it will perhaps be  easier
to account for their more obvious  appearances, than
by supposing them to  arise from a lentor in the
smaller arteries, according to the modern theory:
but this is transiently offered as a  conjecture;  to re-
cord  facts without framing any  hypothesis, being
my principal design.
   In July 1744 tertian  fevers were numerous; but
during the two ensuing  months they were neither so
universal nor so malignant as they commonly are at
this time of the year:  yet obstinate relapses  were
frequently met with till  January.
   A little before the equinox dysenteries of a bad
kind began to appear; and being propagated by con-
tagion, (e) like the tertian fevers, they soon increased
to such a degree, that it was doubtful which of the
two distempers was  more universal.  This year, in
the space of three months,  I had more patients with
bloody fluxes, than in all the former part of my life;
and as no manifest quality in the air, nor variation
in the weather, seemed  capable of producing them,
it is probable that their uncommon frequency and
singular severity were chiefly owing to the sour da-
  (</) It would have been more appropriate to modern patho-
logy, had our author said, the miasmata inhaled during the au-
tumnal season.
  (e) The same objections apply to the  contagiousness of the
dysentery, which apply to tertian and bilious fevers formerly
mertioncd. 
OF EPIDEMICAL DISEASES.       79
maged wine, which, for the sake of gain, was at that
time sold in the island by those whose duty it was to
have prevented such abuses.  But be this as it will, it
is certain  that incredible havoc was made by those
distempers among the lower sort of the  natives, as
well as among the soldiers and sailors of his majesty's
fleet, which was then in the harbour.  The most part
of those who were attacked died  about the winter
solstice or sooner; the rest  continued weak, lean,
and pale,  like so many shadows, during the winter
and spring; nor did any  method  which we  could
suggest, entirely protect them from the torments of
those painful distempers, until the heat of the sum-
mer,  by increasing perspiration, had diminished the
tendency of the humours to the intestines.
  In December some were cuC off by the pleurisy;
and many, worn out with age, intemperance, or fre-
quent sickness, died  about the end of this month and
the beginning of January.


              A. D. MDCCXLV.
   About  the end of  January a manifest alteration to
the better was perceptible among the sick.  Those
who had been reduced to the last  extremity, by re-
peated relapses of tertians, were now restored to their
former health; and such as were  ill  of fluxes, and
had been despaired  of, began to show  signs of re-
covery: nor did any new distemper, except a few
pleurisies, appear during the spring.
   Towards the end  of May, and beginning of June,
heavy rains having occasioned a sudden change in
the air from heat to  cold, some were attacked with a 
 80      OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, &c.
 looseness, gripes, and cholic pains; and others with
 an angina.
  June was scarcely  ended, when the tertian fevers
 and cholera morbus began; and increasing daily ac-
 cording to custom, came to their  greatest degree of
 frequency in September; from which time they gra-
 dually declined, and seldom appeared after the win-
 ter  solstice.  Those   distempers,  it was  observed,
 were this year often attended with fixed pains of the
 side, and sometimes with a spitting of blood, (f)
  In July and August a slight jaundice,  without a
 fever,  which  soon yielded  to purgatives,  and sapo-
 naceous  medicines, was a common distemper.
  In September dysenteries broke  out, and continued
 to the  winter: but they were  neither so  numerous
 nor so  malignant as in the preceding year.
  As the dysenteries and tertian fevers disappeared,
 the pleurisy, which  had been fatal to a few in the
 autumn, became more frequent; and towards the
 close of the year, it raged more violently than  I had
 ever known,  at least among the English inhabitants
 of the  islands.


              A. D.  MDCCXLVI.
  I come now to  a  year  remarkable  for dreadful
distempers and much  mortality.  For the pleurisy
above mentioned continued to make great destruc-
tion till April, at which time it began to abate; and

  (/) These secondary pectoral affections often attend the au-
tumnal fevers in the southern states They yield to  purging,
from which circumstance  it has  been erroneously inferred that
a pleurisy may be cured exclusively by that remedy. 
OF EPIDEMICAL DISEASES.       81
vanished entirely about the summer solstice. Toge-
ther with the  pleurisy, two other diseases equally
fatal, the phrenitis and paraphrenitis, were also epi-
demical: and so likewise was an erysipelatous fever.
A few had large tumours of the parotids; and others
had inflammations of the  throat. But those diseases
were peculiar to  adults. Amongst the children  ob-
stinate,  and often fatal chincoughs, became frequent
in March, and continued till summer: some were
suddenly suffocated  by an  angina, without any ap-
parent  swelling:  and to  complete the measure of
evils, the island was this year visited with the small-
pox, and of the most pestilential kind.
  The  chincough had no sooner disappeared than a
periodical fever,  accompanied  withv vomiting and
purging, took its  place, which proved alike fatal to
many children during the summer.
  In July the  tertian fevers broke out as usual, and
their violence being augmented  by the  excessive
heat of the season,  many persons died  suddenly
about the seventh day of the distemper: but the cold
weather of September prevented their becoming so
general  and  continuing so  long as they commonly
do; for  about  the end of October they gave way to
catarrhs and quartan  agues.


             A.D.  MDCCXLVII.
  The first part of this year, though not very  un-
healthy, produced some few  intermittents, together
with inflammatory and catarrhal fevers. And  the
extraordinary heat of May ushered in the summer
diseases somewhat sooner than usual. For about the 
 82      OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, &c.
 end of that month the cholera  morbus carried off
 many children, and in June the tertians became uni-
 versal.  Besides, towards the end  of June, the  di-
 arrhoea, dysentery, and tenesmus  broke out  and
 raged  violently for some  weeks: but contrary to
 expectation,  they continued only a short time, and
 after the beginning of September could scarcely be
 reckoned epidemical.
   In the  meanwhile, as the dysenteries decreased,
 the number of tertians was multiplied, and being of
 a malignant kind, great mortality ensued, especially
 in the  southern parts  of the  island. General  Wyn-
 yard's regiment, which was quartered in Mahon,
 was so severely handled by these fevers, that between
 June and  November  forty one  men died; and the
 most part of those who survived continued  weak,
 sickly, and illcoloured till the spring.
   In October a few complained of coughs, and sore
 throats: and the  latter end  of  the year produced
 pleurisies, which (as it  commonly happens) did not
 affect the English so much as the Spaniards.


             A.D. MDCCXLVIII.
  Pleurisies were  exceedingly mortal in the begin-
ning of the year, and carried off divers in the spring.
  In March many erysipelatous  phlegmons  were
observed to break out on the extremities, which ge-
nerally terminated in abscesses.
  Towards the beginning of April some complained
of sore throats and rheumatic pains. And about the
10th day of the month  there appeared  suddenly a
catarrhal fever, which for three weeks raged so uni- 
OF EPIDEMICAL DISEASES.       85
versally, that almost every body in the island was
seized with it.  This disease exactly resembled that
which was so epidemical in the year  1733. (Med.
Essays, vol. ii. art. 2.) For in most part of the sick
the feverish  symptoms went  off  with a plentiful
sweat in two or three days; while the cough and ex-
pectoration continued  some time longer.  In a  few
athletic persons,  who were not  blooded in time, it
terminated in a fatal pleurisy or phrensy. (g)  In
one or two the vessels on the coats of the  intestines
burst, and the patients expired after voiding  an  in-
credible quantity of blood by the anus.
   The  ensuing summer proved very  unhealthy to
the children,  many of them dying of the  cholera
morbus, and periodical fevers;  whilst  others were
much affected with cutaneous  eruptions of different
sorts.
   The  tertians began in July, and finished their an-
nual  career about the end of November. Many per-
sons  died suddenly during the dog days,  and about
the equinox.
   In the  meantime dysenteries prevailed in  Ciuda-
 della among  the  lower  sort of the  natives, whose
bread was made of damaged wheat, without affect-
 ing the soldiers and others in the same town, who
lived on better provisions.
   From the end of November to the middle of Ja-
 nuary pleurisies were  predominant in all parts of the
 island; and  large  critical abscesses, together  with
 variou's kinds of  cutaneous eruptions, were more
 frequent both among the English and Spaniards than
 had  ever been observed.
   fc) This disease appears to be the influenza, of late years so
 well known in the United States. 
84      OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, &c.

              A. D. MDCCXLIX.
   That part of this year, during which I  resided in
Minorca, was  remarkable  for dry weather and few
distempers. However, in March pleurisies  and ca-
tarrhal fevers now and then appeared; in April some
had anginas with  aphthae in the mouth, and sponta-
neous salivations; others complained of pains in the
ears, and eruptions  on the face. In June and July
there were some specimens of the summer's diseases,
but so few that thev scarcely deserve  to be called
epidemical. 
85
                CHAPTER III.

              OF TERTIAN FEVERS.

HAVING described the state  of the weather, and
the succession of the  epidemical diseases, I come
now to treat particularly of each,  beginning with
tertian fevers, which are, by much, the most fre-
quent of all.
  These fevers never  proceed uniformly, with con-
stant uninterrupted violence  from their first begin-
ning to their final termination;  but,  sooner or later,
have periodical intervals, more or  less evident, so
that the patient is by turns one day better and another
worse. They  are  called  tertians, or  fevers  of the
tertian kind, because  each particular period or re-
volution of the disease (which the Romans express-
ed by the word  circuitus) is completed in the space
of about forty eight hours; and a new attack is be-
gun on the alternate days, or every  third day, if we
include the day  on which the  genuine paroxysms
happen, together with the intermediate one, accord-
ing to the common method  of  reckoning, used by
physicians.
   The fevers belonging to this  tribe assume so ma-
ny, and such various  shapes, that,  though they are
essentially the same,  yet their appearance is often
very different; insomuch that when I reflect on the
several species which I have seen,  I almost despair
                        H 
86          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
of being able to give the reader any tolerable idea of
them.  Nevertheless, as it is of such importance to
be acquainted with the  specific properties of each,
that  without an exact knowledge of them, we can
neither foretel the return of the fits or intervals, nor
consequently administer food or medicines  at the
most convenient  hours;  I flatter myself that it will
not be thought unnecessary to dwell a little  on this
subject, and endeavour  to describe the particular
types and forms,  in  which the various kinds  of ter-
tians appear, especially as no  author  who has fallen
into  my hands, is sufficiently  clear and  accurate  on
this  head.  For those distempers are  slightly passed
over by most  of the moderns; and although the
Greeks and Arabians had treated of them at great
length, yet in their voluminous writings( we do not
find  them described as they really are,  but as they
would be, if Galen's theory  of the four humours
was  well grounded; their distinctions being deduced
from different mixtures of bile and pituita,  which
they assign as the cause of tertians; and  having once
laid  it  down as an axiom,  that each species arises
from a particular humour, which must produce such
and  such effects,  they ascribe  symptoms  to the fever,
from a preconceived  hypothesis, which seldom or
never  accompany it in reality. (Vid. Simon Simon.
apud Sennert. torn. ii. lib. ii. c. xvii.)
  Wherefore, in  order to avoid the  like mistakes, I
shall leave the reader to form what idea of the causes
of those fevers he thinks fit, and endeavour to show
as distinctly as  I  can,  first,  the differences  which
arise amongst them from the different types or forms
of their periods; secondly, the distinctions occasion- 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          87
ed by the most obvious symptoms  of their parox-
ysms; and, thirdly, I shall  describe the various ap-
pearance of the more frequent epidemical tertians in
their rise, progress, and termination,  with as  much
exactness as their own  irregular anomalous disposi-
tion will permit.
   But it may not  be improper, in the first place, to
apprize the reader, that I have used the appellations
commonly given to the various fevers of this class, in
sl manner somewhat different from several who have
written upon this subject, though not without explain-
ing as clearly as I could in what sense I would be un-
derstood : and indeed  whoever  consults those wri-
ters will find that some of them  so limited their de-
finitions as to make it doubtful  if ever any disease
existed to  which the  name was applicable;  whilst
others apply their terms in  so loose  and vague a sig-
nification, as to include several species, which ought
to  be distinguished, in order to understand  their
history  and  cure.* It may  likewise be  necessary
to inform those who are not  much  conversant with
the  Hippocratical writings, that by the  odd days
are meant the 1st, 3d,  5th, 7th, &c; by the even days
the 2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, &c; and that however singular
such a distinction may appear in a country where no

  * For instance, if we look into several of the Galenical wri-
ters, we shall find that, in order to constitute the tertiana pura
or exquisita, and some kinds of the semitertiana, a number of
different circumstances is  required, which seldom or  never
occur in the same patient.  On the other hand, Spigelius, who
wrote a particular treatise De Semitertiana, has extended the
meaning of that denomination so far, that it includes almost.
every species of the tertian  tribe. 
88          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
such uniform diversity is observable, yet it will be
found next to impossible to give a tolerable idea of
the diseases in that climate without the  assistance of
this distinction.
  In this treatise tertian fevers are called simple, when
there is but one fit and one interval during each period
of the distemper. When the paroxysms do not exceed
twelve hours, they are called true tertians; when they
continue longer, they are called spurious. In the true
simple tertian the fit, for the most part,  comes on in
the middle of the day, and goes off the same evening.
In the  spurious simple  tertian it comes  on  much
«~~i;o,-  ^»nd often lasts above eighteen hours.

  They  are called double  tertians, when  there are
two fits and two  intervals  within the time of each
period.   But commonly there is some difference be-
tween the two  fits, either  in respect to  the hour at
which they come, the time  of their duration, or the
nature and violence of their concomitant symptoms;
whilst at the same time  the  third paroxysm of the
disease  resembles the first, the fourth agrees with the
second, the fifth with the third, and so  on.
   Some double  tertians begin in  this manner: on
the  evening of Monday,  for  example, a slight fit
comes on, and  goes off early next morning: but on
Tuesday, towards the middle of the day, a more se-
vere paroxysm begins, and continues till night. Then
there is  an interval to Wednesday  evening, when  a
slight fit commences a new period of the fever, which
proceeds in the  same manner as the  first;  so that
(according to the way in which physicians calculate
the days of diseases, by beginning to  reckon from 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          89
 the first hour of their invasion) both paroxysms hap-
 pen on the odd days, while the greater part  of the
 even  davs is calm and undisturbed.
   But in most double tertians  the  patient has  a fit
 every day of the disease; the severe one commonly
 appearing at noon on the odd days, the slight  one
 towards evening  on the even days; though  some-
 times  the worse of the two fits happens on the even
 days, (h)
   Double tertians, if their fits do not exceed twelve
 hours, are named true;  if they are somewhat more
 protracted,  they are  called spurious; and if the fits
 are so far protracted, that one is scarce ended when
 another begins, they are called subintrant.
   There is  a tertian fever sometimes to be met with,
 during each period of which there are three  differ-
 ent fits, and as many intervals. For example, towards
 Monday noon the patient is seized with a paroxysm,
 which declines  about five or six  o'clock the same
 evening: a few  hours after another fit begins,  and
 continues until  morning; from which time  there is
 an  interval  to Tuesday  evening, when a  third fit
 comes on, and lasts  most part of  the night.  On
 Wednesday there  are again two paroxysms,  as on
 Monday, and one on Thursday like that of Tuesday;
 and thus the fever goes on, with a double fit on each
of the odd days, and a single fit on the even  days.
  This uncommon kind  of tertian is the true  semi-
tertian of Hoffman*  and some others: but I shall
call it a triple tertian, to  distinguish it from  another

  {h) It is always a bad sign when the worst fit of an  autumnal
fever occurs on an even day.
  * Med. Rat. torn. iv. § i. c. v.
                      112 
90          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
very common fever, which proceeds in the following
manner.
  A fit begins on  Monday noon, for example,  and
goes off  the same night.  On Tuesday afternoon a
second fit comes  on, and  gradually  increases  till
Wednesday night, when it terminates.  On Thursday
morning there is such another interval as happened
on  Tuesday  morning: but on Thursday afternoon
another long fit, like the preceding, commences, and
returning regularly  every other day, leaves only a
short interval of ten or twelve hours during the eight
and forty. This fever I shall call,  with Celsus*  and
Agathinus,f a semitertian.
  But the various kinds of tertians hitherto mention-
ed differ among themselves, according as  their pe-
riodical intervals are more or less tranquil and free
from disturbance. When there is a complete apyrexy,
or entire vacation  of fever between the fits, they are
called  intermittents;  when  the apyrexies are more
imperfect and obscure,  remittents;  and  continual
tertians,  when the  paroxysms and their intervals are
less perceptible, though the violence of the symptoms
is somewhat abated on the alternate days. In double
tertians that interval  is the most considerable  which
follows the severe fit; for the slight fit oftener ends
in a remission than intermission, and frequently lin-
gers till the other approaches:  hence it  is that the
night preceding the vehement fit is much more rest-
less than that which  comes after it, as has been ob-
served by Hippocrates. (Morb. Vulg. 1. vi. §2.)
  * Cel. lib. ii. c. iii.
  r A pud Galen de Febr. Different, lib. ii. c ii 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          91
  These are the differences of tertian fevers, which
proceed from the types of their periods. But in some,
each period is  completed in a few hours less  than
eight and forty; in others, in a few hours more: the
former  are therefore called anticipating, the  latter
postponing tertians. In double tertians the vehement
fit often  comes on  a little earlier in each period,
while the slight fit returns at the same hour, or per-
haps  later and later every other day: so  that the
motions of one have no influence  on those of the
other; whence it  appears,  that  each  of these fits
hath its own proper independent cause.
   With regard to the types of the periods, and the
time of their duration, this may  be sufficient. I come
now to the differences of tertian fevers formed  by
the symptoms attending their paroxysms.
   Many authors (and Hoffman in particular*) have
carefully enumerated the phenomena of the fits in
regular distinct tertians, according to the order in
which they succeed: but so far are the paroxysms
of the epidemical fevers, which are the subject of
our discourse, from having constantly one and the
 same appearance, that no two distempers can  differ
 more than they often seem to do from one another.
 In both simple and double  tertians, as well  as  semi-
tertians, they  often  begin  with a slight shivering;
 sometimes without any sense of cold; and frequently
 while the patient complains of cold his skin  is ac-
 tually  warmer than in  a natural  state.  In some a
 most intense  degree of heat is brought on;  in others
 it is moderate. In a few they terminate by stool or
* Med. Rat torn. iv. § i. c. ii. 
  92          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
  urine rather than by sweat: sometimes they are so
  complicated with fixed  pains  of the head,  breast,
  belly, back, or limbs, as to personate with great ex-
  actness,  a phrensy, pleurisy, hepatitis lumbago, or
  rheumatism; especially if the apyrexies are obscure
  or imperfect. Sometimes  one  or two symptoms of
  the fit predominate with such violence, that the rest
  are obscured or altogether eclipsed. Hence we  so
 frequently meet with hemicranias, choleras, dysen-
 teries, and chincoughs, returning regularly at stated
 periods.  And several fevers of this  class, upon ac-
 count of some predominant symptom, have had par-
 ticular names bestowed upon them.  For example,
 when the cold,  which ushers in the fits, continues
 longer than ordinary, and is so very intense that the
 surface of the body is chilled, whilst  a burning heat
 is  felt  in the bowels, the fever is  called  lipyria.
 When the  anxiety and  dejection  of mind,  which
 commonly happens in the first stage of the paroxysm,
 is so far augmented as to degenerate into an abso-
 lute fainting, the disease  is termed febris syncopalis.
 When exquisite  pain and burning heat in the bow-
 els render the  patient  restless, and incapable  of
 continuing many moments  in the same posture, as-
 sodes is the name appropriated  to the fever. And it
 is called  elodes, when the skin is  constant.lv covered
 with sweat; either from  the viscera being inflamed,
 or from  a general dissolution  of the blood.* For
 although in the course of these malignant fevers it

  * Atque hoc in totum  de sudoribus animadvertere oportet,
quod nonnulli quidem ex  corporis dissolutione, qnidem ex in-
flammationis vehementia contingant.
                             Hippocrat. Pr.enot. lib 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          93
often happens  that you  can neither distinguish
paroxysms nor  intervals, yet it is evident that they
belong to the tertian tribe, since, for the most part,
in their  beginning the periods are  sufficiently dis-
tinct; and as soon as that violence of the symptoms
which occasioned the confusion in the height of the
distemper abates,  they again become more regular,
and assume either their former or analogous types.*
  Whoever rightly  comprehends what I have al-
ready said on tertian fevers, will easily see that it
would be endless to reckon up  the different species
into which they might  be divided,  and  to  ascribe
particular names to each.  Yet there is another cir-
cumstance which renders this subject still more per-
plexing.  For such is the v.": l-bk disposition of these
diseases, that they often change from one appearance
to another, and  seldom retain the same form from
their beginning  to their termination;  each period
sometimes assuming a new type;  and every parox-
ysm being attended  with different symptoms. This
led me  at first  to apprehend  that  they  were  con-
fused, anomalous, and altogether without order: but
after  being  for  some time acquainted with them, I
began to discover their regularity; and the longer I
was conversant among the sick, the  more I was sur-
prised at the constancy of nature in the production
and progress of tertian  fevers; their periods being
perfectly similar in the Spaniards and in the English;

  * Febris syncopalis minuta subtilis, est febris acuta faciens
cadere pulsum etvirtutem in paroxysmo uno aut duobus parox-
ysmis, cum additione dissolutionis accidente in corpore cum ve-
locitate. Plures paroxysmi hujus febris sunt paroxysmi tertians.
                                Avicen. de Feb. c liii. 
94          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
and  sometimes  not very different in him who lies
upon the bare  ground, destitute of assistance, and
those who  are treated in the most judicious methods,
under  every advantage of fortune: and  frequently
neither the  patient's intemperance, nor unskilful
management, can  alter  their  stated  course, and
prevent their terminating in recovery,  (i) So much
are those  mistaken,  who imagine  that the  bent of
nature in acute diseases can be  altered or controlled
by every trifling accident or insignificant prescription.
   Most of these fevers make their first  appearance
in the shape of a true simple, or double intermittent
tertian.  The cold fit seldom lasts above  an  hour or
two; and  as it goes off some bilious matter is com-
monly discharged  by vomit or stool.  Then follows
an intense heat over the  whole body, which raises
the  mercury in the thermometer to the 103d or 104th
degree:  and lastly, a profuse sweat puts an  end to
the  paroxysm. The apyrexy is tolerably complete,
though for the most part the patient complains of a
disagreeable taste, loss  of  appetite,  headach, and
pain in the small of his back, and pit of  his stomach
upon -a full  inspiration.  The pulse  during the inter-
mission is almost natural: in the fits it varies accor-
 ding  to their  predominant symptoms.  When they
 are  attended by acute pains in  the prcecordia, it be-

   (j) After the complete formation of an autumnal fever, the
 ordinary course of which  is five, seven,  and nine  days, it is
 seldom cured  by the ordinary remedies employed for that pur-
 pose. All that medicine does in this case is to keep  the system
 afloat, and thus to prevent death. The sameness of the issue of
 this fever under  all the different circumstances that have been
 mentioned,  shows the strength of the remote  cause, in predo-
 minating over national habits, and variety of predisposition. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          95
comes small and obscure,  so  as to indicate greater
weakness  than there really is: on  the other hand,
when drowsy  lethargic symptoms come on, it often
resembles that of a person  in full health, though the
sick is in the utmost danger.  The urine, whether
made in the  time  of the  paroxysm  or  interval, is
always clear, frothy, and of a deep red colour, with-
out  any separation. Blood drawn from a vein is
most commonly florid like  scarlet, without any sizy
crust: the serum  is sometimes tinged with yellow,
but oftener red like the lotura carnium, and in great
quantitv.  Sometimes the serum and crassamentum
remain united in a lax gelatinous mass.
   As the fever advances to  its height, the coldness
and shivering which usher in the paroxysms become
less, or intirely imperceptible; in which  case a cho-
lera morbus, or acute pains in the back or limbs, of-
ten  supply their place:  frequently the shiverings are
 intermixed with flushings  of heat.  In the mean time,
the paroxvsms themselves become longer, and bring
 on more  formidable symptoms; such  as headachs,
 raving, sopors, apoplectic  fits, bleeding  at the nose,
 cough, difficulty of breathing, palpitation of the heart,
 irregularity of  the pulse, sickness  and anxiety, pain
 about the upper orifice of  the stomach, vomiting and
 purging, heat, tension, pain and pulsation in the ab-
 dominal viscera, subsultus tendinum, and an infinite
 varietv of other complaints,  which  do  not  entirely
 cease with the  sweat that  carries off the, paroxysm;
 so that the apyrexy is not only  shortened, but ren-
 dered more obscure.
    Besides, it  often  happens, during  the  second,
 third, fourth,  or  fifth  period, that the tertian be- 
96          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 comes double, though at first it was simple: or if it
 was double from the beginning, the weaker fit con-
 tinues, without any  intermission,  till the  stronger
 comes on, and both being blended together, the dis-
 ease puts on the appearance of a semitertian, having
 one very long fit, with a short interval every forty-
 eight hours. Sometimes a double tertian degenerates
 into a triple tertian, two fits instead of one happen-
 ing on the odd days.
   It must likewise be observed, that, in the progress
 of the fever, the regular order of the periods is fre-
 quently disturbed, by the paroxysms changing  their
 hour  of invasion, and  attacking unawares without
 any previous cold. Nor are anticipating  fits always
 a bad sign,  or those which postpone  a good one,
 as some authors insinuate;  on the contrary, the first
 frequently show the strength of nature, as the others
 do  her weakness.
  After this manner  these proteiform  distempers
 continue to vary their shape in every period, and to
 produce longer, more severe, or more frequent pa-
 roxysms, till they arrive at their height; about which
 time the  fits and  intervals  are  often so confused,
 that they are scarcely  to be distinguished: neverthe-
less, if death be not speedily the consequence of this
confusion, they commonly again put on a more sim-
ple  or regular form, and, after one or more slight
paroxysms, go away of their own accord.
  Those fevers  which come to  their height in the
third period, terminate in the fourth or fifth period;
those  which  come to  their height in the fourth pe-
riod, terminate in the fifth or sixth; and those which
come to their height in the fifth period, terminate in 
              OF TERTIAN FEVERS.           97
 the sixth or seventh.  When the most vehement pa-
 roxysms happen on  the odd days, the crises  will be
 on the odd days: when they happen on the even days,
 the great changes of the distemper will likewise be
 on the even days. Q")
   If  the fever increases to the  seventh period,  it
 probably will not cease before  the ninth: but it rare-
 ly happens that intermitting or remitting tertians run
 out to so great a length. Yet I have seen every year
 a few of the  continual kind, which began with great
 mildness, and increasing by slow degrees, broke out
 violently in the third or fourth week, and soon  after
 ended in intermittents; though some of them  have
 continued without any considerable interval  for six
 or  seven weeks.   Hippocrates* has  accurately de-
 scribed such continual tertians,  and  tells us   that
 they are apt  to terminate in dysenteries, lienteries,
 and tenesmus, which  we find in fact to be too often
 the case.

  (j) This remark has been confirmed by universal experience.
  * The other fevers were altogether of the continual kind with-
 out any intermissions; and the paroxysms in all like the semi-
 tertians, one day better, another  worse. And of all  the fevers
 that then reigned, these were the most vehement, tedious, and
 painful; beginning very mildly, but increasing always, growing
 worse and worse on the critical days. After a little abatement
 they soon grew bad again, had stronger fits on the critical days,
 and for the most part worse: shiverings were universally  irre-
 gular and uncertain, seldom and very little in these, but  more
 in other fevers: sweats were common, but here least of all; and
 so far from easing the patient, that, on the contrary, they did
him harm. The belly in all was disturbed, and in a bad manner,
but  worst of all by much in these, &c. &c.
                           Clifton's Hippocrat. p. 57,  58-
                           I 
98          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
   But it is much more common  to meet with ter-
 tians, which set out furiously, with severe subintrant
 double paroxysms;  so that for some days they have
 little or no interval. On the third or fifth day a pro-
 fuse sweat commonly brings on an intermission; and
 afterwards the disease assumes the type of a double
 intermitting tertian, or of a semitertian. Such fevers I
 have frequently observed to terminate spontaneously
 on the seventh, ninth, and eleventh days; and, for the
 most part, they are less to be feared than those which
 begin deceitfully in the shape of a slight double or
 simple tertian. For however mild and  insignificant
 these intermittents may at  first seem to be, we are
 never to trust appearances,  till they have performed
 three or four revolutions.  Then indeed,  if the pa-
 roxysms are not attended  with  acute pains in the
 viscera, and do not last above twelve hours; if they
 decline with plentiful warm sweats,  and leave the
 intervals tolerably free; if the patient bears the dis-
 temper well,  and begins to  have an appetite for vic-
 tuals; if small pustules break out in the inside of the
 mouth, or scabs about the lips;*  if the urine has re-
 covered its natural  complexion, or is  cloudy and
 turbid,  or lets  fall a white or a pale red  sediment;
 I say, if all these signs concur  about the third  or
fourth period, we may safely prognosticate a'speedy
recovery.
   On the other hand, it denounces danger, when,

  * It is to be observed, that these are only to be looked upon
 as a good sign when they come in the declension of the disease,
 attended with other signs of concoction; for if they break out
in the beginning,  they prognosticate a dangerous or a tedious
 illness. 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          99
about this time of the disease, the paroxysms are
long  and protracted; or are  accompanied with an
obstinate delirium, an  intense coma, great anxiety,
and pain in  the loins, or about the upper orifice  of
the  stomach; when the patient has an utter aversion
to food, and even in the intervals is so feeble, and
attended with such a swimming in the head, that he
can  scarcely walk about; when the hypochondria and
epigastric region are swelled, hard, and painful to
the  touch; when numerous blotches,  like the sting-
ing  of nettles, frequently break out  on  the  skin;
when the urine continues thin, clear, high coloured,
or  covered  with an  ashcoloured membrane  like  a
cobweb;  and  lastly, it denounces danger, when lar-
ger  evacuations come on than the strength can well
bear,  such  as vomiting, purging,  bleeding of the
nose,  colliquative  sweats, or the like.   For  fevers
with these appearances  sometimes are  immediately
changed into  mortal dysenteries;  sometimes  they
become continual  tertians,  and run out to a  great
length; but,  for the most part, they preserve the form
of remitting or intermitting* fevers, and daily grow-

  * In this and some other parts of this treatise it is inculcat-
ed, that the danger in tertian fevers is rather to be estimated
from the symptoms of the paroxysms, than the length  and se-
renity of the intermissions: on which subject,  as Franciscus
Torti has expressed himself with great  clearness, I shall here
add a few remarks, from his Therapeutice Specialis, a valuable
work, which I never had the good fortune to meet with till very
lately. He tells us that periodical fevers, and principally double
or simple tertians, become malignant, either when they degen-
erate into continual acute fevers, or when they still retain their
intermissions, but are accompanied with one or other of the
following symptoms; which commonly proves fatal in the second
or third fit, after  its appearing in the formidable manner which 
100         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.

ing  stronger, prove very dangerous about the sixth
or seventh period; and though the patient  may  es-
cape, after a great struggle, by means of some criti-
cal discharge,  such as purging,  sweating, parotids,
or abscesses near  the  hip; yet  his  constitution  is
commonly so shattered, that  he long continues ex-

he describes.  1. A vomiting or looseness, like a cholera morbus,
or dysentery. 2. A looseness which often resembles the fluxus
hepaticus, and sometimes a  purging of atrabilis. 3.  A cardial-
gia. 4. Cold sweats. 5» A syncope. 6. A constant coldness, neither
succeeded by heat nor sweat.  7- A lethargic  disposition, little
different  from  an apoplexy.  Hence he makes so many different
species of malignant intermittents, and names  them from the
predominant symptoms of the fit. 1. Febris  cholerica seu dy-
senterica. 2. Subcruenta seu  atrabilaris. 3.  Cardiaca. 4. Dia-
phoretica.  5. Syncopalis. 6.  Algida.   7. Lethargica. He  de-
scribes, with great accuracy, the manner in which each species
occasions death; and takes notice, that in the six species first
mentioned, the pulse is constantly small, feeble,  and greatly de-
pressed;  whereas  in the seventh it is rather full, strong,  and
slow (as in an apoplexy), than weak and quick.  This, which he
calls the lethargica, is extremely common in Minorca; the car-
diaca and cholerica are likewise frequent; and all the rest are
now  and then to be met with, except perhaps the subcruenta,
which I never took notice of. Our author likewise remarks, that
it is  not unusual for some of the above mentioned symptoms to
attend continual periodical fevers,  though seldom in so great a
degree of violence as in the intermittents.  And he observes,
that  intermittent quartans rarely kill in the fit, as the tertians
do, but often  prove fatal by becoming continual fevers. The
whole work deserves to be carefully perused, but particularly
the first  chapter of the  third book, from which the above re-
marks are collected, with a view to raise, rather than to gratify
the reader's curiosity. (JL-)
  (&) The yellow fever appeared in Philadelphia in all the forms
which have been  so  happily enumerated by Dr. Torti in the
above note extracted from his works by the author. 
              OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          101

posed  to irregular paroxysms, night sweats,  fluxes.
obstructions of the chylopoetic viscera, and every
kind of chronic distemper.
   Those fevers are most to  be dreaded, whose vio-
lence is  greatest on the even days; and if the  parox-
ysm stops  on  the  third, fifth,  or seventh day,  buff*
continues on the fourth, sixth, or eight day, we must
be upon our guard, lest a sudden  storm should suc-
ceed this treacherous intermission.*
   But the utmost danger is  to  be apprehended, if a
few drops  of blood fall from the nose;  if black mat-
ter, like  the grounds of coffee, is discharged upwards
or downwards;  if the  urine  is  of a dark hue and a
strong offensive  smell; if the whole skin  is  tinged
with a deep vellow, or  any where discoloured with
livid spots  or  suffusions;! if a cadaverous smell is

   ■* I inserted this caution, having seen  a few double  tertians
change into simple tertians, by the fits intermitting on the odd
day, and  nevertheless prove fatal soon afterwards ;  a case
which I had not  found so much as hinted at in any author ex-
cept Hippocrates, who tells us in the Prccnot. Coac. ®>uibus tertio
die subsistit accessio et quarto ingravescit malum.  Yet from  the
following passage in Torti I imagine that  experienced physician
must have met with accidents of the same kind.  Suspecta itaque
ab exordio erit, ne in continuum degeneret,  intermittens, qua  cum
pauco aut nulla rigore solet invader e, sed pot i us cum sensu color is.
Item qua primo die leviusculam (dum modo tatnen vere febrilemj
infert accessionem; altero vero die (~non altera pcriodojfortiorcm,
et sic progrediendo modum servat graviorem per dies pares, loquendo
per modum exeTnpli, de tcrtiana duplici ab ortu-  S>uod si eadem sic
orta in simplicem statim mutetur, etsi hoc laud'abile sit, tatnen non
desinit esse suspectum, si primam accessionem validam, debilis, ut
supra, immediate prtecessit: potest  enim facile ille typus mutari
qui ordine inverso potuit incipere.      Therap. Special. I.  iii. c. .
  \ The English in Minorca are more liable than the natives to
become yellow in these fevers. 
102        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
perceptible about the patient's bed;  if in the time of
the fit he  continues cold and chilly,  without being
able to  recover  heat; or if he becomes extremely
hot, speechless,  and  stupid; has  frequent  sighs,
groans, or hiccoughs; and lies constantly on his back,
with a ghastly countenance, his eyes  half  shut, his
mouth open, his belly swelled to an enormous size,
with an  obstinate costiveness, or an involuntary dis-
charge of the excrements: which formidable symp-
toms, as they seldom  appear before the third revo-
lution of  the disease, so they  frequently come on,
both in double and simple  intermittents, during the
fourth, fifth or sixth period, even where the smallest
danger was not foreseen. But at whatever time the
greater part of them  concurs, they afford  a melan-
choly prognostic; for notwithstanding they sometimes
go entirely off with the paroxysm, and the  patient
seems to be left  in a fair way of recovery,  yet most
commonly they return in the next period with double
violence, and terminate in sudden death. Agreeably
to this Hippocrates tells us, " In the summer, inter-
mittent  fevers and the cholera morbus prevail; and
as they  sometimes  degenerate into malignant acute
diseases,  we  should be upon our  guard;  the fifth,
seventh, and ninth days point out the danger; but
we must be cautious to the fourteenth." (De Morb.
Popular. 1. vii.) For  the fifth day,  if the bad symp-
toms just now mentioned, appear on it, will indicate
death on  the seventh. In the same manner  the  se-
venth will indicate the ninth, and  the ninth  the
eleventh  to be  fatal, provided the paroxysms  are
aggravated on the odd days;  for  if they are most
vehement on the even days, one of these  days will 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         103
prove indicatory  as well as  critical.  Hence we find
Galen* lays down as a general rule, that those who
grow remarkably worse on the fourth day, die on the
sixth; and with equal justice he might have said the
same thing of the sixth day, with regard to the eighth,
and of the eighth, with respect to the tenth.
  Nor is there only a possibility, in  many cases, of
foretelling the day, but likewise the hour on which
the patient will expire; for that stage of the parox-
ysm, which he usually got over with most difficulty,
will most probably  in the end prove fatal, as Galen
has also remarked. (De Crisib. 1. iii. c. x.) I have
seen some expire in what  may be called the  first
stage of the paroxysm; the skin being chilled and wet
with cold sweats, their pulse small and irregular, and
their senses entire to the very last.  But the greatest
numbers are hurried off in the height of the hot fit,
stupified, senseless, the breathing short and laborious,
and the skin covered with a  burning fiery sweat.
  In the meantime it is to be remembered, that as
in all acute  diseases, so particularly in those fraudu-
lent  deceitful fevers, the presages either of death or
recovery  are not always  certain  and infallible;  it
frequently happening that those who have laid in the
paroxysm for hours  together, with few or no signs
of life, have at  length recovered,  as it were, from,
the jaws of death,  and  asked  for some uncommon
sort  of food, to the  great surprise  of  every  body
about them; on the other hand, the  fit  anticipating
sometimes brings on death before  the  time it was
indicated.
  * Etenim qui in quarto ad pejorem statum recidunt, plerunv-
que sexto moriuntur.          De Dieb.  Decret. 1. i. cap. iv. 
  104         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
    I have examined the bodies of near a hundred
  persons, who perished in those fevers, and constantly
  found one or other of the adipose parts in the lower
  belly,  (the cawl, mesentery,  colon, &c.) of a dark
  black  complexion,  or totally corrupted; the vesica
  fellea full and turgid, and the stomach and intestines
  overflowing with bilious matter; the  spleen  large,
  sometimes weighing four or five pounds, and so ex-
 cessively  soft and rotten, that  it had more the ap-
 pearance of congealed blood wrapt up in a membrane,
 than of an organical part.  In  the cavity  of the head
 and breast nothing  extraordinary was met with, ex-
 cepting yellow serum, when the skin was  tinged with
 the same colour.
   Some observations relating to malignant  tertians
 are handed  down  to  us by Coelius  Aurelianus,
 which, for the reader's information, I shall transcribe
 at the bottom of the page;* and whoever is acquaint-

  * Haec passio (nempe apprehensio sive oppressio) lethargic
 ?imilis est. Hippocrates et Diodes ct?uvixv appellavit, Praxago-
 ras Ka/ta.Ta$mi,  Antigenes  avxvfixv,  Asclepiades  Catalepsin__
 Diocles ait (1) de/ectivasfebres tutas et innoxias esse frequentius
 quam  sunt continue, quamquam et in his periclitentur, qui in
 accessionibus apprehensi conticescunt, vel raptu quodam alterno
 per membra tentantur, cum supra dictis: quod sa;pe, inquit, est
 accidens pueris. Item Praxagoras ait esse quasdam  febres ex
 anno duodecimo usque ad annum xvi aut xvu,  qu<e, quadem
 privata pernicie, mortis habent effectum:  atque id in servis
 magis quam liberis evenire, sed (2) cxcesso dierum numero pas-
 siones fiunt catochae vehementes, ut etiam voce capiantur sgro-
tantes: horum aliquos etiam lethargicos fieri. Denique, inquit,
 quidem liberati, et deinde (3) sanitatis creduli, plurimum quic-
quam sumentes, repente in mortem  venerunt.—Item A.rchige-
nes ait difficiles esse periodicos typos horum difficiliores esse

(1)  Intermittentes.  (2)  Imparibus diebus.  (3) Sani sibi visi-. 
               OF  TERTIAN FEVERS.          105

ed with this author's  style, will  easily discover how
nearly the preceding remarks agree with those of the
old Greek and  Roman physicians. In some circum-

tertianas, in  quibus quotidians accessiones  fiant, sed alternji
diet interpositione, (4) suce similitudini respondeant,  quando in
accessione vehemens occurerit oppressio, et appellavit pitos.
Difficilis, inquit etiamsi quotidianis diebus accessiones sibi si-
miles fiant, et in accessione  aegrotantes  supra dicta patiantur.
Dehinc progrediens  paululum idem dixit periodicos typos  non
esse perniciosos, sed horum  esse molestos, quibus  accessionis
tempore (5) pressures vehementes eveniunt, et quodam (6) nubilo
corpus demergitur, quod item Rhigos vocavit;  sed hoc, inquit,
est accidens magis tertianis, aliquando etiam quotidianis, quae
similibus respondeat accessionibus.—Apud Romam vero inquit
Asclepiades frequentare advertimus (7) has febres, cum cor-
poris atque mentis oppressione, in  similitudine lethargic, quae
secundo vel tertio  in statu accessionis constitutae, statim reca-
lefacto corpore, vel  cessante vehementia, in resumptionem et
resurrectionem mediocrem revocant aegrotantes. At si (8)  levi
figmento cessaverint, semel apprehenso aegro  nullam resurrec-
tionem  dabunt, sed in  sudores, et respirationem celerem, in
pulsum febricitantem desinunt  et occidunt.—Autumni tempore
haec passio magis irruit corporibus atque puerilibus frequenter
xtatibus; item mulieribus humorosis, et vacuis corporibus, et
edacibus hominibus.—Praeterea omni febriculae haec passio ir-
ruere potest sive continuis sive demissionibus intercapedinatis,
haemitritaicis etiam febribus, vel quotidianis, vel tertianis, vel
quartanis, frequentius tamen quotidianis  accessionibus, vel  ter-
tianis, aegrotantes ista passione afficiuntur, et  propterea, diutur-
nis accessionibus admoniti, tertianis similitudinem  servant, ad
typum quotidianum: sed omnium  earum febrium gravius, quo-
ties cum-articulorum frigido torpore fuerit (9) qualitas: levius,
quoties tremore aegrotantes  afficiuntur:  item magis et magis
levius, quoties sine his quae supra diximus, solo fervore febres
initium accipiunt.  Afterguards, having accurately enumerated the
(4) Sibi similes sint.    (7) Tertianas duplices.
(5) Profundus Somnus.  (8) Non revera sed in specie tantum
(6) Somno turbulento.   (9)  Mos febns. 
106          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
stances however there seems to be a difference; for
according to  them  children are most  liable to ma-
lignant tertians; whereas  by what I have observed
they were more frequent among adults and those of
an  advanced age.  They likewise talk as  if the fits
were more to be dreaded when they come on with
a numbness of the joints  and tremblings ; but the
most formidable paroxysms  which  I  have  seen,
broke out into a burning heat at the beginning, with-
out any previous cold. (/)
  From what  has  been  said  I  flatter myself that
young practitioners will be enabled, not only to dis-
tinguish tertians from all  other fevers, but likewise
to foresee the times of their paroxysms,  and  inter-
vals,  and to  make  a rational conjecture  concerning
their  event.  Before I proceed to the cure I shall
only remark, that, although we find  them appearing
every year in the several forms and  types described

signs of the distemper, our author proceeds to  describe it in  the last
stage.  Cum  sudore saepius plurimq atque ferventi et in  demis-
sione sinceritati propinquantes rursum admonentur.  At si ad
pejora passio fuerit devoluta, fervor plurimus corporis in super-
ficie, magis sentitur respiratio, oculorum conversio, menti quo-
que fixa  conductio, manuum  contractus, et musculorum, qui
buccas colligunt, tanquam ridentium, sudor igneus, et quibus-
dam in vultu et thorace emergentes discolores vel stantes in
rotunditate (10) macula, in  similitudinem (11) scatebrarum corpo-
ris, quas Graeci IovOm? vocant, et e magnitudine repentinus virium
casus, gutturis stridor,  quern ronchum vocant, torpor frigidus,
albidus vultus, et in ultimo (12) effatio, atque vitae periculum.
                           Lib.  ii. cap. x. De Morb. Acut.
  (/) This remark accords with general experience. The lon-
ger the chill, the less the danger of the fever which succeeds it.

(10) Exanthemata. (11) Sudoris guttularum.  (12) Suffocatio. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.        107
in the beginning of this chapter, yet the true simple
and double tertian, and the semitertian, are by much
the  most frequent. In July,  when  they  first break
out, their type is commonly simple and regular; their
paroxysms are of short duration; and after three,
four, or five  periods, they vanish of their own ac-
cord.  So just is Hippocrates's observation, that true
tertians generally end within five, seven, or at most,
nine revolutions,  notwithstanding what some of the
moderns have alleged to the  contrary. (Praenot.
Coac.)  As the season  advances the tertians  become
more  dangerous  and difficult, often  terminating in
those  malignant  fevers,  called syncopalis,  lipyria,
assodes, Stc. especially if much rain, without wind,
fall during the dogdays. About the time of the equi-
nox they assume a surprising variety of forms,  and
very often counterfeit continual fevers, having long
redoubled paroxysms. But as the winter  draws near,
their  type becomes more simple, and  though they
prove  tedious  and  obstinate in cold weather, yet
they are more  regular, and  less dangerous than in
the summer.
   In the cure of tertians  the symptoms of the pa-
roxysms are more to be regarded than the types of
the periods;  for, cater it  paribus,  simple,  double,
triple, intermittent,  and remittent tertians, together
with the semitertians,  all  require the same sort of
treatment.
   As soon as the fit comes on the patient should be
 put to bed, and covered with clothes in such a man-
 ner, that he  may neither be  suffocated with immod-
 erate heat,  nor the  critical sweats be suppressed by
 the admission of too much  cold.  If it can conve- 
108        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 niently be done, his bed should be placed in a large
 room, where  he may breathe freely, in pure tempe-
 rate air. In the summer it will  be necessary to keep
 out  the sun,  and  to  refresh the air frequently by
 sprinkling the  floor with vinegar  and water,  and
 opening the windows to the north; during winter,
 or the autumnal rains, the cold and moisture of the
 weather must be corrected by a fire.
   While the cold  fit  continues, the patient should
 abstain from  drinking.  For at that time  the vena
 cava and subclavian vein are so full and turgid, by
 the blood being driven from the surface of the body
 to the internal parts,* that the discharge of the tho-
 racic  duct  is prevented:  hence the liquor swallowed
 down remains in the alimentary tube, loads the bow-
 els, and creates anxiety. And therefore if the patient
 is thirsty, he must  endeavour to allay it in  the best
 manner he can, by washing his  mouth often,  and
 eating slices of lemons sprinkled with sugar. In the
 meantime, if a  nausea or inclination to vomit  su-
 pervene, those salutary attempts of nature shoidd be
 promoted by large  draughts  of warm water or weak
 broth, which commonly bring up a quantity of bilious
 matter, to the immediate relief of  the sick.
  When the first stage  of the paroxysm is  over, or
 (to use  Hippocrates's phrase) when the heat descends
 to the feet, f liquids  may then  be given; but with such

  * Sanguis presentem horrorem  metuens, ad partes maxime
calidas concurrit.                      Hip. lib. de Flat
  j- Per totum morbum istud  praecipue observari debet, ut cum
frigidi pedes fuerint, turn a sorbitione exhibenda, turn maxime
a potu abstineamus. Cum vero calor ad pedes descenderit, tunc
dare convenit.          Hip. de Vict. Rat. in Morb. Acut. 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         109
moderation,  that the  patient be  neither  allowed to
take as much as he pleases, nor  suffered to be tor-
mented with thirst. As soon as the sweat breaks
out, he may  then be permitted to drink at pleasure.
   The Spanish  physicians  deny them liquors alto-
gether till the  fit be  at its height: they then  give
them in small quantity, always encouraging the sick
with Celsus's remark, " That  the thirst zvill Cease
rvith theft; which will continue longer if they drink.''''
(Lib.  ii.  cap. vi.)  On  the  other hand, our people
run into the opposite  extreme, by permitting the free
use of liquids in every stage of the paroxysm.  The
first of these errors, especially in tertians which have
long paroxysms, besides torturing the  patient,  aug-
ments the feverish heat, occasions a putrefaction of
the animal juices, destroys the  solids, and throws
life itself into the utmost danger. By the contrary
error  the stomach is loaded, nature is diverted  from
expelling  the critical sweat,  and consequently the
paroxysm is prolonged, (m)
   The proper  drinks  on  this  occasion  are  those
which allay heat, prevent putrefaction, dissolve the
acrimonious particles of the blood, and convey them
through the kidneys and pores of the skin; such as
boiled water sweetened  with sugar, and  rendered
 agreeably acid  with lemon juice, spirit of vitriol, or
 sliced apples infused  in it;  barley water mixed with

   (m) Truth,  as our author observes, lies in the middle  of the
 two extremes  of practice  that have been mentioned. In the be-
 ginning of fevers of great morlyid action, profuse drinking adds
 to the strength of the disease.  It is less hurtful, and happily
 more necessary towards the close of fevers, after the long ab-
 straction of aliment has disposed the fluids to a morbid acrimony.
                         K 
 110         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 simple oxymel; almond milk,  and other emulsions;
 to all which nitre must be occasionally added.
   It is a noted question among physicians, whether
 during the fit the  drink should be warm or cold? The
 Spaniards generally give crude water, cold from the
 cistern;  and we find by experience that this, if it be
 not hastily  swallowed down  in  great  quantities,  is
 not only safe  and innocent  in summer  fevers, but
 much preferable to warmer liquors, as it  quenches
 thirst more  effectually, strengthens at the same time
 the tone of the vessels relaxed and enervated by heat,
 and prevents the tendency of the blood to a putridi-
 nous thinness. Hence  after each draught  the body
 seems to acquire fresh vigour,  whereby it is enabled
to perform the concoction of the  febrile matter, and
discharge it by the proper emunctories.* And there-
 fore they are greatly to be blamed, who refuse their
patients so  powerful  and agreeable a  remedy,  in
 spite of the earnest call of  nature,  contraiy to  the
 advice  of the best practitioners.f  Nevertheless, as
there is a manifest hazard of the blood being coagu-
lated by the  sudden application of intense  cold, we
must beware of giving ice water, as the Italians and
Sicilians do, unless the patient has been accustomed
to it when in health. And if the bowels are inflamed,

  * In hac curatione obsei-vandum est, a spirit, sulph. gutt. xx.
cum libra aquae frigidx exhibitis sudores copiosos fuisse provo-
cates, quod multis experiments  nobis innotescit,  qui plures
tertianas febres curatas vidimus,  eodem  remedio, in summo
accessionis aestu, et urgente siti exhibito, unde copiosi sudores
provocabantur, a quibus non solum paroxysmus,  sed etiam
totus morbus integre solvebatur.    River. Obs. xix. Cent, i
  t Vid. Hoffm. t. iv. § i. c. i. & t.  iii- § ii. c. xi 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS-          111

the safest way is to give  the  drink lukewarm, or a
very little colder. (/?)
   During the time  of the critical sweats the patient's
shirt and sheets  should frequently be  changed;  for
when once  diey are thoroughly  wet, they do not
readily absorb the  sweat;  and  besides  this, there  is
a chance lest the morbid exhalations should  be ab-
sorbed from the  wet linen by  the cutaneous  veins,
and again conveyed into the mass of blood, (o)
   When the fit  is  over,  and the  patient  has got a
little rest after his  fatigue, it is needless, or  rather
hurtful, to  confine  him constantly to bed, as is the
Spanish custom;  yet he ought  to keep  within doors,
or at least avoid being exposed to the sun, and all
violent exercise;  which is apt  to bring on inflam-
mations in the bowels,  and-turn an intermittent into
a continual fever.
   In the paroxysms no kind of food should be given,
unless the fits are of an uncommon length, and the
patient very weak.   But  every three or four hours
during the  intervals, a few spoonfuls  of thin light

  (n) The controversy between the advocates for warm and
cold liquors in fevers can only be decided by attending to the
state of the fever. When the excitement of the blood vessels runs
high, pr when it is reduced very low, cold liquors  are certainly
hurtful. They  increase reaction in the former case, and they
prevent it in the latter.  In the intermediate states of the system
they are useful. Liquors a little warmed, by standing in the air,
allay thirst much more than such as are very cold.  This has
been confirmed by the  experience of persons who work in the
open air in hot weather, as well as by patients in fevers.
  (o)  The former of the two reasons given for changing the
linen of patients after they  are wetted with sweat, is  a good
one. The matter thus  discharged from the pores is perhaps
;pver conveyed into the body by cutaneous absorption. 
 112          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.

nourishment will  be  necessary to support  nature.
The  French  and  Spaniards  use  weak  mutton  or
chicken broth in all  fevers; which practice is justly
condemned by Riverius, (Prax. Med. lib. xvii. c. i.)
as panada and  other  vegetable dishes are not only
more  agreeable  to the generality of the sick,  but
likewise better adapted to  prevent  the spontaneous
tendency of the humours to an alcalescent state,  (p)
Nor  can  I think  the summer fruits are improper
upon this  occasion, though  they are  forbid by most
authors, who have in this respect blindly copied after
Galen. Alexander Trallian* prescribes the free use

  (/>)  The  practice of the  British physicians in abstracting
animal broths from patients in fevers of great morbid excitement
should be imitated by  the physicians oi' the  United States. In
low chronic  fevers, not only those broths, but animal food may
be taken with safety and advantage.
  * Pomaceos fructus, exquisitis tertianis liberaliter exhibere
convenit, nempe uvam dulcem,  Persica cocta,  et non cocta,
peponumque medullam; praesertim autem si etiam aegriMti vex-
entur. Ego  sane novi me frequenter aegros,  ne amplius acces-
sione  febris infestarenlur,  impedivisse, cum pepones  probe
refrigeratos, hora ante incursum morbi, assumere jussissem, et
rursus  aquam temperatam copiosam, et quantam  potuerint
peponi superbibendam praecepissem.  Secutus  itaque est, non
multo post aquam epotam, aliquibus  sane sudor, aliis copiosa
bilis per alvum.  Offendi autem ego plerosque Romae medicos,
qui ne nomen quidem peponum tanquam bilem procreantium
proferre audebant. Quum  itaque ego cuidam aliquando, et si-
tienti vehementer et cestu flagranti defatigatoque injunxissem,
ut peponem  assumeret, quidam  praesens medicus exclamavit,
homo, cur aegrum inagls vis occidere? Annon didicisti quodpe-
pon bilem producat? Lege Galenum de alimentis, ubi  dieat ma-
nifeste peponem comestum cholericos efficere.  Laboravi igitur
ego, non parum, ut  iis persuaderem,  qui intellectu assequi po-
terant, Galenum non dicere hie ipsos pepones bilem creare, sed
choleram efficere. Proinde tertiana febre detentis, cum fiducia
dare debent. Quomodo enim ea,  quae refrigerant et huniectant,
bilem creare possint, non video.              Lib. xii. c. vi. 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         H3
of grapes and peaches in tertians, and boasts of the
many cures  which  he had performed to the great
surprise of his contemporaries, by giving water me-
lons, and large draughts of cool water an hour before
the  fit.  Avicenna  recommends  pomegranates  and
ripe plumbs, but above all the water melons.*  And
Galen himself, though he was unreasonably preju-
diced  against the summer fruits (a surfeit of which
threw him into a fit of sickness when a boy), yet in
the present case he allows the use of such of them
as are not difficult to be digested. (Ad  Glauc. 1. i.
c. ix.)  And indeed in several other places of his
works he is  obliged to contradict his own opinion of
their being  unwholesome  nourishment; particularly
where he tells us, " that those who are set to watch
the vineyards, and  live for two  months  on  grapes,
figs, and bread, become fat  and lusty."  (De Alim.
Facult. 1. ii. c. ii. et ix.)  Which observation is an-
nually  confirmed in Minorca, it being  remarkable
that the persons appointed for the  same purpose
there commonly continue  in good health, though  in
that season  tertians usually rage with the greatest
violence, (jf)

   * In Opere Venet. de Febr. c. xxxviii. p. 31.
   (q) The efficacy of a vegetable diet in preventing  autumnal
fevers will depend much upon their grade. Where they are at-
tended with highly inflammatory or  malignant symptoms, it is
an almost certain preventive  of them. The Bramins in India,
who live wholly upon  vegetables, enjoy  good  health in the
neighbourhood of garrisons and  factories of Europeans, who
sicken and die from a predisposition to the fevers of the country,
induced by a diet of animal food. Vegetable aliment induces a
predisposition to fevers of weak morbid action.   They are ob-
viated by a cordial diet, and drinks.
       '                 K 2 
114        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
   Before I have  done with the  diet of the sick, it
may be noted that,  although in the beginning  of
those fevers they commonly loathe every thing, ex-
cept thin, cooling, acescent liquors,  yet  after some
days wine  becomes  less disagreeable, and towards
the decline of the disease, a prudent use of it, mixed
with water, or made  into whey, is often  absolutely
necessary to keep up the failing strength, and prevent
weakness, the worst of all distempers.
   With regard to bleeding, it has been warmly de-
bated  among both  ancient  and  modern authors,
whether it ought  or ought not to be  used in tertian
fevers. Much has been written on both sides; but the
question appears to me too general to admit of a po-
sitive answer. Celsus has justly observed that "Me-
dicines differ according to the nature of the climate;
one kind being necessary in Rome, another in Egypt,
and a third in  France." (De Med. Praefat.)  And
since we  daily meet  with a remarkable diversity of
symptoms among fevers of the tertian tribe, even in
the same climate, at  the same season of the year, it
cannot surely be  surprising that any one remedy is
not equally beneficial in all cases, and at all times.
   For my own part,  when I was called early enough,
in the beginning of those fevers  I used to take awav
some blood from people  of  all ages,  unless there
was a strong contraindication; namely, from robust
adults ten or twelve  ounces;  from others a smaller
quantity in proportion  to  their  strength and years.
And farther, if a  violent headach, and  obstinate de-
lirium, and great  heat or pains  of the  bowels  were
urgent, within a day or two I repeated  the bleeding.
By which seasonable evacuation the vchemency of 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         H5
the paroxysms  is  somewhat' diminished; the apy-
rexies become more complete;  the operation of eme-
tics and cathartics is rendered safer and more suc-
cessful;  and the  terrible  symptoms,  which  often
make their appearance about the height of the dis-
temper, such as  raving sopor, difficulty of breathing,
inflammations of  the  abdominal viscera,  &c.  are
either prevented or mitigated, (r)
   But if before I was called the fever had  already
continued some  time, and the mass of blood appear-
ed to be too much melted down, or inclinable to a
putrid dissolution, which is often  the case, during
the extreme hot weather, about the  fourth period of
the distemper, and is readily known  by the  great
alteration of the patient's looks and his  sudden loss
of strength; or if the first paroxysms of the disease
were attended with profuse evacuations, whether by
vomiting, purging, sweating, or a hemorrhage from
the nose:  in all  these circumstances I either omitted
the  bleeding  entirely,  or took  away a very small
quantity, though some importunate  symptoms might
seem to require a much larger evacuation.
   But when bleeding is allowed to be necessary, it is
asked at what particular time of the periodical revo-
lution it ought to be performed? The ancients* be-
lieved that " to open a vein in the height of the fever,
was to destroy the patient;"  and therefore they order
you to wait for the intermission, or the hour in which

   (r) This practice is judicious,  and is sanctioned by similar
success attending it in the United States.
   * Si vehemens febris urget, in ipso impetu ejus sanguinem
mittere hominem jugulareest; expectanda  ergo intermissio, &c
 Cel.l. ii. c x. 
116        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 the  symptoms are  generally most moderate.  But
 the experience of the present age has taught us that
 this operation is safe enough, at any time of the peri-
 od, unless while the cold fit lasts, or is soon expect-
 ed;  or while the skin is covered with critical sweats.
 (s) Of late years, encouraged by the example of some
 practitioners of reputation,* I  commonly opened a
 vein in the beginning of the hot fit; by which means the
 sick were immediately relieved; the immoderate heat
 of the body (which is often productive of fatal effects)
 was diminished; and the critical sweats were brought
 on sooner, and in greater abundance. But when that
 time of  the  paroxysm was passed before my being
 called, I bled in the evening, when it abated or went
 off, that  I might be at liberty next day to make use of
 the remission or intermission, which commonly hap-
 pens in the morning, to evacuate the first passages.
   For, the disagreeable taste in the mouth, loathing
 of food,  giddiness, pain in the forehead  and loins,
 and other constant attendants of tertian fevers, make
 it evident, that the stomach and intestines are over-
 loaded with noxious humours, and particularly with
 corrupted bile; from which if they be not early dis-
 charged, very threatening symptoms will be apt to
 ensue about this state of the disease; such as violent
 vomiting, redoubling or continuation of the parox-
 ysms, ravings, restlessness, pain, inflammation, gan-

  U) Bleeding is certainly safe during that  coldness of the
 body which takes place in violent fevers. It generally removes
 it, and Dr. Sydenham has taught us the safety and advantage
of bleeding during the sweating stage of those fevers where the
sweats do  not afford relief.
  * Astruc on Fevers, p. 71. Gourraigne de Febribus. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         117
grene of the abdominal bowels, and lastly, sudden
death. Wherefore it  is not only necessary to wash
the stomach with warm water  or weak broth in the
beginning of the fits, when indicated by an inclina-
tion to vomit, and to keep the  belly constantly open
with  clysters; but likewise to  empty  the first pas-
sages by more powerful  means  at the first conve-
nient interval.
   It  is a controverted point whether it is best to
discharge those noxious humours by vomit or stool.
At first view  vomits seem to  be most eligible, as
they quickly empty the superior  part of the alimen-
tary tube, which appears to be the  principal  seat of
the morbific matter. But  it must be considered that
whatever irritates much, and produces violent com-
motions, ought to be avoided  in the  present case.
Cave ne inducas effervescentiam biliosorum, is a  cau-
tion given by Avicenna; and the Spaniards no more
than the Italians, if their physicians may be credit-
ed, cannot well  bear rough medicines of  any kind.
(Vid. Bagliv. lib. i. c. xv. § v.)  Besides, the inflam-
mations of the bowels, too frequently  accompanying
 tertians, are exasperated  beyond expression  by the
 strong contraction of the diaphragm and abdominal
 muscles in this operation: and if the  spleen or  liver
 is disposed to become  putrid  (which is no  uncom-
 mon case in those fevers), it is needless to point out
 the dangerous consequences  that may result  from
 the repeated efforts of vomiting. For which reasons
 mild purgatives, though  less powerful remedies, are
 th<- safest, and therefore to be preferred in the gene-
 rality of cases. Those which I have found most be-
 neficial are senna, manna, cremor tartari; but above 
 118         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 all the sal catharticum amarUm, which neither gripes
 nor disturbs  the body, and  seldom fails  of having
 the desired effect in a few hours, a circumstance of
 great moment  where the intervals  are short.  But
 if vomits are to be used, they should be given in
 the beginning  of  the disease,  before  repeated  pa-
 roxysms have brought on inflammations, or too much
 dissolved the texture of the blood; taking care that
 the operation does not interfere with the fit, lest some
 sudden mischief should arise from the  united shock
 of the remedy and the disease.  (/)
   When I first became acquainted  with  those dis-
 eases, the uncommon violence  of their  symptoms
 induced me to lay the principal stress of the cure on
 evacuations; and to have recourse to frequent bleed-
 ing upon account of the inflammations of the viscera:
 endeavouring at the same time by repeated cathar-
 tics to discharge the corrupted humours  from the
 intestines:  but when  experience  had convinced me
 that the bark  was both a safe  and effectual remedy
 in those circumstances, I then plainly perceived that
 such  profuse  evacuations  were  unnecessary, if not
 prejudicial; and of late years, as I  seldom omitted
 to bleed and purge once or twice, I rarely repeated
 either operation oftener.
  In semitertians and remittents, which approach to
the nature of continual fevers,  I give a cathartic '

  (0 The remarks of our author upon the comparative effects
of vomits and purges in these fevers are correct; nor do his ob-
jections to the former  militate against the propriety of the
practice of Dr. Sydenham, who gave  them in the advanced
stage of fevers, for it was in fevers in which there was no dispo-
sition to inflammation or congestions in the abdominal viscera. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         119
early in the morning of that day on which the symp-
toms are most  moderate; hastening the operation
with clysters (if occasion require), so that it may be
finished before the middle of the day, about which
time the patient commonly grows worse, (u) In true
simple and double tertians there  is generally an in-
terval every  morning, in  which  the purgative may
be administered, but that  which succeeds the worst
fit is the most proper, as it is more  calm, and conti-
nues longer than the other.
   Another inducement to purge in  the beginning of
tertians is, that  these  fevers are sometimes accom-
panied with worms in the first passages.
   Proper evacuations being premised, if  possible,
within the first four or five days of the distemper, I
carefully examine  the  condition of  the patient dur-
ing the third revolution, and determine  accordingly
in what manner it will be necessary to proceed.  If
the paroxysms of  that revolution be neither longer,
nor attended with more threatening symptoms, than
those  of the second;  if  the patient preserves  his
strength, bears his illness easily, and signs of con-
coction appear  in the urine; I  frequently  trust the
whole business to nature, which commonly termi-
nates the fever  about the fourth or fifth  revolution,
and, for the most  part, with an increase  of some of
the natural  evacuations;  so  that sweats, cloudy or
thick urine, and bilious stools often supervene,  and

   (u) This practice of giving purges on the days of remission
in autumnal fevers is judicious, and should be adopted by all
physicians. They operate soonest and most freely on those days,
and render the succeeding fits more easy. 
120        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
sometimes a spontaneous efflux of spittle, or a co-
pious expectoration of pituitous matter, (w)
  But if the paroxysm on the fifth day be evidently
the longest and most severe that has happened; if it
be attended with any doubtful or  dangerous  symp-
tom;  if the sick become giddy, feeble, and languid;
in these cases, without delay, I have recourse to the
bark; and the same evening, as soon  as  the sweats
have  procured a remission, I order two scruples or
a drachm of it in powder to be given every two or
three hours, or every hour and a half, so that five or
six drachms may be taken before  next day at noon,
with as little interruption to their sleep as  may be;
and the assistants are  strictly enjoined  to comply
punctually with thtse directions, lest if this interval
escape,  we should not afterwards  have a  favourable
opportunity of giving a sufficient quantity of the me-
dicine,  as the fits about this period of the disease
are wont to become double, subintrant, or continual.
  Yet it is not always in our power to put an  im-
mediate stop to the fever by this means: on the con-
trary, do what we can, it will often proceed in its
career,  and, in  spite of all  our attempts, run obsti-
nately on  to the seventh or ninth day. But the great
advantage which accrues from the early use  of the
bark is, that it invigorates the  powers  of the body,
prevents or removes the dangerous  symptoms,  and
in tertians, which of their own accord would conti-

  (iu) The bilious, or, as it was commonly called, the " break
bone" fever, which prevailed in Philadelphia in the year 1780,
was attended with that constant hawking and spitting in many
people, which is called " screatus" by Latin writers. All who
had it, recovered speedily. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         121
nue  to  the  end  of the  second week or longer, it
brings on a  crisis sooner, and with much less  dis-
turbance. In short, to use  the expression of one of
the greatest promoters of medical knowledge in this
age,* " it proves an excellent  assistant to nature in
what the ancients called, the concoction and matura-
tion of the  morbid matter;"  and (I must add)  in
the expulsion of it  likewise, sensibly or  insensibly,
by the most convenient outlets. For so  far is it from
suppressing any beneficial discharge, as  some have
asserted, that we daily observe a laudable separation
in the urine, warm, profuse, universal  sweats, plen-
tiful bilious stools, and sometimes the  haemorrhoids
and menses coming  on after it has  been  used;
though it effectually restrains  the colliquative  night
sweats, to which persons weakened by tedious in-
termittents  are incident.
   Having given the bark, in the manner directed, on
the fifth day of the fever,  if  a paroxysm  comes  on
on the sixth, and declines the same evening, I  order
a few  more doses to be taken, with a view to pre-
vent, if possible, or at least to mitigate, the fit ex-
pected on  the seventh. Yet  it sometimes  happens
that the fit  of the sixth day unites  with  that of the
seventh, no remission intervening, so that the heat,
restlessness, raving,  and  other  complaints  being
greatly augmented, the case seems to be much more
desperate than ever.  But  those commotions which
follow upon the use of the  bark in  this stage of the
fever, are more dangerous in  appearance than reali-

  * Monro on  the Use  of the Bark in Smallpox and Gangrenes,
Med. Essays,  Vol. v. Art. x.
                         L 
122        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
  ty; and so far from  being alarmed  at  the  sight of
  them, I commonly give expectation that a remission
  with profuse evacuations will happen the next even-
  ing; at the same time  giving positive assurances
  that if the patient takes as much bark in that inter-
  val, as he did in the  former, he will either  have no
  more fits, or moderate ones, which will quickly yield
  to the same sort of management.
    By this method, when assistance is timely called,
  the most  formidable  kinds of intermitting  and re-
  mitting tertians, whether  appearing in their own
  proper colours, or personating other distempers, may
  be certainly and speedily brought to a  happy con-
 clusion about the end of the first week or beginning
 of the second.
    But if the fever has been neglected in the begin-
 ning, and you are not  called till about the  third or
 fourth period; when by the use of spirituous liquors,
 strong  vomits, or violent exercise, the  bowels  are
 inflamed;  or for Avant of seasonable evacuations, the -
 first passages are overcharged with corrupted gall,
 and other putrid matter; the fits tedious and subin-
 trant;  or perhaps attended with a stupor, syncope,
 cholera morbus, cold  sweats,  and great weakness.
 These,  indeed, are terrible  cases, yet such as too
 frequently  happen, and involve the physician  in the
 greatest perplexity. So many indications  and contra-
 indications present themselves at the same time, that
 by  obviating one symptom you hazard the increase
 of  another:* nor, under such circumstances,  is it

  *  Saepissime ad aegrotos vocatus, tantam tamque confusam,
mirabar, symptomatum turbam, ut purgatio ne, an venaesectio'
vel neutra, imprimis foret eligenda, decernere anceps et summi 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.    *     123
easy to lay down  rules  for  managing the sick: all
that can be with safety advised is, to palliate the
most pressing complaints in the manner hereafter
proposed;  in the  meantime carefully watching the
evening, the night, and the early part  of the mor-
ning, for a remission; and the  moment it offers,  to
fly to  the  bark  as to, the only remedy which can
avert the impending danger.
   If the patient  seems strong enough to bear purg-
ing, I  divide an  ounce or six drachms of sal cathar-
ticum  amarum, and half an ounce of bark, into four
equal parts, and order  one  to  be  taken every two
hours: the effect of this is, that the next fit is miti-
gated, and  an  intermission commonly ensues,  in
which the  bark without  the  purgative  must  be re-
peated to finish the cure.*
   But if the patient is  so excessively feeble, that
there is a manifest risk of his dying in the  next pe-
riod of the fever,  instead  of the  sal  catharticum, I
give the bark with cordials (among  which wine is
by much the best),  and endeavour to have  six  or
seven  drachms  of it taken  in  the space of  ten  or

ponderis negotium  esset. Nee doctorum, ut gravissimorum,
consilia poterant in illis casibus  suffragari,  quin in alterutra
operatione tentanda adhuc extaret ambiguitas.
    Guidet.de Tertian. Autumn, apud Bianch. Hist. Hepat. par.
     iii. p. 287.
  * Si tamen vacuatione  opus  sit, et  ab urgente febre tempus
ad exhibendum catharticum denegetur, post V. S. cortex  Pe-
ruvianus, cum purgante medicamento idoneo conjunctus, statim
exhibeatur.               Geoffr. Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 188.
  Tuto igitur  in perniciosis his frebibus febrifugum quocunque
tempore potissimum purgantibus  immixtum  propinetur.
                     Bianch. Hist. Hep. par. iii.  p. 287 
 124         OV TERTIAN FEVERS.
 twelve hours;  having found by experience that  the
 paroxysms, if  a smaller quantity is given,  too fre-
 quently come  on  earlier than usual,  and make all
 attempts to preserve life unsuccessful.*
   When the sick  are out of danger,  and have  re-
 covered a sufficient degree of strength, bleeding and
 purging may safely be directed, notwithstanding the
 use  of the bark, if these evacuations are indicated;
 and so  far is  opening the  belly  occasionally  from
 bringing on a relapse, that  those who have  had  the
best opportunities of making the trial,f  have found
it to be  the most probable means of preventing a re-
turn of the fever, (x)
  This is the method of using the cortex, into which
 I at length fell, after trying a great variety of others.

  *  For which reason, in such  deplorable cases, Torti orders
half an ounce or six drachms of bark to be swallowed at once ;
which he  affirms is much more powerful than the same quanti-
ty divided into several doses.    Vid. Therap. Spec. 1. iii. c. iii.
  f  Qui dictitant  febrem per corticem Peruvianum deletam, si
postea cathartica propinentur, revocari, hosce toto quidem coelo
hallucinari, assidua nos docuit experientia, qua aegros post ex-
hibitum corticem  a febre liberos, per subrogata purgantia tutius
a relapsu praecaveri recognovimus.
                       Blanch. Hist. Hep. par. iii. p. 283.
  Mixtionem rhabarbari cum china ipse  ego  apud  Italos, xx
circiter abhinc annis,  primus faustam prosperamque hisce in
casibus expertus fui, felicemque exitum, cum  aliis, per episto-
las communicavi.              Lancis. lib. ii. epid. iv. c. vi.
  Cortex cum rhabarbaro, anno 1710, non ea felicitate stimula-
bat alvum, qua anno 1708 et 1709, et propterea opus erat illiu*
remedii usum grandioribus catharticis interrumpere.
                                  Lane. epid. iv. c. viii.
  (*) This is true with respect to the acute fevers described by
our author, but in autumnal  fevers of weak morbid action a
purge often brings back the disease. 
              OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         1^5
 Sometimes, indeed, extreme weakness, or some for-
 midable symptom, obliged me to have recourse to
 it in the  second period  of the fever; but I never
 chose to give it before the third, nor to delay it after
 the  fourth, in all cases of any consequence, provided
 there was a proper interval for its administration;
 and with its assistance, if the patients  were not al-
 together  exhausted,  I had the  pleasure of seeing
 them happily rescued from tertians of the most ma-
 lignant kind, such as  the lipyria,  assodes,  febris
 syncopalis, &c. What the  poet says  on a different
 occasion being literally true in the present case.
              Hi motus, et haec cerlamina tanta
      Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.
                                      Virg. Georg. iv.
 And the  more experience  I  had  of the  bark, the
 more I was  convinced of  both its innocency and
 efficacy; so that I heartily wish I had always given it
 with as much freedom as I did during the last seven
 years  of my  stay  in Minorca:  but the  prejudices
 against this medicine, which  I  had early imbibed
 from some of the most  approved authors, made me
 for a long time use it with too much diffidence.*

  * Major medentium  pars apud nostrates, ut vulgi calumniis,
 et assiduis xgrorum querimoniis se  subducerent, in hac tem-
 pestate ad Peruvianum corticem confugere: Atparum prospere;
 nam in perniciosos scopulos aegrotantes suos persaepe deduxere.
Usu febrifugi, per aliquot dies, equidem latebat sub cinere do-
loso ignis, verum postliminio violenter recrudescebat
                              Ramaz. Cons. epid. 1690.
  Adverte quaeso, mi nepos,  et diligenter observa febres inter-
mittentes post epotam chinam nunquam ad veram et perf'ectam
 apyrexiam pertingere, qualis contingit,  quando natura sponte
per sudorem aut alias vias accessionem discutit, &c. &.c. &c.
                        Ramaz. de Usu &  Abusu China:.
                         L2 
126        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
  In the first place, I suspected that the relapses, so
frequent from July to January, were in some  mea-
sure owing to the general use of the bark: and as I
observed, that the greatest number of tertians went
away of their own  accord  in a fortnight's time, I
thought it Avould be more advantageous to the pa-
tient to  suffer a few paroxysms,  and,  when no im-
mediate danger appeared, to wait the spontaneous
termination of the fever, than to hazard a return by
having it prematurely suppressed:  but afterwards,
by comparing a number of  cases which had termi-
nated of their own accord,  with others wherein the
bark had been given, I evidently saw that those were
most liable to a relapse  whose  strength had  been
most impaired by the primary fever,  whether they
had been cured by art or nature; so that a delay in
giving the bark seems frequently to have produced
the effects ascribed to its having been used too early.
  Besides, while I was waiting for the spontaneous
crises, even in cases where  the mildness of the fits,
and the  length of the  intermissions, afforded the
most  flattering hopes of a  favourable  issue, I now
and then had the  mortification  to find my patient
unexpectedly seized with a violent  malignant pa-
roxysm, attended by a stupor, speechlessness, and
apoplectic symptoms,  which seldom indeed proved
fatal immediately, but were often succeeded by such
insuperable weakness, that the bark  could  not be
administered, or was  given unsuccessfully,  so that
he died in the next period of the fever. The first two
or three accidents of this kind I was  willing to im-
pute to  some concealed irregularity in the use of the
nonnaturals;  but I  have since been  taught by  too 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.        127
many  instances, that during  the months of July,
August, and September, it is very common for those
fallacious fevers about the end of their second week,
suddenly to change  from  the mildest to the most
formidable aspect; and consequently that it is  dan-
gerous to permit their continuing so long, (j/)  The
repetition of such accidents first induced me to think
of writing on this subject, considering it as an in-
dispensable duty  to  point out the danger  of such
omissions, to practitioners of less experience, in or-
der to prevent them  from being misled by the plau-
sible theory of some  authors, and the positive asser-
tions  of others, though delivered in so dogmatical a
manner, as if they were wholly the result of careful
observation.  So  that I must  inculcate it as a rule
of the utmost importance in the  cure  of those epi-
demical tertians, never to wait longer than the end
of the first week, or the beginning of the second, for
their spontaneous terminations, but without farther
delay  to apply to the bark.
   Secondly,  Before  I  learned, by observing the
course of those fevers when left to themselves, that
it is customary for them, in their progress, to vary
their  type, and increase in  violence to the third,
fourth, or fifth  periods, I  suspected that the  hasty
 administration  of the  bark  not only produced the
 inflammation of the  bowels, delirium, and other bad

   (y) The yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1803 came on in like
 manner in the form of a mild remittent in its first stage, and
 went off with all the  symptoms of the worst grade of that dis-
 ease. We are told in Sir  George Staunton's Account of the Em-
 bassy to China, that the malignant and mortal fevers of Batavia
 came on in the form of a tertian. 
 128          OF TERTIAN FEVERS.

 symptoms, which supervene about the height of the
 disease, but likewise  occasioned the paroxysm to
 double,  or  perhaps  continue  without  remission;*
 whereas the fact is, that many tertians which  inter-
 mit during the first week, are very  apt of their own
 accord to become continual fevers  in the  second,
 and extend  to the 17th or 21st day,  or farther, be-
 fore an intermission  is again perceptible; but  if any
 interval, however obscure, appears about the fifth or
 seventh  day,  and  you  can  give them  five or six
 drachms of bark as above directed, you will proba-

  * Chinam chinae  dare impuro  corpore, id est in  principiis
 morborum, nullis precedentibus signis coctionis, et corpore non
 purgato, piaculum est in aere Romano; methodus damnabilis
 ac perniciosa.  Dicunt multi dandum esse, ut impetus sympto-
 matum tunc furentium coerceatur ac refraenetur; ut inde aeger,
 symptomatum sopita vi,  diutius possit morbo resistere. At si
 tu loco fraenandorum symptomatum, parvos humores per chinam
 chinae in aliquo viscere figas,  ac concludas, et ita internam pa-
 rias inflammationem, ut frequentissime observavi, nonne tu cul-
 pandus eris?  Nonne  tu reus necis lege aquilia puniendus? Fe-
 bricitantes meos  euro  per leges coctionis  et crisium—et raro
 cum recidiva: quam recidivam singulis momentis ab usu chinae
 chinae expectato.            Bagl. de Fib. Mot. Spec. c.  xiii.
  Pariter rubris  existentibus urinis,  et supra modum tinctis,
 cave cane pejus et angue, ne chinam chinae praescribas, sive sint
 acutae sive sint intermittentes febres;  nam acutae, facta interna
 inflammatione,  statim praecipitabunt in deterius; intermittentes
 vero statim fient continue, graves, periculosae; quare  si in aliis
 morbis, certe quando i&ti  conjunctam habent uiinam  nimis ru-
 bram, patiens, longa, prudensque humorum coctio, semper
 expectanda; si  secus feceris,  vel mortem vel  longos et incura-
biles morbos  expectato. Romae scribimus in  aere Romano (in
the noxious air  of Rome)—sancte fateor, fere centies  hujus-
modi veritatem expertus sum Romae in aegrotantibus, et  sxpe
cum magno animi  maerore, quando medicos in contrariam ire
sententiam observabam.          Bagl. Prax. Med. p. 71, &c. 
              OF TERTIAN FEVERS.          129
bly obtain a more perfect remission in the next pe-
riod; during which the like quantity must be given;
and thus  by  repeating the  remedy as opportunity
offers, the disease  may be brought to an  end, about
the ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth  day.  Nor ate we
to hesitate in giving the bark, upon account of the
crudity and  redness of the urine, which I have fre-
quently observed to become paler, turn  cloudy, or
let fall a sediment, by the use of this medicine.
  Thirdly, I was a long time in  doubt,  whether the
bark  might  be  given without prejudice,  while the
first passages were  full of vitious humours, and the
bowels  were inflamed, or affected with  inveterate
obstructions;* but  I have now good  reason for as-
serting, that in  these  very cases this medicine  is of
the greatest  use;  as  it  averts  sudden death,  and
gains us time to join  with it other means  towards

  * Vid. Boerhaav. Aphor. 767.
  Nonnulli in  his  casibus  (nempe tritaeophyis, hemitritaeis et
aliis malignis tertianis) solent more solito cninam chinx prae-
scribere; quo autem cum successu pluribus in locis hujus ope-
ns animadverti. Nam hoc remedinm impuro corpori dare, saepe
in aegroti perniciem  vertitur; potissimum in maximo apparatu hu-
morum in mesenterio.              Bagl. Prax. Med. p  58.
  Romae scribo et in aere  Romano: et  ideo garriant quicquid
velint chinae  chinx  fautores : aliis  forsan in urbibus egregium
est remedium,  hie noxium  experior.             Bagl. ibid.
  Si chinam dederis (ut fataliter plurimi faciunt),  ventre adhuc
humoribus onusto, tria  expectato, aut inflammationem, aut len-
tam ac diuturnam  febrem, aut mortem. Observa bene, et si
falsa dixero, me redarguas. Romae scribo et in aere Romano.
                             Bagl. de Fib. Motr. c. xiii.
  In semitertiana (inquit Hoffmannus)  omittantur pulveres ad-
stringentes nee non cortex chinx, &c
                              Med. Rat. torn. 4. § i. c. v. 
130         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
completing a cure.  For the quantity of acrimonious
contents in the primse vise is the effect of the altera-
tion produced in the  circulating fluids  by the fever;
and the  longer  this continues the more impurities
will be accumulated,  till at  last they bring on a vio-
lent cholera morbus; or perhaps  make their way
through the lacteals into the habit, and there occasion
very fatal effects; all which might have been prevent-
ed by the use of the bark, which removes the cause
of those  impurities by putting a stop to the fever;
and by  corroborating the  solids,  enables  them  to
throw off the excrementitious fluids by the  proper
emunctories. (2)
  Inflammations of the  abdominal viscera are like-
wise natural effects of tertian fevers; for we find that
they often come on by litde and  little, and increase
with every paroxysm, till at last they end in a gan-
grene:  whereas  the cortex, by bringing the fever to
a speedy conclusion, impedes the farther  progress
of the inflammation;  so  that it afterwards goes off
gradually of its  own  accord, as I have had occasion
to observe in a multitude of instances where acute-
fixed pains, tension, and other symptoms, made the
nature of the disease  too plain to be doubted  of.
  When the bowels are  obstructed, we are told that
the fever should be permitted  to continue,  in order
to remove the obstruction, (Vanswiet. in Aph. Boer-
haav. 767.);  and this  in  many cases may  be  ad-

  (z) There are cases in which so great a prostration of strength
takes place in the fevers which our author has described, that
even a single evacuation from the bowels has  induced death.
Here bark and other stimulants are the only remedies that are
calculated to do service. 
             OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         131

 visable: but at the same time it  is well known, that
 if the obstructing matter  be suddenly dissolved and
 pushed into the blood, it is capable  of occasioning
 the  most terrible effects.  (Aph. Boerhaav. 1104.)
 And therefore I have commonly found it expedient,
 in persons troubled with  hard overgrown livers and
 spleens, to prevent the repetition of long,  severe,
 burning paroxysms, lest worse consequences should
 ensue.  After  the sick  recovered their  strength, I
 endeavoured to reduce the swellings of the belly, by
 the use of saponaceous gum pills, washed down with
 an infusion of juniper berries.
   When there is  an icteritious  colour in the eyes,
 we are  likewise  told that the cortex should not be
 administered;* though  in my opinion it is for the
 most part dangerous to delay it, after  the first ap-
 pearance of that symptom; which is often succeeded
 by a yellowness  of the whole body, arising in this as
 Well as  in  other malignant fevers from  a total cor-
 ruption, or gangrenous disposition of the mass of
 blood, and is too frequently the harbinger of death.
 (See Warren on the Malignant Fever of Barbadoes,
p. xii.)
  Upon the whole, I am convinced that the unhappy
metastases, which some have observed to follow the
use of the bark,  are exceedingly rare, and ought
rather to be  ascribed to  other causes  than  to this
medicine. (Med.  Essays,  vol. iv. art. xxiv.)  And I
will venture to affirm, that more  bad consequences
ensue from giving it too late  than too  soon; pros-
tration of strength,  sudden  death, or the most ob-

       * Vanswiet. ubi supra, & Huxham on Fevers. 
 132         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
 stinate  chronic diseases, if the  sick recover, being
 the usual effects  of delay:  whereas the worst that
 commonly happens from the too early use of it is,
 that it does not at once restrain  the paroxysms, like
 a charm, without any sensible evacuation, as it fre-
 quently does, when given after the fever has arrived
 naturally to its height, and begins to decline  of its
 own accord.
   Having delivered the general  method of treating
 tertians, it is needless to say much abovit their symp-
 toms, as they commonly disappear with the  fever
 itself, and seldom  require a separate cure.  Never-
 theless, it will not be amiss to take notice of a few,
 which I have found the most troublesome.
   In the first stage of the paroxysms acute pains in
 the  back and limbs,  with and  without  rigors or
 chilness, frequently happen; and  I  have sometimes
 known them so intolerable, and  accompanied with
 such inexpressible anxiety, that persons of the sound-
 est judgment and morality have  been in hazard of
 destroying themselves to get rid  of it. Before I was
 aware that these pains were the  forerunners of ter-
 tian paroxysms, I commonly had recourse to bleed-
 ing, and without observing that it was attended with
 any ill effect: but of late years they never alarmed
me, being well assured that  they would go away of
themselves, as the hot fit advanced.
   The  vomiting and nausea, after washing the sto-
mach two or three times with warm water, is com-
monly allayed by draughts  of salt of  wormwood,
lemon-juice  and mintwater.  And if a constant vo-
miting  or purging hinders  the bark from being  re-
tained, small doses of laudanum should be joined 
            OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         133

with it:  but a moderate  bilious discharge is com-
monly beneficial, and therefore should never be sup-
pressed.
  Restlessness and headachs are  the  inseparable
companions of the hot fit; so that the sick must
either be encouraged to bear them with patience, or
must be amused with some innocent prescription till
the sweats  carry them  off.  When the headachs are
constant and troublesome  in the apyrexies, I  order
the limbs  to be frequently bathed  in warm  water,
and cataplasms of horseradish and  leaven to  be ap-
plied to the soles of the feet.
  Hemorrhages of the nose are often of signal ser-
vice, in removing the obstinate headachs and pains
in the abdominal viscera, whether they are e directo
or  not; though for the most part they happen from
the nostril  of that side, in which the pains are fixed;
for which reason they ought not to  be hastily stopt,
unless they continue too long, or  come at a time of
great weakness.
  When the belly is sore and painful to the  touch,
clysters and warm fomentations give great  relief.
When the pains are extremely violent, bleeding must
be  repeated: but during the hot  weather we  must
not be too  free with the lancet after the fourth pe-
riod of the  distemper; as the weakness commonly is
then too great to admit of any such evacuation with
safety.
  If the  patient continues comatous and stupified
longer than ordinary,  we must endeavour to rouse
him from that lethargic state by scarifying, cupping,
and blistering the neck and back.
                       M 
134        OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
  Troublesome hiccoughs  often cease, upon apply-
ing cupping glasses without scarification to the pit
of the stomach, and giving small doses of laudanum
with tincture of castor.
  If acute pain and pulsation in the hip point out
that a critical abscess is about to be formed there (a
case that hath occurred to me five or six times), it
must be brought forward by cupping glasses, and ca-
taplasms applied to the place; and as soon as a fluc-
tuation  can be perceived,  it must  be  opened  by a
deep incision; otherwise,  the matter being lodged
under the posterior double edge of the glutaeus ex-
ternus, instead of pointing  outwards, may insinuate
itself betwixt the  muscles of the thigh;  or may per-
haps work its  way into the cavity of the pelvis, by
the hole through which the  musculus  pyriformis,
and the sciatic nerve pass  out; which  seemed to be
the case in one man, who had first an abscess in his
right hip, and some time afterwards another in the
left, and died consumptive from  the  immoderate
discharge.
   Parotids  must also  be  brought to suppurate as
soon as possible:  but these are not very common in
Minorca; nor are they much to be wished for, being
oftener symptomatical than critical.
   To conclude, as tertians personate almost all dis-
tempers, (a) so there are but few disorders to which
the human body  is incident, that will not sometimes
appear in the  course of these fevers; and these, when
importunate,  must be  mitigated,  as in other  acute
diseases.

   (a) The yellow fever of Philadelphia in  like  manner has ap-
peared to be an epitome of all diseases. 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.        135
  It has been already remarked, that whether the
fever is cured by art or nature, there is a hazard of
its returning within a fortnight or three weeks; nor
could I ever fall upon  any certain  method  of pre-
venting one relapse after another, till the cold wea-
ther, which commonly sets in about christmas, had
braced- the solids, and given them sufficient strength
to throw  off the excrementitious humours  by the
proper outlets; for which reason I always  advised
those who were attacked  in the beginning of the
season, to leave the island,  if their  circumstances
would  permit, and not to return until the  spring.
And there are many  instances of persons  being
greatly recovered by the change of air, even in the
first two or three days of their being at sea. But if
they were obliged to remain  in the island, the best
chance they had of escaping  a relapse was to take a
dose of the cortex every morning and evening, for
several weeks; and now and then a gentle purgative,
if a bitterness in the mouth,  loss of appetite, swim-
ming in the head, or sickness  at the  stomach, the
common forerunners of it, should be perceived.
  But if, notwithstanding all precautions, the fever
returns, the patient must  be  treated as in the first
attack; with this difference,  that as relapses are at-
tended  with less heat and inflammation, bleeding,
especially in the fit, must be used with more  caution,
or altogether omitted, and vomits may be given with
greater freedom. And, as they happen mostly in a
cooler  season, they do not threaten such immediate
destruction, and consequently may be longer trusted
without the bark, if you are  disposed  to attempt a
cure by other methods; though that remedy must 
136         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
never be delayed  when  the fits are  violent or pro-
tracted. In this manner the patient must be content
to go on till the turn of the year alters the constitu-
tion of  his  body,  and restores him to  his former
health.
   It has been insinuated  by some that a long con-
tinued  use  of  the bark was liable to bring on ner-
vous complaints  and lowspiritedness;  but in  the
multitude of cases, wherein I have  been obliged to
make use of it, I have not been able to discover that
it had these or any other ill effects, when given in the
manner above mentioned. And as to its occasioning
dropsy, I do not remember to have  met with  above
one instance these  ten years, where there was a pos-
sibility of alleging  that it gave rise to that distemper.
   It is not uncommon for a looseness to come on in
the room of a relapse. Sometimes instead of  a ter-
tian a quartan supervenes; which nevertheless may
be speedily taken off by the bark; but if left to nature
alone it will probably continue to the spring; or per-
haps first turn to a double quartan, and afterward to
a triple  quartan; which, as Celsus observes, is a dan-
gerous distemper.  (Lib. iii. c. xv.)
   With respect to the tertians, which now and then
appear at other times  of  the year, they are more of
a chronic disposition than those of the summer and
autumn; the cold fits being longer,  the  hot fits less
severe, and the intermissions, more regular and per-
fect. Add to this,  that they are not so commonly at-
tended with critical eruptions about  the mouth; nor
do the sick  discharge such quantities of gall  either
upwards or downwards;  and the urine oftener de-
posits a lateritious sediment: but so far is  this sedi- 
OF TERTIAN FEVERS.         137
ment from being the criterion of intermittents, that
I have frequently seen it in pleurisies, and other in-
flammatory fevers;  while in both tertians and quar-
tans I  have, for the most part, found the urine clear
without any separation; and in tertians the sediment
was oftener more like chalk than brickdust.
   Thus have  I given  the  history of those fevers,
collected from an  almost infinite  number of cases,
carefully minuted in the chambers of the sick, with-
out trusting to memory,  or regarding what  others
had said on the subject before  me, or advancing any
thing but from reiterated examination. The  obser-
vations relating to the  cure, which are  by much the
most material, have been confirmed again and again
by the experience  of all who  have practised  physic
with attention, among either the English or Spanish
inhabitants of Minorca; therefore I am in hopes that
these remarks will not be altogether useless  to the
public. It is well known that contagious intermittent
and remittent fevers  of the tertian kind, are anni-
versary distempers in  several of the warmer climates
both in Europe, Africa,  and  America; and even in
the  northern  parts of Europe they are often epide-
mical after extraordinary hot  dry summers.* By all
that I  have been able to learn  of them from authors,
there is  a great analogy  among them every where:
and though in some places they may  require more
or less copious evacuations than we find beneficial in
Minorca, yet I am persuaded that it may safely be

   * Hoffm.  Med. Rat. torn. iv. cap. iv. sect. i. Short's History
of the Weather, &c Anno Domini 1237, 1540,1553,1574,1652,
1657, 1669. Wintringham,  anno 1719; and Vanswiet. Comment.
in Aph. Boerhaav. 767-
                     M  2 
138         OF TERTIAN FEVERS.
laid down, as a general rule in all cases of danger,
to give the  bark liberally and without  hesitation
about the third or fourth period of the disease, whe-
ther evacuations have been previously used  or not.
Which practice is agreeable to the observations of
the ablest and most experienced physicians of diffe-
rent nations;  such as Morton* and  Sydenham! in
England, Bartholinf. in Denmark, Hoffman|| in Ger-
many, Geoffroy§ in France, Rodriguez** and many
others in Spain,  Guidettus  and Bianchi in Pied-
inont,ft Torti in Modena,±4 Musitanus|||| in Naples,
and Traversarius^j in Pesaro; nay even in aere Ro-
mano, where  Baglivi  declaimed against the use of
the bark with so much passion, Lancisi* has of late
years, as well as  the  cardinal  de Lugof and father
Fabriij: formerly, had incontestible pi-oofs of its be-
ing not only an innocent,  but a necessary, powerful
remedy in the cure of tertian fevers.

    *  Exercit. de Morb. Acut.
    f- Epist. Respon. I.
    \ Ephemerid. German.
    j| Med. Rat. torn. iv. § i. c. i. obs. 5.
    § Mater. Med. torn. ii.
    ** Palaestr.  Med. torn. ii. disc 12.
    ff Hist. Hep part iii.
    t j Therapeut. Special, sparsim.
     ||| Pyretolog. c-xxiii.
    fl Apud Lancis. 1. ii. epid. iv. c. viii.
    " Epid. sparsim.
    f Antym. Conyg. Pulv. Peruv.Vind.
    f Id. ibid. 
139
                CHAPTER IV.

 OF THE RASH, ESSERE, AND CHOLERA MORBUS.


HAVING  given an  account of  tertian fevers,
which was the  chief design of this treatise, I shall
endeavour to bring my remarks on the other epi-
demical diseases into as narrow bounds as possible,
by passing over such circumstances as are taken no-
tice of by the generality of authors.
  The cutaneous eruption which we call the rash,
or prickly heat, is the sudamina or papula sudoris of
the Romans, and the l2g»* of Hippocrates, (Aphor.
§ iii. No. 21.),  who justly places it among the sum-
mer diseases; it being so frequent in warm countries,
that few people escape having more or less  of it
during the hot  weather; though children  are much
more affected by it than others. It consists of nu-
merous  minute  pimples, or rather small, round, red
spots, just perceivable  by the  touch, as a kind  of
roughness on the skin, which break out on different
parts of the body, especially after exercise or drink-
ing cold water.
  This eruption is commonly looked upon as a sign
of health; and indeed while it continues fresh on the
skin, no inconveniency arises  from it except a fre-
quent itching:  but if accidentally the pimples  are
driven in, by catching cold, bathing in the sea, or 
140     OF THE RASH AND ESSERE.
any other error in the nonnaturals, the case too often
becomes dangerous.  And I have constantly observ-
ed, that those who had a great deal of this eruption
in the  summer,  were subject either to fluxes, he-
morrhages from the  nose, or fevers, upon the alte-
ration  of weather  about  the  autumnal  equinox.
Wherefore I commonly advised them, as soon as the
slightest signs of  a retrocession appeared, (such as
sickness, headach, and preternatural heat) to lose
some blood  immediately, and make use of mild ca-
thartics, vegetable food, and cooling acescent liquors:
by which means the bad consequences  above men-
tioned,  if I am  not greatly deceived, have  been
frequently  prevented, notwithstanding  the  vulgar
prejudices  against evacuations in  this and other
similar  cases.
  The essere, so  called by the Arabians, who first
described them, though not uncommon in Minorca,
appear much more seldom than the rash. They are
hard,  flat tubercles, of a  pale colour and different
forms, and break out chiefly while one  is warm in
bed, sometimes on one part, sometimes  on anodier,
occasioning  such an  intolerable itching, that it is
impossible to refrain from scratching; and the more
they are rubbed the larger they become. They sel-
dom continue out above  an hour or two at a time,
but suddenly vanish of themselves,  the skin reco-
vering its natural colour,  and come back again as
unexpectedly as they went off; the  patient having
more or less anxiety about the pit of the stomach,
during the time of their disappearing. The Spaniards
call them ronchados, from roncho a nettle  in the
Castilian language,  they having exactly  the appear- 
OF THE CHOLERA MORBUS.     141
ance of swellings occasioned by the sting of nettles:
in iNIinorca they go by the name of favas, probably
from their frequently resembling beans in shape and
magnitude. (6)
   It is commonly allowed by authors, and not with-
out reason, that those who have this sort of eruption
should make use of bleeding, purging, and proper
alteratives; otherwise a  fever is liable  to  ensue.
(Vid. Sennert. lib. v. part i. cap. xxvi.)
   The essere, as has been already observed, often
accompany tertian fevers, and appear most commonly
in the hot fit. Sometimes I have seen them so nu-
merous  that the whole body was disfigured by them,
and painted in many places with all  the  colours of
the rainbow. In  a  few such instances, which con-
trary to  expectation proved  suddenly mortal, the
patient's death  seemed to be occasioned by  those
fiery pustules being accidentally thrown upon the
brain instead of the skin.  For which reason,  wher-
ever I met with them in great  abundance, I took
care to make as  liberal evacuations as the strength
and age of the patient would permit, and proceeded
speedily to  give  the bark; which  effectually cures
both them and the fever.
   As to the  cholera morbus, it must be managed
according to  the  method  first hinted  by Hippocra-
tes,* and of late described more fully by Sydenham,
(De Morb. Acut. § iv. c. ii.) To which I must add,

  (b) These eruptions now and then occur during the prevalence
of autumnal fevers in the United States.
  * Cholerae morbo conferunt,  si quidem dolor adsit, anodynaj
venter autem superior,  turn inferior potionibus humectantibus
curandus.                            Hip. de Affect. 
 142      OF THE CHOLERA MORRUS.
 that  if feverish  complaints, or fixed  pains in the
 belly or sides come on, after the evacuation is stopt,
 (as is  frequently the  case)  it  will  be necessary to
 bleed and keep the belly open, (c)
   The  Spanish  physicians have  often assured  me,
 that they found  nothing  more beneficial 'in violent
 deplorable choleras  than drinking  of  cold  water:
 which  practice  is  recommended by  man}-  of  the
ancients.*
   When the  cholera  morbus  returns  periodically,
 like a tertian, it must be cured as those fevers  are;
 but it denounces much more danger when it attends
 the fits about the  third or fourth period, than  it does
 in the beginning of the disease.

  (c)  Bleeding has been found necessary of late years to cure
 tlie cholera morbus in Philadelphia in many instances. The effi-
 cacy of cold water in this disease in  Minorca (mentioned in the
 next paragraph) proves the correctness of  that practice made
 use of by our author.
  * Sin autem omnia antiqua stercora dejecta fuerint, et biliosi
 humores transierint, biliosusque vomitus et distentio adsit, fas-
 tidium, anxietas, virium labefactatio, tunc frigidae aquae Cyathi
 duo aut tres propinandi sunt ad ventris adstrictioneni, ut retro-
 gradus humorum cursus cohibeatur,  atque stomachus ardens
 refrigeretur. Assidue  vero id, quum potam  aquam vomuerit,
 facito.           Aret. Cappad. de Curat. M. A. 1. ii. c. iv.
   See likewise Cash Aurel. de Morb. Acut. 1. iii. c. xxi, 
115
                 CHAPTER V.


              OF THE DYSENTERY.


BY perusing the accounts which I kept of the sick,
while dysenteries were epidemical in Minorca, I find
that they began three different ways.
  First, Sharp indigested humours flowing from the
stomach, or (what seems to be more  frequently the
case) an increased  secretion of  the bile and other
liquids necessary for chylification, produce a simple
looseness; which gradually washes off the  mucus
from the intestines, erodes their membranes, and at
last brings on severe gripes with bloody  stools.
  Secondly, Others are seized with horrors, rigors,
and all the train  of feverish symptoms, which com-
monly attend the first attack of acute diseases;  and
in  a short time  afterwards a painful  frequent eva-
cuation of slime  streaked with blood ensues.
  Thirdly, Others have no preceding fever, but are
seized at first with a twisting of the guts, which (as
they express it) draws up their  bowels into knots;
and many, instead of griping pains, which shift from
place to place, and come at intervals, have acute fix-
ed ones in some particular part of the belly, which
occasion complaints as various as their seat;  some
being tormented with stitches about the bastard ribs,
interrupting their breathing freely, as in the pleurisy; 
144         OF THE DYSENTERY.
others with a pain reaching from one hypochondrium
to the other, cutting them, as it were, in two;  while
others complain only of a pain about the pelvis, with
a constant, fruitless, straining to  stool; though the
body is, for the most part, costive, or discharges no-
thing  but bloody slime.
  But in whichsoever of these ways dysenteries be-
gin, in process of time the case comes to be pretty
much the same; the intestines are irritated, inflamed,
and ulcerated;  a fever, for the most part of the pe-
riodical kind, comes on;  the constant stimulus in the
bowels diminishes the cutaneous discharges^ and, of
course, a greater proportion of fluids is thrown upon
the guts; the flux increases, and what is discharged
becomes more ichorous,  and  offensive to the smell;
the strength decays; and death, or  a tedious reco-
very,  is commonly the consequence.
  Upon opening the bodies of the dead, I have con-
stantly found the great guts either entirely mortified,
or partly inflamed, partly mortified, the rectum being
generally most affected:  in many I have seen scir-
rhous tubercles (d) straitening the cavity of the colon
in several places; in a few, there were small abscesses
in the  cellular membrane of the peritoneum conti-
guous to the colon and rectum: sometimes the small
guts were perfectly sound in appearance;  but more
frequently their lower part was inflamed, the  convo-
lutions being often preternaturally connected to each

  (d) The reader is requested to attend to the suddenness with
which tubercles are formed in the  dysentery.  They render it
probable that they are formed in the same sudden manner in
the lungs, and that they are the consequence, and not the cause
of that disease in the lungs which ends in pulmonary consump-
tion. 
             OF THE DYSENTERY.         145

other by membranes, as the lungs sometimes are to
the pleura. In two people the omentum (e) was almost
entirely wasted (the small remains of it being quite
black), while purulent water was found in the cavity
of the abdomen; in several it was inflamed and ad-
hered both to the guts and  peritoneum; for the most
part the  gall-bladder was full of dark bile, and the
spleen, more or less, in a putrid condition.
   Almost all the  dysenteries, which fell under my
observation, unless they were speedily cured in the
beginning,  at  best  proved obstinate,  and too fre-
quently fatal, in spite  of the  many boasted specifics
for this distemper; for which reason, whenever they
are epidemical, the utmost diligence should be used
in applying the proper remedies  before the strength
of the patient  be exhausted, and the coats  of the
intestines too much injured. And even let the utmost
care be taken of them never  so early,  the  event is
often dubious or unsuccessful; though among the
common soldiers  this seems  frequently to be owing
to a want of means for keeping them clean, and con-
veniences for easing themselves, without being oblig-
ed to get often out of bed, and expose their bodies
to the open  air. Which conveniences it were to be
wished,  that those  who have  the direction  of our

   (c) The exhausted state of the omentum of fat, or its total
destruction, generally attends chronic diseases which end in
death, except in those cases in which  the functions of the liver
are impaired.  An inference has lately been made from these
facts in favour of the design of the omentum being to secrete
fat, to be conveyed to the liver in diseases which impair the ap-
petite and digestion, in  order to be converted by a  secretory
process into chyle for the nourishment of the body.
                         N 
146         OF THE DYSENTERY.
                                              i
fleets and armies, would order to be provided both
in the ships and hospitals. (/)
   I shall not enter upon a minute description of all
the rules  necessary to be observed in the cure of
dysenteries;  but only point out such methods of
treating the sick, as experience taught me to be the
most  beneficial.
   When they begin like a simple diarrhoea, without
fever or fixed pains in the belly, the first thing to be
done, is to empty the intestines of their acrimonious
contents as soon as possible:  and the most efficacious
remedies for this purpose, as far as  I know, are the
radix ipecacuanha and the vitrum antimonii ceratum.
The latter I used  to give from  five to ten grains
early in  the  morning:  of the  former  I  directed
ten or fifteen grains in powder, to be divided into
three doses, and to  be taken in the forenoon at the
interval of two hours, or an hour and a half between
each dose. The most common effect of both was to
procure a thorough evacuation upwards and down-
wards during the day; and they often threw the pa*
tient into a sweat the ensuing night.
   The same  remedies I  have likewise  found to be
serviceable in obstinate relapses  of  intermittent fe-
vers:  but  I prefer the ipecacuanha, as being certain
in its operation; whereas the other sometimes did
not produce the intended discharge, at other times
occasioned greater commotions than were expected.
Nevertheless, I must acknowledge that now and then,

  {f)  In some of the Spanish hospitals leather is made use of
instead of a bed pan or linen to receive the stools. It is easily
removed, and when washed and dried, may be employed as often
as it is required 
OF THE DYSENTERY.         147
in desperate bloody fluxes, I have  known the  anti-
monial medicine  to be  successful, after every thing
else had been tried to no purpose. But I return to
the method of curing them in the beginning.
  At first I repeat the abovementioned evacuations
every other day for three or four times,  and after-
wards at greater  intervals, if the disease continues;
endeavouring, in  the meanwhile, by proper  drinks,
to blunt the acrimony in the first passages, and de-
fend their sensible membranes from being eroded;
and every night at bedtime, I give a small dose of
opium, sufficient  to mitigate pain, procure rest, and
promote perspiration, without keeping the  sick in
a constant  state  of stupidity, or* preventing a due
discharge by  stool; as  I have  seen  some  do  very
injudiciously by the too liberal use of anodynes, (g)
  But when the  dysentery began in the  second or
third way above described, which was commonly the
case in the year 1747, I confided  principally in the
early use of the antiphlogistic method, with a  view
to hinder the guts from being farther inflamed and
ulcerated.  Wherefore, when I was called in time to
young people, I took away ten or twelve  ounces of
blood immediately,  and  afterwards  repeated the
operation once or twice at proper intervals, according
as the violence of the pain and degree of fever indi-
cated: at the same time I ordered emollient clysters
and fomentations to be frequently made use of; and
plenty of warm,  soft, diluent  liquors, for common

  (g)  The practice  of our  author in the use of purges and
opiates, accords with that of the most successful practitioners
in the United States. 
 148         OF THE DYSENTERY.
 drink; shunning  opium as much as the intolerable
 torture of the distemper would permit.
  As soon as the fever was somewhat abated, and
the violence  of the pains assuaged, I next endea-
voured to procure  a sufficient discharge by  stool.
 For it is to be  observed,  that wherever the ilium,
colon, or rectum are inflamed, hardened excrements
are, for the most part, either the cause or the conse-
quence of the disease; nor can we  hope for a com-
plete recovery while such offensive matter remains
in the bowels; wherefore  purgatives of the  mildest
kind may first be made use  of, such as whey,  weak
broth, sweet oil, solution of manna, cremor tartari,
&c. proceeding by degrees to  the more active, till
the end proposed be obtained; after the same  man-
ner as we are directed to do in Sydenham's bilious
cholic; which indeed is a disease nearly allied  to the
dysenteries I am now treating of, and is always fre-
 quent at the time when they are epidemical. In both
cases, when other means have failed,  six or  seven
grains of  calomel  with a grain of  opium at  night,
after the use of the  semicupium, and a purging apo-
zem made of senna, manna, and sal catharticum the
next day, have  proved successful, and brought off a
 prodigious quantity of round,  hard, fetid lumps, to
the great relief of the patient;  nor is it easy to con-
 ceive how so much had been collected, or  where it
 had lodged so long, as in some cases I have observ-
 ed: the patient having eaten nothing for two or three
 weeks, that could furnish much excrement, and dur-
 ing that time had taken several clysters and common
 cathartics, which brought away liquid stools. (A)
  (A)  This fact has been mentioned among others as  a proof 
OF THE DYSENTERY.         149
  Having by such methods removed the inflamma-
tion of the  intestines, and dislodged their irritating-
contents, the tenderness of the bowels must be miti-
gated by anodynes, and the  use of such medicines,
as supply the want of the intestinal mucus.
  By  these  means  dysenteries,  if taken in time,
have been speedily carried off;  as well as the tenes-
mus, which is a disease  very nearly allied to the for-
mer, and equally fatal, whatever Celsus may allege
to the  contrary. (De Med. lib.  iv. c. xxi.)  But if
they were  neglected  in the beginning,  or did not
soon yield to the remedies above mentioned, the case
commonly became inveterate and perplexing; the
same medicine which gave relief to one, often doing
harm to  another, as Hoffman justly observes. (Med.
Rat. t. vi. § ii. c. vii.) In general, it answered best to
avoid such diet as would afford  a large quantity of
putrid, irritating excrement; to  drink  plentifully of
mild gentle detersive balsamics; to give liquids of
the same  kind in clysters; in short, to  pursue with
diligence  the directions  given us by the great Boer-
haave in his Aphorisms, (No.  96&, 976.) with this
addition,  that  it was absolutely necessaiy to give
opium twice a day, in order to obtain  some respite
from perpetual torment, and gradually to  increase
the dose  from half a grain to five or six, as use made
it familiar;  and once  or twice a week or oftener, as
the strength would allow, and the symptoms  indica-

that the liver performs the office of a chylopoetic viscus, and
that the faeces which are  discharged during the long intervals
of eating, are formed from the  chyle that is secreted from th©
fat of the omentum, and other parts of the body, and which is
absorbed during the continuance of the disease.
                        N 2 
150         OF THE DYSENTERY.
ted, to hinder the acrid matter from being accumu-
lated in the intestines by giving clysters, cathartics,
or small doses of ipecacuanha.
  If by these means the  patient can be kept alive
during the first  severe winter weather, he stands a
good chance of holding out to the summer, which
commonly restores him to his former health, when he
must be weaned by degrees from the use of opium;
from the continuance of which medicine, in such
cases, I have never found any ill effects ensue;  on
the contrary, I could name many people who have
been obliged to take it in this manner from Septem-
ber to the following June;  and as far as I am able
to judge, it is to the opium they are chiefly indebted
for their lives, and the perfect health which they at
present enjoy. (?)
  The  great  similitude there is  in many respects
between tertian fevers and dysenteries, induced me
frequently to make use of the bark in the last named
disease. When the fever and gripes  were regularly
exasperated, either every day or every other day at
stated periods, it has often effectually put a stop to
both; (&*) especially if the exacerbation began with
dullness, and terminated in sweats:  At other times

  (»')  Hundreds of patients with chronic dysentery and diarrhoea
can testify to the truth of this account of the safety and efficacy
of opium as a chronic medicine. It prevents the patients having
recourse to ardent spirits,  over which it has the following ad-
vantages, viz. it gives more prompt  and certain relief, and the
habit of using it, when it ceases to be necessary, is more easily
broken.
  (i) In cases where the dysenteric symptoms become perio-
dical, the editor has administered the bark with equal success
in the intermissions of those symptoms. 
OF THE DYSENTERY.         151
it removed the fever, the  flux continuing without
much alteration.  In some cases I  have given  it
merely with a view to prevent the mortification of
the intestines in the last stage of the distemper: but
I am sorry to say that it was seldom so successful
as I could have wished.
K 
152
                 CHAPTER VI.


Of the Pleurisy, and other fnflammatory Fevers,fre-
          quent in the Winter and Spring.


 A HE  anniversary  epidemical fevers in Minorca
may be divided into two classes,  which at present,
for distinction's sake, we shall call the summer and
the winter fevers. The former break out in June or
July, and cease about January, or somewhat sooner.
The latter seldom appear before November, and are
rarely seen after the summer solstice; so that one
seems to be the offspring of excessive heat; the other
of the sudden cold which the north winds frequently
occasion.  And as the  same  sort of weather  recurs
regularly every summer  and  autumn, so likewise do
the diseases:  whereas those of the  winter and spring,
agreeable to the variable disposition of those seasons,
are neither so uniform nor so certain; being some
years more frequent in one month, others in another.
The summer fevers are by much the most universal,
making up two thirds, or sometimes three fourths of
the whole annual diseases,  and attacking the inhabi-
tants of every rank,  whether natives or foreigners,
without distinction: (/) whereas the others are less

  (/) The autumnal fevers constitute about the same proportion
ef all the acute  fevers of several of the  middle and southern 
OF THE PLEURISY, &c.        153
injurious to the English than to the Spaniards; and
especially to the peasants,  whose  houses are com-
monly built upon rising  grounds, and  not so well
adapted  for keeping out the piercing  cold  of the
winter, as sheltering them from the summer's heat;
so that I have known particular corners of the coun-
try almost depopulated, while the towns and villages
escaped any remarkable mortality.
   Both these classes of fevers, and indeed almost all
others which happen in that climate, whether prima-
ry or symptomatical diseases, may be termed  peri-
odical, having  remissions at  intervals, more or less
considerable: but those of the summer, as has been
already observed,  generallv  assume  some  one  or
other of  the tertian types, being worse one day and
better the next alternately: whereas the winter fevers,
though they often counterfeit tertians, especially in
their beginning, yet for the most part have  exacer-
bations equally strong  every day, coming on about
noon with or without cold shiverings, and terminat-
ing towards morning, sometimes with gentle sweats,
sometimes without any sensible evacuation.
   It may likewise be remarked, that  as the summer
fevers are  generally complicated with fluxes  and
painful obstructions in the  chylopoetic  viscera; so
are those of the winter, with coughs, catarrhs, and
topical inflammations of  the vital organs, the brain,
the lungs, the heart itself;  and hence it is that  the
latter  are more destructive in proportion to their

states.  The same disposition  in winter fevers to appear with
daily exacerbations and remissions which our author has men-
tioned in the preceding paragraph, takes place in the United
States, not only in the winter, but during the succeeding spring. 
 154        OF THE PLEURISY, &c.

 numbers. Notwithstanding which, as the former are
 much  more constant and universal, if we calculate
 one year with another, we shall find that " the au-
 tumn  produces  the most acute and most fatal dis-
 eases of all seasons; and the  paroxysms in the even-
 ings bear some resemblance to it. For as the day of
 any particular disease is to  the year that  contains
 the period or  circle of diseases,  so is  the paroxysm
 in  the  evening  to the autumn." (Hip. de Morb.
 Vulg.  1. ii.)  And indeed the  conformity  between
 such of those  diseases as are  described in the  Hip-
 pocratical writings and the appearance  of  them at
 this day in climates near the  latitude of Greece, will
 be  abundantly evident to every one who considers
 the preceding account with any degree of attention.
  Having premised those general reflections, in or-
 der to  give the clearest idea  I can of the winter fe-
 vers, I shall describe them as they appeared during
 the last month of the  year 1745  and the first part of
 1746, when  the  uncommon destruction which  they
 made among the English rendered thern more im-
 mediately the object  of my attention; and as the
 generality of them is  called mal de costat by the vul-
 gar, and the pleurisy by physicians, from their being
 accompanied with pains in  the side, I have, in com-
pliance to prevailing custom,  retained  that name in
the  title of this chapter, though it will appear in the
sequel,  that they  ought  rather  to be  termed  peri-
pneumonies, agreeably to  the observations of Ze-
chius,* Hoffman,f and others.
  Those pleurisies began commonly like an ague fit,
with shivering and shaking,  flying  pains  all  over
  * Apud Bonet.  Sepulchr. Anat. lib. ii. § iv.
  f Med. Rat. torn-  iv. § 2. cap. iv. 
OF THE PLEURISY, &c.         155
the body,  bilious vomitings and purgings,  which
were soon succeeded by quick breathing, immode-
rate thirst, inward heat, headach, and other feverish
symptoms. In a few  hours  the  respiration became
more difficult and laborious; the most part  of the
sick being seized with stitches in their sides, striking
upwards to the clavicle, and shoulder blade; oblique-
ly downwards  along the cartilages  of the bastard
ribs; or  else darting across from the breastbone  to
the vertebrae of the back; so that they could neither
cough, nor make a  full inspiration without  great
pain.  Manv  complained chiefly  of  a load and op-
pression  in their breast, as if a millstone  had been
laid  upon  it;  some  of a heaviness and  fluttering
about the heart, which at one time seemed to glow
with extraordinary heat, at another to be chilled with
c-old, as if it had been dipt  in icewater.  In a  few  of
the sick those  complaints  preceded the fever,  in
others they did not come on till the  day after, (m)
   In the progress of the disease  it was  not uncom-
mon for  the pains to move about in  the thorax from
one  place  to another. Sometimes they would shift
from the breast to the limbs, and  of a sudden re-
turn to the bowels;  and I have seen cases wherein,
after leaving one side, they have attacked  the other
unexpectedly, and proved fatal in a very short time.
The left side of the thorax was not  near so liable  to
be affected as the other; forty-two  out of sixty pa-
tients who were seized about the same time, having
had  the  disease  in the right, (ii) But whichsoever

  (m) The whole of this description of the pleurisies of Mi-
norca, accords with the symptoms of what are called bilious
pleurisies in the United States.
  (n) The greater disposition of the right side to be affected in 
 156         OF THE PLEURISY, &c.
 side was affected,  the sick lay easiest on the oppo-
 site; though the generality were obliged to lie upon
 their backs, or to sit up in bed with their heads erect.
 Many were drowsy and inclinable to sleep; but they
 raved at intervals,  or were much disturbed with ex-
 travagant  dreams.  Some laughed in  their  sleep;
 others would awake  in a fright and start out  of bed,
 imagining that the house was in flames; that those
 about them were endeavouring to push  them over a
 precipice;  to pierce  their sides  with  daggers; to
 bind them  down  with cords, or  iron  hoops,  and
 things of the like nature.
   In the meantime the  external heat  of the body
 was in several  very moderate;  in some less than
 natural; but for the most part it was so intense as
 to raise the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer to
 the 102d  degree, and often in the afternoon to the
 104th. The  pulse  was likewise  very variable, not
 only in different persons, but in  the same person at
 different  times;  and, in  respect  to its  strength, in
 different arms, that of the pained side  being most
 obscure; and I have frequently found it like  that of
 a man in  health, or even  slower than natural,* while

 the pleurisies mentioned  by the author was probably the effect
 of a combination of bilious fever with them, which  disposes
 to hepatic  pains and  obstructions. The fixed position of the
patient  mentioned in the next sentence,  shows the pleurisies
 to have partaken in a degree, of the character of  the pneumonia
notha.
  * Pulsum in pleuritide minus celerem, aut fortem (febre ta-
men acuta in summo vigore nihilo minus subsistente) saepius
notavi: pulsus igitur celeritas  et magnitudo non semper cum
febre inflammatoria sociantur. Qui in pleurae aut pulmonum in-
flammationibus pulsui nimium fidunt, decipiuntur, Sic. &c.
                       O'Connel de Morb. Acut. p. 235. 
             OF THE PLEURISY, &c         157
the patient  was in the  greatest danger;  so  that it
could neither be depended upon as a prognostic sign,.
nor as an indication of cure. Nor was the colour or
consistence of the blood more to be trusted; in many
it had a white or pale yellow crust, the serum being
of the same complexion; but for the most part it was
red and florid. It frequently changed its appearance,
in the space of a few hours,  in the same  person;
what was drawn in the morning having a crust; that
in the afternoon none, et vice versa, (o) And I could
never positively  determine  which sort afforded the
best or the worst prognostic. The signs from which
one could pronounce the patient's recovery, with the
most certainty, were  his being able to sleep sound
in the natural posture, and to make a full inspiration
without difficulty, while his thirst and inward heat
were moderate.
   Beside some abatement of the fever, which com-
monly happened every morning, it was remarkable,
that upon the third day, or beginning of the  fourth,
there was frequently a great remission, sometimes a
total  cessation of every violent symptom;  so that
the sick  were thought to be out of danger:  but  on
the fourth or fifth a delirium suddenly came  on, or
the breathing became more difficult than ever, and
one  or both of those symptoms  increasing  hourly,
the patient expired in a day or two, either suffocated
or raving mad; unless nature or art assisting,  he

   (o)  It is evident from the state of the skin, the pulse, and the
blood, that this pleurisy partook a good deal of a malignant
nature. The changes in the appearances of the blood  drawn at
different times of the day, show how much they are influenced
 by the varying force of the blood vessels. 
  158            OF THE PLEURISY, 8cc,

  had the good fortune  to escape  by means of some
  of the evacuations to  be  hereafter mentioned. It
  sometimes happened that the remarkable remission
  fell out on one of the days  between the  fourth and
  the seventh;  in which case the exacerbation succeed-
  ed on the following day. (/>)
    Out of twenty-one patients, whom I  lost  by this
  distemper, four died upon the fourth day; three the
  fifth day; three the sixth; three the seventh; three the
  eighth; two the eleventh; one the fourteenth; and the
 remaining two, though the day cannot positively be de-
 termined, yet from some  circumstances, it is evident,
 that it must have been the fourth or fifth. And-indeed
 such was the rapid progress of those mortal pleurisies,
 that if any of them survived the seventh day,  it
 seemed to be entirely owing to bleeding.

   (p) The whole of this paragraph is a further illustration  of
 the bilious and malignant character of the pleurisies described
 by our author. The same supposed " remissions,  and total ces-
 sation of every violent symptom," frequently took place in the
 yellow fever in Philadelphia. The  editor differs from the author
 in supposing them to be remissions. On the contrary he believes
 them to be the effect of the system being reduced by a severe
 paroxysm of fever, below the  points of  sensation and reaction.
 That this was the case in the pleurisies, he infers from the fa-
 vourable issue of the practice of our author, mentioned in a sub-
 sequent part of his work, where he informs us that the  loss of
 thirty or forty ounces of blood  within the first three days, and
 bathing  and blistering the legs, prevented  what  he has called
 " the insidious intervals," or " treacherous remissions"  of the
 disease,  and induced such " commotions" in the  system, or so
 severe a paroxysm, as  to require bleeding and  blistering to
 subdue it. The same copious  bleedings prevented similar ap.
parent remissions in the yellow fever of Philadelphia, or if they
had not been used to a sufficient extent,  the repetition of them
relieved  the system from its insensible and oppressed state, and
thereby created a fever, and thus saved life 
             OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         159
  I examined fourtee.en of the bodies, in all which
the lungs were principally affected; whilst in several
the pleura was  perfectly  sound,  or only slightly at-
tached to  the  lungs, which  is  a  common case in
adults, as  every one knows  who is  accustomed to
dissections.  In many the  lungs were converted into
a hard  liverlike substance, and  sunk  in water; in
some the diaphragm was inflamed; in others large
firm polypi were taken out of the  ventricles of the-
heart and large vessels  adjoining, (y)  Abscesses,
or rather half formed abscesses, with a sanious ichor,
and a rotten gelatinous  substance, instead of con-
cocted matter, were frequently found, even in those
who died so early as the fourth day, either in the
lungs, or between the lungs  and pleura,  where they
adhered, or between the membranes  of the medias-
tinum, near the diaphragm. And these abscesses had
sometimes emptied  themselves  into  the cavity  of
the thorax,  so  that the  lungs floated in  purulent
serum;  their external membrane, and likewise the
pleura, being greatly thickened and converted, as it
were, into a white crust,* like melted tallow grown

  iq) It  appears from  our author's dissections that polypi as
well  as tubercles  are  formed by  acute as well  as chronic
diseases.
  *  I am now doubtful if this crust was the pleura and external
coat of the lungs, changed from a natural state by soaking in a
purulent fluid, or if it was not altogether a preternatural sub-
stance, formed by fluids deposited on  those membranes, and
compacted together by the  motion of the  lungs;  for I have
lately been informed by Mr. Hunter, that, in those who die of
internal inflammations, he generally finds the surface of the ca-
vities and the bowels furred over, as it were, with a thick slough
of an ash colour, somewhat inclining to yellow, which he had
an opportunity of observing in all the different degrees of con- 
160         OF THE PLEURISY, Sec
cold, part of them being eroded and detached from the
rest. In some bodies the pericardium was full of puru-
lent serum, its internal membrane and the outer sur-
face of the heart, being affected in the same manner as
I have just now described those of the lungs and pleu-
ra.  In two people whose heads were examined, the si-
nuses of the  dura  mater were stuffed and distended
with blood, the membrane itself being sound, and the
pia mater, together with the plexus choroides, was in-
flamed and much thicker than in a natural state.
  In one person,  whom I imagined to have died of
a pleurisy, the  lungs and  pleura were  sound;  but
there were polypi in the heart,  the  diaphragm was
inflamed, and a large abscess was found in the right
lobe of the  liver,  which had discharged itself into
the abdomen, where  much purulent stinking matter
was collected;  part of the colon and teguments near
the liver being sphacelated, the  rest of the guts in-
flamed,  adhering to each other, and beginning to
mortify. This man,  for the first four days  of his
distemper, had no great pain; on the fifth and sixth
day  it  became violent; after this he expectorated
freely, which  gave  hopes  of  his  recovery to  the

sistence, between a soft mucus slightly adhering to the parts,
and a solid fibrous lamella, so closely attached to them, that at
first view they appeared to  be inseparably united: yet after
maceration in water he could peel off the whole of this slough
from the smooth, sound,  natural  membrane which it covered.
This observation confirms Haller's opinion, that the membra-
nous adhesions, so frequently met with between the lungs and
pleura, are generally formed by the coagulation  of the watery
fluid which oozes from the exhalent vessels of these parts. See
Lin. Prim. Physiolog. No. 262. 
             OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         161
twelfth, when he died, contrary to expectation,  put-
ting me in mind of  a  prognostic in Hippocrates,*
which seemed to be applicable to his case, (r)
  Among the natural evacuations which terminated
these pleurisies, the  most frequent  was a  plentiful
expectoration without  hard  coughing.  When  this
discharge began early, and continued freely, it  kept
off or mitigated the dangerous symptoms so liable
to come on about the  fourth  or  fifth day, and the
fever disappeared about the seventh: but if the  spit-
ting did  not begin before the exacerbation  of the
fourth or fifth  day,  it often  proved insufficient to
save the patient. If he  did recover, the  fever seldom
left him before  the fourteenth day, and frequently
continued much longer.
  Hippocrates describes the colour and consistence
of the expectorated  matter,  which  generally prog-
nosticates death or recovery. (Prsenot. Coac.)  But
at the same  time  he takes  care  to  inform us,  that
every sort of spitting  which does not remove the
pain  is bad; and every sort that does remove  it is
good: the latter part of which remark I have  seen
verified in some who owed their lives to that evacu-
ation, though the matter was always thin,  crude,
and ill-coloured.
  The  next  critical discharge to  be mentioned is a
copious efflux of urine, which soon after being made
turns thick, and is either of a pale red, letting fall a

  *  Quibus autem pleuriticis doloies initio mites sunt,  ingra-
vescunt autem  quinto  aut sexto, facile ad duodecimum  usque
perveniunt; ac raro illi servantur.           Praenot. Coac.
  (r)  The result of this dissection shows the uncertainty  of no-
sology, and the necessity of our remedies being governed  by the
state of the system rather than by the name and seat of a disease
                        02 
 162         OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.
 lateritious sediment, or milky, as if mixed with lau?
 dable pus, and deposited  an equal  smooth  white
 one. Such urine  alone  terminated  the  disease  in
 some;  and in  many  it  proved an assistant  to  the
 expectoration.  (*)
   Sweats were common in these pleurisies:  in  the
 beginning indeed  they were oftener  symptomatica!
 than critical: but after the obstructions of the head
 and breast were removed by the evacuations above
 mentioned, they seldom  failed of coming on to abate
 the fever, and complete the cure.  And though they
 did not always fall out on the critical  days, yet it is
remarkable,  that  those  which were  most  profuse,
 and brought  about the greatest changes, which really
happened on the 4th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and
 21st day, much  more frequently than  on  others.
This is  a  circumstance to which I had  not always
attended,  though I find  from my notes that it is a
true one.
   It was common for those diseases  to begin with
a  vomiting and purging  of  green or yellow bilious
matter: but  there  were  few instances where either
of those evacuations could be reckoned critical, ex-
cept in  one man who laboured under a dry pleurisy
with crude urine,  and had got to the eleventh day,
with the utmost difficulty, when a purging of porra-
ceous bile came on, and  gave a turn to the distem-

  (s) Nature often employs this mode to relieve herself of re-
dundant fluids, but not always with success. Physicians should
follow her in availing themselves of the kidneys as well as the
bowels, blood vessels and pores, to discharge violent diseases
j>jro the body. 
OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         163
per, which afterwards  went off gradually by  sweat
and expectoration.
  One person who had a violent pleurisy in the right
breast, and had been  four times bled, was seized
with a hemorrhage from the right nostril on the se-
venth day; and after losing four or five ounces, a
most profuse  universal sweat came on, and put him
out of danger. (?)
  Another way which nature took to relieve herself,
was,  by  translating the morbific matter  from the
bowels  to the surface  of the body.  In three people
the  disease was,  immediately  after  its  invasion,
changed into  the  erysipelatous fever,  described by
Sydenham, and was cured  as he  directs. In seven or
eight people the fever and all other complaints va-
nished  the second or  third day, an  erysipelas ap-
pearing on the inferior extremities,  which in some
fell lower and lower every hour, and soon made its
exit by the toes;  in others, being more of the nature
of a phlegmon, it settled in one of the legs,  and form-
ed an abscess,  which degenerated into fistulous ul-
cers, and proved very difficult to be cured, (w)
   By reflecting upon  these cases,  and  considering
that  an erysipelas of the bowels would spread from

   (0 This fact is important, inasmuch as it shows,  1st, that the
loss of a very small quantity of blood in the close of a disease is
often attended with  the same beneficial effects as the loss of a
 large quantity in its first stage;  and  2dly, that a very small ex-
 cess in the quantity of blood will keep the system above the
 salutary sweating point.
   («) The whole of this paragraph is calculated to estabhsh a
 belief in the unity of disease. The erysipelas has in several in-
 stances preceded the plague and yellow fever. It was in these
 cases probably  brought on by a similar cause. 
164        OF THE PLEURISY, Ecc.
place to place inwardly, as it does on  the  skin, I
could account for several appearances in the predo-
minant distempers, which it first  seemed somewhat
extraordinary; such as the inconstancy and mutabi-
lity of the pains, and the frequent alteration of the
pulse and  breathing, according as the morbific mat-
ter shifted its situation, and fixed upon different or-
gans, the heart, the lungs, the midriff, or containing
membranes of the thorax.  And I imagined that the
treacherous remission, so frequent on the third or
fourth day, happened whilst the morbific matter was
shifting from the  breast; which after  being  reas-
sumed into the mass of blood, and falling upon the
head, or returning again to the lungs, often occasion-
ed tragical effects.
  When those  pleurisies  first became  epidemical,
their quick progress and uncommon mortality sur-
prised me greatly. I  attempted to  cure  them  by
bleeding once or twice  a day, if the complaints were
violent,  as I had always used to do in inflammatory
fevers:  but  the  remissions  in the mornings some-
times induced me  to  omit the operation;  and the
cessation of the symptoms,  which generally happen-
ed about the third day, made me imagine that the
danger was over; so that  before  the  patients  were
blooded above two or  three times, the exacerbation
came on upon the fourth or fifth  day, and defeated
all attempts by bleeding, blistering, or otherwise to
relieve them.
  Those unforeseen events startled me greatly, and
led me  again to review the  whole progress ol" the
disease, its symptoms,  and issue. I  had  observed
that  some escaped by  means of expectoration and 
OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         165
purulent urine,  without much assistance from phle-
botomy: and considering the periodical revolutions
of the fever, the quick transition of the  stitches from
one  part to another, together with  the prevailing
colour of the blood,  as  well as that of  the  spitting,
and other excretions, I  was apprehensive that  those
were what authors call bilious pleurisies, which they
allege are exasperated by large evacuations:* parti-
cularly  Duretus,| who exclaims  with  great  vehe-
mence  against those physicians wjio trust principally
to bleeding in the cure of those diseases,  without
waiting for the natural  evacuations.  These motives
 induced me to use  the lancet with more caution;
 and to rely chiefly on the speedy application of blis-
 ters for restraining the  symptoms. But this manage-
 ment proved less successful than the former;  and I
 was convinced in a short time  that, instead of too
 much, too little blood had been taken away in the
 beginning; having been sometimes  misled by the
 insidious intervals of the  disease; at others having
 trusted too much to the faint attempts which  nature
 made to relieve herself by expectoration and  urine j
 the latter often becoming crude  on the fourth day,
 as the delirium advanced, though it  had promised
 fair on the second or third; the former frequently being
 checked about that  period of the  disease, by the im-
 moderate  heat of the lungs rendering the  matter

    * Ballon. Epid. Sparsim. Bianch. Hist. Hep. p. iii. <j viii. fcc.
  Ra!rl Prax  Med. 1. i. c. ix  Lancis. Epid. Rom. c vi.
    fO  homines  reipublic* calamitosos  atque funestos! iPsam
  pleuritidem, qu« sua  sponte nullius operis  md.gens  cum  tali
  smito quiesceret, ex eventu reddunt mort.feram.
  spmo quic»«.                    Buret,  in Pramot. Coac 
166        OF THE PLEURISY, &c.
 viscid, globular, and not to be discharged, but with
 the utmost difficulty.
   I then began to bleed  more plentifully, and  re-
 peated it so as to take  away thirty or forty ounces
 within the three first days of the distemper; and  en-
 deavoured, by bathing the legs and  blistering them
 on the third day, to  prevent  the fatal  symptoms
 from coming on  about the fourth or fifth; giving
 nitre at the same time liberally, and  camphire in
 small doses, to promote the thinner secretions. This
 method succeeded well in several  cases; expectora-
 tion and urine being thereby increased: but if they
 were not increased,  the commotions  which arose  on
 the fourth, fifth, or sixth day, made it always neces-
 sary to have recourse to bleeding again,  and more
 blisters,  in order to  relieve the oppression of the
 head and breast; and though for the most part the
 patients  did  escape,  yet they recovered with diffi-
 culty, and continued coughing, spitting, and sweating
 in the nights, for several weeks, (w)
   At last, about  the middle of  March,  when  the
 disease raged with  the utmost fury, having found
that there was  an  absolute  necessity for bleeding
largely without  delay, in  order to preserve life, I
began  to put in practice  the following method  of
cure, which seldom or never failed, not only in young
 robust people, but even in those of a more advanced
age, (x)  provided I saw the  sick before the end of
the third day.
  («a>) The reader is requested to compare this account'of  the
effects of copious bleeding in preventing  the " insidious inter-
vals, and treacherous remissions" of the disease mentioned in
page 158, and referred to by the editor.
  (x) Our author was not misled by the  supposed weakness of 
OF THE PLEURISY, Sec         167
  If I was called, for example, in the morning, the
patient was  immediately laid in a horizontal  posi-
tion, and bled at the arm until his pains abated, or
he began to faint;  neither of which commonly hap-
pened before 16, 20, or 24 ounces were taken away.
If the symptoms  continued, I ordered about the
same quantity to be taken from the other arm in the
afternoon, without regarding the urine, expectora-
tion,  or appearance  of  the  blood. Next  morning,
though there might be a great alteration for the bet-
ter, yet, if there was the least room to suspect that
any obstruction remained in the head or breast, the
bleeding was repeated:  and  by carefully  weighing
the blood*  I  found that  between forty-eight and
fifty-four ounces were frequently taken away during
the first 24 hours  of my  attendance. This sudden
copious evacuation commonly procured a cessation of
all violent symptoms, and afforded  an opportunity
to give  an antiphlogistic purge the next day.  But if
the symptoms did not cease, or if the pains and dif-
ficulty of breathing returned the day after  the purge
had  been given, or if there  was  reason to suspect
from the headach, giddiness, tingling of the ears,
and  disturbed rest, that the  brain  was in  danger of
being affected, I had again  immediate recourse  to
bleeding,  taking  away  at different  times to the
amount of 12,  18,  or 24 ounces,  in the space of a
day, either by the lancet or cupping glasses, or both,

old age in the use of the lancet. Experience proves  it to be
more necessary under equal circumstances in that stage of life,
than in any other.
  * In weighing the blood, I used the island weights, fourteen
ounces of which answer nearly to sixteen ounces avoirdupois. 
  168         OF THE PLEURISY, &c.

  as occasion required; by which means the impending
  storm was happily averted; and as soon as the com-
  motions  were  quelled, the purgative was  repeated
  every other day for three times, unless some of the
  critical evacuations appeared with  such visible good
  effects as rendered it unnecessary.
    In  this  manner  I found with   Sydenham,   that
  pleurisies of the most fatal  tendency might be hap-
  pily cured in the space of a few days;  and  with as
  much certainty as  any distemper whatever. And it
  was no less remarkable to observe, how quickly the
  sick recovered their  usual health and  strength,  not-
  withstanding the great loss of blood which they had
  sustained; while many,  who had  been  bled more
  sparingly,  continued in  a languid,  infirm  state for
  months, without being able to get rid  of the cough
  and pains in the breast, (v)

   (y) The copious bleeding used with so  much success by our
  author in the treatment of bilious pleurisies is founded upon the
  system labouring under two distinct and violent morbid actions,
  the one in the lungs, and the other in the stomach and liver. The
  same disease yielded only to copious bleeding in  the winter of
  1794-5 in  Philadelphia.  Nearly all  died  who were not bled
,  twice as much as in a single pleurisy, or inflammatory bilious fe-
  ver. This  copious depletion by the lancet not only saved life,
  but prevented, according to Dr.  Sydenham, a distressing and
  dangerous cough. Our author discovers his usual  good sense in
  continuing to bleed, while the symptoms of the disease retained
  their early violence, without  any regard to the state of the
  urine, expectoration, or the blood. Even the pulse in such cases
  should not regulate the use of the lancet.  Let it not be sup-
  posed from what has  been said, that the bilious pleurisy ap-
  pears in no other form than that which has been mentioned. It
  sometimes assumes in the United States, the  symptomfc  of
  the typhoid and typhus  states of fever, in the former of v%ich
  bleeding is forbidden,  and in the latter, bark and opium are the
  most effectual remedies. 
OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         169
  Hitherto  I  have only mentioned the capital re-
medies made use of in the cure of those distempers.
But it may not be improper to take notice of some
other collateral helps, which were generally used in
the several ways of treating them above described.
   In  the first place, the sick had warm barley water
with  oxymel for common drink; and  nitrous anti-
phlogistic medicines in the first days of the distem-
per; their bellies being kept open with clysters.
   Oily linctuses were exceedingly useful in allaying
the cough;  and small doses of anodynes  were often
necessary, both for that  purpose,  and to procure
sleep when the  height of the distemper was over.
   If the pleurisy began' with a bilious vomiting,  it
was expedient to promote that evacuation by large
 draughts of warm  water, in order to carry it off the
 sooner.
   To ease the pains in the breast the large leaves of
 the opuntia, toasted in an oven, and split through the
 middle, were frequently applied: these being thick
 and  succulent,  retain the  heat a long time, and pro-
 duce all the good  effects  that attend anodyne emol-
 lient cataplasms and  fomentations; as I have  fre-
 quently experienced in  tertian  fevers, dysenteries,
 and  other  diseases with inflamed bowels, as well  as
 in this  disease, since I first learned  the virtues  of
 the leaves  from the natives of Minorca.
    After bleeding twice or thrice,  blisters laid upon
 the part affected wtr| often  successful in removing
 obstinate stitches: but nothing affords such certain
 and immediate relief as the scarificator and cupping
 gfcjss;  insomuch that among the many trials which I
 have had of them, I  do  not remember  an  instance
                          P 
170        OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.
where they did not either carry off the complaint en-
tirely, or mitigate  it considerably:  but my glasses
were both wider and deeper than those  commonly
used in England.
  The phrensies and anginas, which now and then ap-
peared during this  constitution of the air,  required
the same method of cure:  and as to the chincough,
which was so fatal  to children, the  chief difference
between it and the  pleurisy seems to have been, that
in one the morbific matter was thrown into the ve-
sicles of the trachaea, in the other it stagnated in the
extremities of the pulmonary arteries.
  During the  same period of time  catarrhal fevers
appeared among  the adults, attended with coughs,
pains in the head and bones, and frequently a deli-
rium;  some of which suddenly  terminated on the
seventh day by profuse sweats;  but most  of them
had partial crises sooner,  and went off by  degrees.
When large bleeding was neglected in the beginning,
they were liable to degenerate  into pleurisies.  This
was likewise  the case with the tertian fevers;  and
indeed it was remarkable that not only all acute dis-
eases of this  season, but even  accidental hurts and
bruises required more plentiful evacuations  than or-
dinary; so inclinable was this constitution of the air
to promote inflammations, (z)
  I shall conclude this chapter  with a paragraph or
two from some letters, occasioned by the pleurisies
of which we have been speaking, in order to confirm
what has been said on them by the testimony of my

  (2) Our author discovers his education in the schools of Hip-
pocrates and Sydenham by admitting  an inflammatory constitu-
tion of the atmosphere, and its influence upon all diseases, 
             OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.        171
friend Dr. Font, an eminent physician of Ciudadella
in Minorca, who has deservedly enjoyed a most ex-
tensive practice for upwards of thirty years.


           Didaco Fo?it, M. D.  G. C.  S.
   —Novus annus funera  densa produxit, grassante
febre inflammatoria, quae caput et organa respiratio-
nis potissimum afficit, modo pleuritis; modo peri-
pneumonia, interdum phrenitis,  interdum paraphre-
nitis  adpellanda. Hie morbus, ut vehemens, largis
et repetitis vensesectionibus, cum interposita catharsi,
in  herba  felicissime jugulatur. Complures liberale
sputum, sine  multa sanguinis jactura, periculo eri-
puit.  Nee desunt, quibus urinae purulentae fluxus diu
perseverans, saluti fuit.  At, nisi istius modi auxilia
mature accedant, vas aegris! nam postquam morbus
per triduum  impune saeviit,  altasque egit radices,
fero  plerumque medicina paratur;  et neque vense-
sectiones, neque epispastica,  neque  cucurbitulae, ne-
que pectoralia tantopere decantata, impedire valent,
quo minus, juxta Hippocratis effatum, u Septimo die
vel celerius succumbant, aut mente lassi, aut orthopnea
suffbeati."
    A te itaque peto, vir experientissime, ut dato otio,
his quaesitis responsum praebeas.
    Annon pleuritis  morbus  anniversarius in hac in-
 sula, et quibus mensibus?
    An semper febrem continuam,  cum celeri pulsu,
 acri calore, &c. comitem sibi adsciscat? An potius
 febri periodica remittente tonjungatur?
    Nonne tutius est,  morbi resolutionem per venaS-
h 
172        OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.
sectiones, quam  primum  tentare, quam coctionem
<-t crisin naturae praestolari?
   Ubi resolutio tentanda est, qua mensura et quibus
intervallis cruorem detrahere conveniat?
             Datum Magone tertio die Maii, S. V.
                anno M,DCC,XLVI.


              G.  C. Diadacus Font, S.
   —Anniversarius hac in  parte  insulse morbus est
pleuritis, hiemeque viget, quantum ex usu observavi;
et ubi rigida hyems plus justo prolongatur ad me-
dium aut finem  veris excurrere  solet;  immo anno
1730, quamvis solito modo procederent tempestates,
memini hunc morbum, cum aliis inflammationibus
internis, magnam  stragem fecisse; aegris vel mente
lsesis, vel orthopnea suffocatis.
   Pleuritis  non  semper febrem acutam continuam
habet adjunctam cum siti, cau.ie, et celeri pulsu: imo
potius in ipsius principio febris est fere semper mi-
tis; pulsus quoad celeritatem, parum distat a natu-
ral!, calorque  non est nimius, nee  mordax; et in
multis propensionem ad somnurn observavi. Nequa-
quam  vero,  licet  ita ingrediatur,  Ieniter  tractanda
est;  sed eodem  modo ac  si cum vehementi febre
invasisset.
   Praeterea,  pleuritis saepe sociatur febre quae -perio-
dice remittit, et intenditur, modo quotidie, modo de
tertio in tertium,* Et aliquando  sola febris tertiana
intermittens  adest; sicuti observavi in quatuor aegris,
quorum unus in initio septimi  paroxysmi e  vita
decessit.
   * Vide Galen. Avicen. &. Mercurial apud Bianch. p. iii. Schol.
25. h. Spigel. de Semitertian. cap. iii.. 
OF THE PLEURISY, Sec.         173
  Quoad curationem; ubi tempestive vocatus suni,
primo scil. die, vel secundi initio, deposita mora, san-
guinis circiter quatuor libras, partitis vicibus, nuch-
themeri spatio, si aeger robustus sit, detrahere jubeo;
qua  subita et copiosa evacuatione morbus quando-
que  in  herba resolvitur.  Sin  vero persistat, ante
diem quartum, totidem fere  sanguinis libras, partitis
vicibus, noviter extraho: et similiter prosequor, licet
ante diem  quartum  magna et  notabilis omnium
svmptomatum remissio contingat. Quae quidem re-
missio talis et tanta esse solet, ut aeger  et  reliqui
rem jam in tuto putent; et ipse olim ita existimavi,
donee  infausti  eventus aliter  docuissent.  Quippe
veniente die quarto, aut quinto,  supra modum ex-
acerbantur  svmptomata, et  furente nova procella,
aeger qui mox convaliturus sperabatur, orco traditur:
quod nulla alia methodo quam supra praescripta prae-
cavere  potui;  diluentibus interim, expectorantibus,
clysteribus, cucurbitulis  et  epispasticis, pro ratione
symptomatum, diligenter adhibitis; ut et purgantibus,
post septimum diem.  En methodus medendi,  qu3e
meis et  aegrorum votis respondet! Ex centum qui
corripiuntur, nonaginta, aut in initio resolutione, aut
 postea manifesta  crisi servantur.  Quae crisis, aut per
 sudorem,  aut per  expectorationem,  aut per urinae
 profluvium, modo  sanguinolentae, modo puriformis,
 aut per diarrhceam perficitur; adjutis vitae  viribus,
 sanguinis evacuatione, et supra memoratis remediis
 legitime exhibitis.  Quibus  inter  initia spretis, mors
 ut plurimum succedit.
                    Datum  Civitellae Maii 26, S. N.
                      anno  M,DCC,XLVI.
                       P 2 
174
                CHAPTER VII.

               OF THE SMALLPOX.


 1 HE smallpox were twice epidemical in Minorca,
while  I  resided there,  viz. in the year 1742, and
1746. Without entering into a minute description of
the disease, I shall only endeavour to give a general
view of its nature and effects, in each of those years;
from which it will appear how  widely the infection
of one differed from that of the other.
   About the middle of March 1742, the smallpox
broke out in Mahon, to the great consternation of
the natives, who had not seen them since the year
1725, but well  remembered the destruction which
they then occasioned. The contagion quickly spread
about, and was soon conveyed to the other towns and
villages;  insomuch that before  the  end  of April it
prevailed in every part of the island. As it attacked
almost all who  were under seventeen, and many of
a more advanced age, the  sick were  so numerous
during May and June,  that every house might be
called an hospital.  About the end of July the  dis-
ease suddenly disappeared, most of those who  were
susceptible of it having by that time  undergone it.
  During the first six or eight weeks the distemper
was favourable,  and seldom  proved  fatal: but its
virulence increased with the heat of the weather; so 
OF THE SMALLPOX.          175
that in June and July it was not uncommon, both at
Mahon and Ciudadella, to bury ten or twelve  of a
day. Nevertheless,  in  proportion to the numbers,
not many died";  and what mortality there was, hap-
pened chiefly among children at the breast and the
common  soldiers.
   Among such multitudes of sick, all  the different
species of smallpox, described  by  authors, were
sometimes met with: but both the distinct and con-
fluent had a nearer  resemblance to what Sydenham
calls the  anomalous, than to the regular smallpox.
For though the fluxed kind  commonly appeared on
the second or third day, it was often the fourteenth
or seventeenth before the  roughness to the touch
showed that those on the face began to turn; and on
the legs  and arms  they frequently continued fresh
till near  the thirtieth. In these kinds of  smallpox
the secondary  fever raged  violently between the
fourteenth and twenty-fourth day; and almost all
who perished by the disease died on one or other of
the intermediate days.
   The constancy of nature in promoting one or other
of the common evacuations,  whereby part of the
morbid matter was discharged, contributed to  save
great numbers;  for a plentiful salivation commonly
appeared with the  eruption, and continued till the
suppuration was completed, not only in adults, but
in those  of all ages; even in children at the breast,
whose want of sense to spit freely, was  probably
the chief cause of their suffering more  than others.
 About the seventh day or sooner the swelling of the
face came on;  and it was regularly succeeded  by a
tumefaction of the hands, and sometimes of the 
!76         OF THE SMALLPOX.
feet. But it was most remarkable in this epidemical
smallpox, that a moderate looseness commonly ap-
peared, as the pustules began to dry, and continued
till  the skin  was in some measure cleared of the
thick  black crust that covered it;  by  which means
the  defect of perspiration was supplied, the symp-
toms  of the  secondary fever were restrained,  and
many people  were happily rescued  from the jaws of
death: whence we may learn, how reasonable it is
to give purgatives in this stage of the disease, ac-
cording to the rules laid down for that purpose by
Drs. Friend and Mead.
  In  December, 1745, the smallpox were brought
from  Constantinople by one of his majesty's  ships,
and the following year made a slow but fatal pro-
gress over the whole island.  During  the spring of
1746, they confined themselves to^St.  Philip's Cas-
tle, without reaching Mahon,  though they are but
two small miles asunder.  In the summer and autumn
they were frequent in Mahon  and  the neighbouring
parts. Then they travelled northward to Ciudadella,
and disappeared  in the  spring; having carried off
almost all the children who  survived the chincough
and summer fevers of the year 1746. It was how-
ever very remarkable,  that the longer the infection
continued in the island, the milder it became; so
that there was much less mortality in the northern,
parts than in the southern, where it first broke out.
   Whilst the distemper raged at St. Philip's Castle,
as  I lived at Mahon, I saw  but few of the sick; but
I was  informed  by the physicians who  attended
them, that the pustules were commonly of the con-
fluent kind, and often intermixed with purples; that 
OF THE SMALLPOX.          177
 they seldom rose or filled well, but continued either
 hard like tubercles, or quite empty, or had a small
 quantity of ichor, with a black spot in their middle,
 and frequently seemed  to  wither before they were
 ripe; that the fever, instead of going off with the
 eruption, increased as  the  disease advanced, being
 generally accompanied with a coma, delirium, diffi-
 culty of breathing, incessant vomiting  and loathing
 of food; that the face seldom or never swelled, but
 about the time that this ought to have happened, a
 soreness of the mouth  or throat gave  great uneasi-
 ness, the skin separated from the inside  of the lips,
 and the breath became very fetid; that three fourths
 of the infected, in spite of all that could be contrived
 for their preservation, perished between the sixth
 and the fourteenth days of the fever. And the most
 of those who survived remained blind, consumptive,
 or lame with caries of the bones,  sordid ulcers, &c.
 so that this disease approached nearest to the plague
 of all which had been known in the island.
    From those accounts (which were  too well con-
  firmed by my own experience  afterwards) I conjec-
  tured,  that the extraordinary mortality of the  dis-
  ease  was  owing, partly  to the  variolous  matter
  abounding so much in the blood, that the  skm was
  not capable of receiving the whole quantity; partly
  to the  peculiar disposition of the air at that time,
' which, as we have seen in the former chapter, rem-
  dered  the head and breast extremely  liable to  in-
  flammations. Hence  I imagined that many of the
  sick died  of a phrenitis  or  peripneumonia, on the
  sixth,  seventh, or eighth day, before the pustules had
  time to ripen;  while in others, the pustules having 
178          OF THE SMALLPOX.
terminated in a gangrene, the corrosive  ichor re-
ceived into the blood proved fatal about the end of
the second week. It appeared to  me that the most
probable way of averting  those disasters would be,
to make large evacuations  in  the  first days of the
distemper, and to replenish the  vessels with mild
antiputrescent liquors;  by which  means, either  the
eruption would be prevented, or the pustules would
be fewer in number; or at least disposed to suppu-
rate rather than mortify.  This method of  treating
the smallpox is countenanced by Ballonius, (Ephem.
& Epid. 1. i.) and  strongly recommended by Boer-
haave,  (Aph.  1393.)  who probably took  the first
hint from Rhazis;*  and if ever so bold a  practice
could be justified,  it was in such  a pestilential kind
as this, which destroyed almost all who were left to
nature, or managed in the common way. These con-
siderations, and the visible  good effects of  bleeding
and purging  largely in the predominant pleurisies,
gave just cause to expect some benefit  from a simi-
lar method in the cure of the smallpox; which  ap-
prehension was confirmed by the following accident.
   A young man, about twenty-six years of age, was
seized on Wednesday, May 21, between seven and
eight o'clock in the morning, with a coldness and
shivering, which was soon succeeded by  common
feverish complaints, and a pain under his left breast,
straitening respiration.  On Thursday morning, when

  * Si antequam apparere incipiant variolae, jegrum medicus
inveniat, minuatur sanguinis multitudo—Venter autem si strictus
fuerit, infusiones quotidie in potu sumantur, ex hoc  enim  aut
omnino prohibebitur pustularum egressio, aut si quid egressum
fuerit, parvum erit. Vid. Op. Venet. de Febr. cap. xviii. p. 10*. 
OF THE SMALLPOX.          179
I first visited him, imagining the case to be a pleu-
risy, I ordered him to be treated accordingly.  In
consequence  of which  seventeen  ounces of blood
were taken away immediately; twenty ounces more
in the afternoon, and fifteen on Friday morning; his
belly was kept open by clysters; his  drink was  bar-
ley water, to which oxymel  and nitre were added;
and sometimes a decoction of tamarinds; and leaves
of the opuntia were frequently applied to his side.
On Friday forenoon his pains were easier: but he
complained  greatly of an inclination to vomit, and
after drinking warm water threw up a considerable
quantity of bilious matter.  In  the afternoon an
eruption was discovered all over  his body,  which,
from the appearance of it on his face, and its being
attended with a ptyalism,  I  suspected  to be  the
confluent smallpox; and Dr. Segui, an eminent
physician of  Mahon,  who  was  consulted on  this
emergency,  confirmed  my opinion.  Our patient
was blooded thirteen  ounces on  Friday evening;
and afterwards drank  plenty of warm water,  in
order to carry off his vomiting; a clyster was  like-
wise injected, his head shaved, his whole skin clean-
ed and  washed. On Saturday morning the fever
being moderate, and the eruption thick all over him,
he took a mild purge, which procured six or seven
stools, and a grain of opium was given at bed time.
On Sunday morning, after a restless disturbed night,
his  spitting having ceased, he complained of his
throat being so  sore that he  could  scarce swallow,
and that the stitch had  moved from his left breast,
and fixed  about the  lower ribs  in the  right  side.
These  symptoms induced  us to  bleed  him a fifth
time, to the  quantity of eleven ounces, which  were 
180         OF THE SMALLPOX.
of a crimson colour, as all the rest of his blood had
been, without any sizy crust. In the afternoon  he
spit considerably, slept  sound, was free from pain;
and after a good night's rest, on Monday morning his
purge was repeated, which gave six or seven motions,
without checking the salivation.  After this all far-
ther evacuations were laid  aside (except clysters to
keep the belly open); the pustules, which were small
and numerous all over him, began to fill with good
matter,  and every  thing went on according to our
wish. On  Tuesday morning  his face swelled; but
abated on  Thursday afternoon, the  pustules begin-
ning to  dry; while his  right  foot swelled, and  be-
came painful, the ptyalism still continuing. Monday
morning, June 2, his skin being dry every where, he
took physic, which was repeated on the Friday fol-
lowing.  He soon gained strength, and still enjoys a
good state of health.
  The next patient whom I attended in this dis-
temper  was a Jew's daughter,  about five years  of
age, to  whom I was called on  Saturday  morning,
May 24, when the pustules were just beginning to
appear,  she having been feverish since Wednesday
morning. She was  thrice blooded by my  order,  in
the space  of  twenty-four  hours; four ounces being
taken away each time, she was  strictly kept to the
cooling  regimen;  clysters  were frequently inject-
ed; and she commonly took  a  paregoric  at night.
The pustules  were low, small, confluent, and attend-
ed with a considerable salivation. Her  face swelled
on Tuesday,  her hands  the day following, and  her
feet on  Friday. On Sunday, June  1,  the  pustules
began to dry on  her  face. On  Monday  she was 
OF THE SMALLPOX.          181
purged, and gradually grew strong. This and the
former patient were the first two in Mahon, who at
that time recovered of the smallpox.
   About  the end of May,  and the  beginning of
June, three or four adults were attacked with violent
feverish  symptoms;   and  as  they  never had the
smallpox, it was suspected that they had catched the
infection. They were all treated in the same manner
with the man, whose case has been  already related,
and in six or seven days got perfectly well without
signs of eruption. Nor did  any of them take the
smallpox afterwards. («)
   Elevated with this success I began to flatter my-
self that I had now hit upon a method of cure which
would generally answer: but it was not long before
experience convinced me  of my mistake.
   A  young man, about twenty-one, was  seized  at
noon, Monday, June  16,  with feverish symptoms,
and a violent pain in his stomach, loins, and left
breast. He lost fifteen ounces of blood on Tuesday
morning, seventeen ounces the same afternoon, and
fifteen on Wednesday morning. All this day he was
sick and  squeamish, though he  drank much  warm
water, and vomited up bile along with it. He passed
 an uneasy night,  with great pain at his stomach and
   (a) The same remedies have lessened the eruption where
they have not annihilated the smallpox.  It was from observing
these effects of those remedies that Dr.  Boerhaave and Dr.
 Hillary supposed a  specific existed which would destroy the
virus of that disease in the same manner that mercury is sup-
posed to destroy the virus of the venereal disease. For awhile
 the same medicine was supposed to act in that way in preparing
 the body for the smallpox by inoculation, but from similar ad-
 vantages having attended the use of purges and other evacua-
 tions, it appears that the mercury acts upon the body in a man-
 ner equally, mechanical. -,_,. 
182          OF THE SMALLPOX.

in the small of his back, and on Thursday morning
took a mild purgative, which operated-several times
upwards, and procured six or seven stools.  On Fri-
day morning the smallpox  began to appear in his
face; his stomach  was  somewhat  relieved, but the
pain in his back continued as bad as ever; his mouth
and throat were very sore; and I was informed that
he had been delirious all  night. Twelve ounces of
blood were drawn, which was red and florid, like all
the rest which had been taken. In the afternoon the
pain of his back being severe, the part was cupped
and  scarified, and a  clyster was  injected, which
brought away much hard stinking excrement. Not-
withstanding this he got no relief;  the  raving, vo-
miting, and restlessness increased, the pustules never
filled, his mouth was ulcerated, and his breath be-
came offensive to the smell. On Sunday morning he
lay quite  stupified and senseless; black spots ap-
peared in the middle of the  pustules;  and he ex-
pired that day about noon. Upon opening the body
nothing extraordinary was found, except a monstrous
large gall  bladder full of thick, green bile, and slight
signs of inflammation in the villous coat of the sto-
mach, the small guts, and pia mater. (F)
   A young lad of fifteen or sixteen years felt some
difficulty  of breathing, and a  pain  in his back on
Tuesday noon, June 24. He concealed his illness to
Thursday, when he complained much of heat, thirst,
and headach, sickness at his stomach, and a  painful
oppression on both sides of  the  thorax.  Eleven
ounces of blood were taken on Thursday morning,
  (b) It would seem from the morbid state of the gall bladder
and stomach, which occurred in the above case, that even the
smallpox in  Minorca partook of the bilious endemic of the
island. 
              OF THE SMALLPOX.          183
eight ounces that afternoon, and ten next  morning;
clysters and diluent drinks were used, &c. None of
his blood appeared  sizy; and before the last  ten
ounces were taken, something like the smallpox were
seen on his face.  But the eruption never advanced;
and on Saturday morning purples came out all over
him.  He then began to use the bark every two hours,
and took in all about six or seven  drachms.  In  the
mean time he was very delirious, vomited often, and
breathed with great difficulty. On Monday morning
he was  seized  with a hemorrhage  from  the  nose,
which continued till  seven at night, when he died
with black spots all over him.
   Soon after this a robust middle-aged man fell sick,
and was treated in the same way; on the second and
third days of the disease he lost forty-nine ounces of
blood; on the third  day the eruption began to  ap-
pear; on the fourth he bled some spoonfuls from the
nose; and purple spots broke out all over him. The
smallpox never rose; he  raved incessantly,  though
he was  afterwards twice  blooded,  and had blisters
applied.  He died on the eleventh day. (c)
   These unfortunate cases made me lay aside large
evacuations for the future, and content myself with
endeavouring to alleviate the symptoms in the com-
  (c) The editor suspects the author was restrained from bleed-
ing as much as these two cases required, by the presence of
petechia:,  and by the blood not putting on a sizy  appearance.
Hundreds have perished from the petechia being supposed to
mark a putrid, instead of a highly inflammatory disease,  and
thousands have perished from an ignorance that there are seve-
ral states of fever which indicate a higher and more dangerous
grade of disease than sizy blood, and in which the lancet has
been laid aside.  That more bleeding  was indicated in the two
last instances is  evident from the hemorrhages from the nose,
which took place in eachofthem. __^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 184          OF THE SMALLPOX.
 mon way, by moderate bleeding, blistering, anodynes,
 bark, and cordials, according as they were indicated.
 But in spite of all my attempts to cure them, more
 perished than recovered.  Nor could I find that any
 other practitioner had better success, until time had
 corrected the malignity of the disease. In short, this
 epidemical smallpox sufficiently verified the English
 proverb, " That there is one sort in which the nurse
 cannot  kill, and another which  the physician can
 never  cure."  And since it is a  matter of  mere
 chance, whether the best or the worst kind is got  in
 the natural way, it is  evident what great honour  is
 due to the memory of those gentlemen who first in-
 troduced the practice of inoculation into this king-
 do^, where the  safety and security of it has been
 confirmed by the experience of thirty years.
  This is all that  I have to offer to the public with
 regard to some of the most destructive distempers
 incident to mankind, whose nature and effects my
situation afforded many opportunities of observing. I
have related the failure as well  as the success of my
endeavours to cure them, with that fidelity required
 in affairs which so netrly concern  the  lives of our
fellow creatures;  and if these pages should be found
serviceable to others, by pointing out what will prove
hurtful or beneficial in similar cases, I  shall not only
think the pains which they cost me well bestowed,
but esteem it a singular happiness  that fortune put
it in my power to contribute so far to the welfare of
society.
    Hoc opus, hoc studium, parvi properemus et ampli,
    Si patriae volumus, si nobis vivere cari.        Hon.
FINIS. 
 
 
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