Page:A dissertation on the puerperal fever (1789).djvu/17

 we are now treating of. In consequeuce of this idea, he advises venesection, and recommends it from his own experience. But from the uniformity of the symptoms, in the many cases he relates, it has been supposed that it was a disease sui generis, then epidemic.

Dr. Kirkland, who has written on this disease, recommends the peruvian bark, and, if the diarrhœa should become very alarming, he does not hesitate to add small doses of laudanum to the bark. He warmly recommends, after Mr. White, the columbo root, as an admirable remedy to remove the irritability of the intestinal canal.

Thus much have I been able to gather from authors, and from the lectures given in this university, respecting the nature and cure of this destructive disease; and have now to add a few observations I have made in my own practice in Canada.

Is it not reasonable to suppose, that, in different climates, the puerperal fever wears a different aspect? In our cold climate, there most commonly prevails that state of the arterial system, which is known by the name of diathesis phlogistica; and I have generally found, that puerperal patients bear bleeding better than we are led to suppose, from reading these English authors.

Dr. Leak's description of the disease comes the nearest to what I have observed in Canada of any of the English authors.

Dr. Tissot's history of the disease agrees with most of the cases I have met with, and his mode of treatment seems well