Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/220

 P E S

PES

on the outfide ; its leaves refemble thofe of a plum-free. There are four forts of the bark, the reddifh, the yellowifh, the curling, and the whitifh. The two firft are the beft kinds ; the curled is got from young trees, and the white foon becomes tnfipid Tile beft fort grows about the city of Loxa. The Indians flice of? the bark from the trees and carry it to houfes to be dried a. M. de la Condamine b fays this tree is called cajarilla, and is very different from the qui*a qub:a. [ a See Phil. Tranf. N°. 446. feet. I. b Mem de l'Acad. des Scienc. 1738.3 PERYGUAi in botany, a name given by fome authors to a plant of the caffine kind, called the cqpoberry bufh, and by fome the Paraguay tea. Dale Pharm. p. 310. PERYSIAS, a word ufed by authors to exprefs wine of the laft

year's vintage. PES (Cyd.) — Pes lemi', in botany, a name by which fome au- thors exprefs the alchymilla, or ladies mantle. J. Bamin, V. II. p. 3981. Chebraus. 172. PESCE vacca, the cow-fjh, a name given by Auguflino Scilla to a kind of dog-fifh, not defcribed by any author before his time, but accurately drawn by him in his book on petrifactions, on occafion of its teeth: many (pedes of the g!ejjbp,eira of the ifland of Malta, and other places, being plainly the fame with the teeth in the jaws of this fifh. PESSOMANTIA, jiitKnpanux, in antiquity, the fame with

cleromentia, which fee. PESTERABLE, in our old writers, an epithet for fuch wares as pejler, or take up much room in afhip. Stat. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 14. Blount, Ctvel, PESTILENTIAL buboes. By buboes in feftiler.tial cafes, the writers in phyfic not only exprefs fuch tumours as arife under the arms, under the ears, and in the groin; but comprehend under this term thofe alfo which are fituated in the neck, breaft, arms, legs, and other flefhy parts of the body, which fwell and inflame in pejlilential fevers, and feem the conse- quences of the endeavours of nature to throw out the peftife- rous matter which lay concealed in the body. Pejlilential buboes are diftinguifbed from other tumors by their happening at a time and in conjunction with the plague, and from their being accompanied by the fymptoms proper to that difeafe. Thefe tumours appear fometimes fooner, fometimes later, in the courfe of the difeafe ; in fome they appear before the patient knows he has the infection, and in others two or three days elapfe before their appearance: they are very fef- dom known to appear later than on the fourth day, and are fometimes joined with carbuncles; but tho' the buboes fre- quently appear without thefe, yet the carbuncles never appear without tumors.

Perfons who have thefe tumors come on without any very bad fymptoms, and have them maturate fpeedily, are in ge- neral the fooneft freed from the diftemper, infomucb, that the beft method of giving relief in this terrible difeafe, con- fifts in the carefully promoting and keeping up the buboes and tumors. All diflcutient or difperfing medicines are carefully to be avoided, and the phyfician's bufinefs is to afflft nature in the throwing out, and moft fpeedily bringing thefe tumors to fuppuration.

The patient is to be confined to his bed on the firft appearance of thefe, and with the help of internal medicines proper to haften the fuppuration of tumors, the parts affected are to be rubbed pretty ftrongly with the hands or cloths, and external, maturating and emollient cataplafms to be applied; of this kind is that of yeaft, fait, and muftard-feed, all mixed toge- ther, or of yeaft alone : by means of thefe the tenfe parts are relaxed and itimulated, and the fuppuration greatly promoted; as alfo by the cataplafms of roafted onions, with Venice-treacle and butter ; or of crumb of bread, with milk and faflton. Plaiflers are alfo very ufeful on fome occafions, in thefe cafes, as the frequent renewal of the cataplafms expofes the patient too much to the external air, and thefe are not attended with that inconvenience.

The moft famed plaiflers on thefe occafions are that of Barbet, made of the diachylon, with the gum and mucilage plaifter, of each half a pound ; muffard feed in powder, three ounces ; bauTicon, four ounces, all mixed and made into a plaifter : and that of Dr. Hodges, made of three ounces of oxycroceum, an ounce of galbanum, the fame quantity of gum caranna, and two ounces of black pitch, reduced to the confidence of a plaifter. k

This may be ufcJ like the former ; nor is that plaifter to be efteemed a trifle, which is made of honey, flour, and the yolks of eggs.

Bliftering and cupping, fo much ufed by the antients to forward fuppuration, are entirely laid afide by the modern phyftcians : but the celebrated German phyfician, Beintern, aflerts, that pejlilential buboes have been very frequently dif- cufled, without being brought to fuppuration, by the applica- tion of warm afhes alone ; and that with very happy fuccefs : and he obferves, that in this cafe the pejlilential venom is not abforbed into the blood again, but is attracted and carried off fcy the afhes.

In fome cafes in this terrible diftemper, the tumor comes to foppuradon in a few days s in others it is fome weeks before

it can be brought to it, by all that ran be done. When thoroughly fuppurated, it is to be opened with the fcalpel, if it does not break of itfelfj and after thus opening, when the matter has teen difcharged, it mull be well clcanfed. The beft digeftive in this cafe is the common ointment ufed on that occafion, mixed with a fmall quantity of Venice treacle, and b;dfam of fulphur made with oil of turpentine. At each dref- fing the matter is to be gently fqucczed out of the abfeefs, and the ointment applied without tents, unlefs the opening prove very narrow ; then applying over all a plaifter of the common diachylon, or of honey and flower, the whole may be bound on, and this drefling continued till it is a proper time to heal with fome vulnerary balfarn.

There has been much difpute between the phyficians of dif- ferent ages about the proper time for opening buboes of this kind; fome have been for making an immediate incifion, and others even for extirpating the whole fwelling, as foon as it appeared, by means of the knife; but the firft: of rhefe me- thods has been found to be frequently attended with the ill con- fequences of ill conditioned nftula-, ftiffhefs, and |ofs of mo- tion in the limb, and fometimes even with mortifications and gangrene ; and the other too harfb, and dangerous in many parts of the body : and the prefent practice univerfally difallows both methods, being always for bringing thefwelling to fuppurate. Heijler's Surg p. 2CO.

The poifon of the matter of thefe fores has been nicely and boldly enquired into, as to its nature and properties, by Dr. Alpranus of Prague, in the time of the plague there in 1680. This gentleman having launced a pejlilential boyle, collected the matter from it, and putting it into a retort, luting the junctures with the receiver very clofely and exactly, and apply- ing by proper gradation the feveral degrees of fire ; at firft there came over a water, then a more fat and vifcid liquor, of an oily nature; and laftly, there appeared in the neck of the retort, a fait.

The fire being taken away, and the vefTels copied, the Doctor 'prepared himfelf for the opening of them by flopping his ears with cotton, his noftrils with peflarics, and his mouth with pieces of fpunge, all foaked in vinegar and Venice treacle, The moment the veflels were opened, however, there pro- ceeded out of them a ftench more horrible than can be con- ceived, and ftriking theDoctor with an univerfal trembling, in fpite of his defence. He proceeded, however, to break the neck of the retort, and feparating the foetid fait from it, he ventured himfelf to tafte it, and defired Mr. Reihel, the perfon from whom the matter was obtained, to do the fame : it was found to have a moft dreadfully piercing acrid tafte, which the Doctor compares to that of aqua regia.

Hence he infers, that the moft terrible fymptoms of this ratal difeafe are to be accounted for : the ftomach, wounded by fo acrid a juice as this mingled among the blood, naufeates food, and is afflicted with continual vomitings: the guts, infefted by the fame unwelcome gueft, are thrown into violent per- turbations, whence arife thofe diarrhoeas which often accom- pany the patient to his death; and from the horribly acrid quality of this juice, it is ho wonder that fuch piercing pains are found in the buboes^ and fuch burnings in the carbuncles that attend this difeafe.

Hence alfo, as he obferves, it is, that fudorifics are the beft remedies, fince they allay the acrimony, and tend to expel the venomous juices thro' the pores. In this ficknefs at Prague this gentleman obferved, that almoft all who fweat plentifully recovered, whereas thofe who did not fweat, were moftly taken oft'. Hook's Philofoph. Col left. N°. 2. p. 18. Pestilential carbuncle. This is an inflammation that arifes in time of peftitential. contagion, with a veficle or blifter, al- moft like thofe which are caufed by burning; but this inflam- mation generally terminates in a mortification, and putrefies the adjacent parts down to the bone, all about becoming as black as a coal.

This kind of inflammation always breaks out very fpeedily, fometimes even in an hour or two, attended with the moft in- tolerable heat and pain. On opening it, there is always difcharged a darkifh limpid or watry fames, and the flefh un- derneath is of a black colour, the mortification having thea already feized it, and fpreading more and more by decrees ; but in thofe who recover, the mortification at length "ftops, and the putrefied flefh fuppurates, and parts from the found. The fize and number of thefe inflammations in the fame pa- tient, are both very various and uncertain; there is no part of the body but what they may infeit, and they are generally, if not always, accompanied by buboes.

The immediate caufe of thefe is a violent inflammation, ex- cited in the blood by the pejlilential venom ; and the inflamma- tion, from the nature of the cafe, is ever fpeedy, and always followed by sphacelation and corruption of the parts. What is remarkable is, that the parts and juices do not fuppurate into matter, as is ufual in other tumors, but whatever is in- ternally corrupted, feparates and entirely falls off: for the in- flamed parts fuppurate at the margin of the inflammation, fo that if the patient does not die fuddenly, the fphacelated parts are feparated, and naturally thrown off". Carbuncles are always a worfe fymptom than buboes in thefe

cafes,