Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/221

 PES

Cafes, efpcclally if the eruptions turn directly either livid or black ; but if they are red firft, and then gradually turn to a citron colour, the danger is lei's.

Thofe cartmcks alfo which arife in the face, heck, brenft, or arm-pits, are always accounted the worft, and ufually kill the patient.

The chief bufinefs of internal medicines, in this cafe, is to keep the patient in a conftant breathing fweat; and the bufi- nefs to be aimed chiefly at in external applications, is to pro- cure as foon as poffible, the feparation of the fphacclated parts from the found. Some, therefore, ufe fcariikation alone in this cafe, and that with very good fuccefs ; for, by making a great number of incifions in the corrupted parts, they let out the teftilentuil venom *hich corrupted the blood. Others only open thebiifters, and afterwards wafli the parts with a mix- ture of camphorated fpirit of wine and Venice treacle, and afterwards apply a maturating cataplafm, made of four fpoon- fuls of honey, three fpoonfuls of yeaft, the yolks of two ego-s, and half an ounce of foap, which are all to be mixed and applied warm to the part : others on the fame occafion ufe alfo, as a cataplafm, a mixture of two ounces of flour and half an ounce of vinegar, made with water or fkimmed milk into a proper form, and with an ounce of honey, and an ounce of powder of faflton, thofe ingredients are to be thoroughly mix- ed in, and the cataplafm to be applied warm, and renewed fre- quently, till the whole carbuncle feparates and falls off" from the found parts; and this is a much better and fafer method of extirpating the carbuncle^ than by cutting it out at once, by which operation fome have been known to have been killed upon the fpot. When the greateft part of the carbuncle is, however, of its own'accord ieparated from the found parts, the part where it adheres may always be fafely divided with the feat pel ; and this, indeed, is abfolutely necefiary. It' an ill-conditioned and luxuriant flefh grows internally in this cafe, either of itfelf, or from the extirpation of the car- buncle beino" made too foon, this muft ever be neceflarily en- tirely conlumed by the application either of the ^Egyptian ointment, or of the following : Take two fpoonfuls of honey, the yolks of two eggs, and of burnt alum, gentian, and birth- wort root in powder, each an ounce, make the whole into an ointment.

If the inflammation inclines the adjacent parts to a gangrene, it will be molt proper to ufe the following application : Take fait of wormwood, half an ounce of the herb fcordium, and of elder and chamomile-flowers each a handful, and of river water two pints and an half ; when thefe have been well boiled and {brained, mix with the liquor fix ounces of camphorated fpirit of wine, and two ounces of Venice treacle; and let this be applied hot to the parts by means of double linnenrags be- ing well wetted in it, and repeated frequently till the violence of the inflammation abates.

When the mortified flefti of the carbuncle has feparated itfelf from the found part, it is necefiary to clcanfe the ulcer per- fectly with digeflive ointments, left any of the matter remain there, and mix itfelf again by degrees with the blood; and this deterging of the ulcer is always to be continued till there remain no more fymptoms of the pe/iilential infection in the patient ; and after this the wound may be healed like other ulcers.

Jn the laft great plague In London, and in many other the like cafes, it was found the befl and happieft method with car- buncles to extirpate them at once by the actual cautery, or red hot iron, till the dead parts being burnt to the quick ones beneath, there were no relicts of the carbuncle left in the patient. And in fome cafes this may be a very proper me- thod, but there are others where prudence will not allow the ufe of it ; as where the patient is too much terrified by it. where the parts on which the carbuncle is fituated are of the utmoft tendernefs and confequence ; in thefe it will be readily determined, that the milder treatment before advifed muft be greatly preferable. Another famous remedy is the applying to the parts butter of antimony. The circumjacent parts being anointed with this, the diforder is prevented from fpreading, and an efchar is readily made, which divides the found from the corrupted parts, and at length wholly feparates and throws off the latter. There are not wanting, however, phyficians who are againft the ufe of butter of antimony on thefe occafions ; but where the actual cautery might have been applied, this furely is a fomething milder, and not much lefs effectual remedy. Heijlers^urg. p. 205. Pestilential difeafes. Many think that the caufe of all thefe is in the air, and is exhaled in vapours through the pores of the earth.

It is generally obferved, that peftllential d ; feafes feize firft the cattle ; which is not wonderful, fince they naturally carry their nofes near the ground, and fuck in the vapours as they rife, or feed on the herbage that is infected by them. It often happens, that the vapours do not rife fo high as to affect men at all ; but tho 5 in this cafe the plague would be naturally confined to the cattle alone, yet it gets among men by means of the food e2tcn by them, and before tainted with the con- tagion. There is no doubt but that the flefh of animals that die of difeafes, partakes fomewhat of the nature of thefe dif-

PET

cafes ; and when they are pe/Hlentla!, may fprea d a peflilcnc among us, which, perhaps, would otherwise ncv er have rea ill ed us.

The plague ohce begun, frequently joins itfelf with fucli other difeafes as the people it attacks are mod fuhjett to ; hence, ili the northern nations, where the fcurvy is frequent, it is often feen that the plague and fcurvy appear mixed. Thefe two difeafes, in their nature fomewhat agreeing, make each other the worfe and more violent; but, On the contrary, there are other difeafes, depending on fu'ch contrary caufes, that the plague, if the patient furvives, proves a cure to them. Dr. Hodges inftances the confumption, and the king's evil, as two difeafes of this kind ; which, tho' in themfeives of the mod terrible kind, and when in an advanced ftage ufually baffling all remedies, yet he faw perfons in the plague that lad raged in London, cured of both by the plague : the fymp- toms of the difeafe appearing more mild in thefe than in other cafes, and the patients at once recovering of both com- plaints.

He alfo tells us of fome people terribly affliaed with the gout for many years,- who being at that time affefled by the contagion, had the plague with lefs violent fymptoms than others ; and were, on its going off, cured of the gout alfo.

A fever is ufually a concomitant fymptom of the plague, but it is not an infeparable fign of it. A palpitation of the heart is another of the ufual, but not conftant fymptoms ; where this comes on, it is ufually very violent, and often is fo leud, that it may be heard at a conliderable diftance. The plague is lefs contagious than is ufually fuppofed, and thofe who efcape the terror of it, often efcape it wholly. Hodges gives us an inftance of a poor woman who had the plague foon after her delivery, and fuckled her young child as file lay ill of it. She had a carbuncle on her bfeaft near the nipple which the child fucked at, and yet the mother recover- ed, and the child never caught the infeaion at all ; tho' this feemed a circumflance under which there could be no efcap- ing.

Hodges, treating of the prognoftics of an imminent plague, tells us, that one very remarkable one is the change of chronic diftempers in general into acute ones, and thofe attended with very violent fymptoms ; and a murrain among the cattle happening at the fame time, form together a prognoftic not eafily to be got over, without the terrible fequcl of a general pe/iilence.

If the plague is very terrible at its firfl appearance, it never is oflong duration j and on the contrary, when it comes, from a fcarce perceptible beginning, more and more violent, it is generally of a long continuance. What time it takes from the beginning to the height, the fame it takes from the height to the final period.

The mod fatal fymptoms in the lad plague in London, and which ufually prefaged death very near, were hemorrhages from the nofe or ears, fluxes of the mendrua in women, diar- rhoeas, dyfenteries, and greennefs and blacknefsof the ex- crements.

The firft fweats coming on without giving eafe, and low* nau- feoufnefs continuing afterwards, are alfo terrible fymptoms. The pulfe and urine, which are the two great things to judge by in mod illnefl'es, in thefe prefage' nothing at all. The pulfe is fallacious in the highed degree, and the urine often appears as well in the height of the plague, as while the perfon was in health.

Among the fcveral prefcrvatives for particular places, the two bed are the burning fweet-fcented woods in the time, and fome of the refins, fuch as frankinfence and the like ; the other is the firing a number of cannon every mornin^ and evening. Hodges de Ped.

PETAL, among botanids, that part of the (lower which confti- tutes the corolla : it generally diftinguiib.es itfelf by its lingular colour.

When the corolla confids only of one petal, its lower tubular partis called the tube; its upper expanded part, the limb: when feveral petals go to make up the flower, the narrow part where they are inferted is called unguis ; their broader part to- wards the end, bratlea. See Corolla.

PETARDEER, in the military art, is he who loads, fixes, and fires the fetard.

PETASITES, butterbitrr, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the charades of which are thefe : The flower is of the flofculous kind, being compofed of many fmall flofcules divided into feveral fegments at their edges, and placed on the embryo fruit, and all furrounded by a fort of a cylindric cup, divided into many fegments. The feeds, when ripe, are winged with down, and the flowers of this plant appear be- fore the leaves, early in the fpring.

The fpecies of petajites, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: i. The great or common petafites. 2. The lcfi'er^- tafites, with white flowers and angular leaves. 3. The fmall petajites, with colt's-foot leaves. 4. The leffcr Alpine peta- jites, with fmall angular leaves. Ttmrn. Lift. p. 450. The common butterlmrr is famous as a cordial and alexiphar- mic. It has been made an ingredient in moft of the com- pound medicines of that intention. The plague- water of the 3 old