Distemper

“ All the physicians I have consulted, though very able, could never enter into my distemper; because not being persons of great learning beyond their own profession, they were unacquainted with these motions of the mind. Your fame pointed you out as the properest person to resolve my doubts, and I was determined to have somebody's opinion, which I could rest upon in all the varieties of fears and hopes, incident to so lingering a distemper. I hope I have been particular enough in describing the symptoms to allow you to form a judgment ”

“ And again when some malignant fever seizes upon the body and corrupts the currents of the blood, how do the poor disordered thoughts dance about wildly, driven by the lash of the distemper; how does the use of stimulants besot the intellect, so that every higher power is deadened ”

“ Alexander Russel, in his Natural History of Aleppo, gives the following description of it. “The distemper in itself is the most lamentable to which mankind are liable. The torments of heat, thirst and pain frequently unite in some patients; an unspeakable dejection and languor in others; and even those who escape with life do not cease to suffer from painful and putrid ulcers, the painful remains of the disease. ”

“ When the Distemper assaults the Stomach, the Symptoms are the very same, but the Pain is felt higher up, at the Pit of the Stomach. Almost every thing that is swallowed is cast up again; the Anguish of the tortured Patient is terrible, and the Raving comes on very speedily. This Disease proves mortal in a few Hours. ”

“ Distemper.—Distemper is caused by low keep, neglect, and changes of atmosphere. Symptoms of the disease are as follows:—Loss of spirit, activity, and appetite, drowsiness, dulness of the eyes, lying at length with nose to the ground, coldness of extremities, legs, ears, and lips, heat in head and body, running at the nose and eyes, accompanied by sneezing, emaciation, and weakness, dragging of hinder quarters, flanks drawn in, diarrhœa, sometimes vomiting. There are several receipts for this, the worst and most fatal of all diseases. One is better than another, according to the various stages. ”

“ a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined, and would have a fair title to a place in the bill of mortality, did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases—viz., that no physician can cure it. ”

“ He had not returned to his house above a week, and began to open his shop and carry on his trade, but the distemper broke out in his family, and within about five days they all died, except one; that is to say, himself, his wife, all his five children, and his two apprentices; and only the maid remained alive.
But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than we had reason to expect; for the malignity (as I have said) of the distemper was spent, the contagion was exhausted, and also the winter weather came on apace, and the air was clear and cold, with sharp frosts ”

“ For when our Bodies and Minds are much out of order at once, 'tis hard saying where the Distemper began; and the less material to know, when both must have their Cures apply'd, and it is to the advantage of neither, that they go on to hurt one another. ”

“ As long as the Distemper is situated in the more external Parts, the Patient, however painful his Situation may prove, is in no great Danger, if he be properly treated: but if by some Accident, some Error, or by any latent Cause, the Disease be repelled upon an internal Part or Organ, his Case is extremely dangerous. ”

“ Fits, as said above, however, usually indicate a fatal form of distemper.
“In cases of yellow distemper give an ounce of Peruvian bark and a glass of port-wine three times a day.... Whatever remedy of the many in favour is used good nursing is most essential, plenty of air during the day, and warmth at night. Benbow’s mixture gives an appetite, and thus helps to keep the hound’s strength. When the appetite is gone, the patient should be given any dainty morsel procurable. Artificial heating in the hospital is a mistake. ”

“ He is sure that, as long as that lasts, the sick Man cannot have a good Habit of Body; he finds that the Distemper arises sometimes, though not always, from a visible Cause; and he has tried the Goodness of such and such Medicines, in seemingly parallel Cases. He may be able therefore to give very excellent Advice, though he cannot, perhaps, dive into the Nature of the Distemper so well as another Man ”

“ The Distempers in America differ much from the European, not onely in the Signs of any Distemper, but also in the Cure; for when a Distemper cannot be cur’d by the prescribed Medicines, a Father or Mother sends for the Neighbors, to know if they can find any means to cure the Disease: Which Custom was anciently observ’d amongst the Greeks. ”

“ Relapses from distemper are even more serious than the first attack, and they are very apt to occur where the patient is allowed to go out, or move about too soon or too much. Stimulants—brandy and port wine—are very useful where the weakness is great, and champagne will often be kept down where water or broth would be rejected. ”

“ A third Mistake is, that they are not only considered as not dangerous, but are even supposed wholesome too. Doubtless a Man had better have a Cold than a more grievous Disease; though it must be still better to have neither of them. The most that can reasonably be said and admitted on this Point, is, that when a checked, or an obstructed Perspiration becomes the Cause of a Distemper, it is fortunate that it produces rather a Cold, than any very dreadful Disease, which it frequently does: though it were to be wished, that neither the Cause, nor its Effect existed. ”

“ For as the distraction of the mind, amongst other outward causes and perturbations, alters the temperature of the body, so the distraction and distemper of the body will cause a distemperature of the soul, and 'tis hard to decide which of these two do more harm to the other. ”

“ Nevertheless, the Use, the Habit of taking Medicines, is certainly no indifferent Matter: it is ridiculous, dangerous, and even criminal to omit them, when they are necessary, but not less so to take them when they are not wanted. A good Medicine taken seasonably, when there is some Disorder, some Disarrangement in the Body, which would in a short time occasion a Distemper, has often prevented it. ”

“ But in this great Choice it behoves us to select those which are most efficacious; for this Distemper, which is certainly the most tyrannical of any that besets a humane Body, may be sometimes conquered in its Infancy, which when got to a Head, is not to be managed by the greatest Efforts of humane Skill. ”

“ The distemper appears like a paralytic affection; the diseased animal staggers like a drunken man, falls down, and dies in a short time. This malady has attracted the attention of many men, and there are those who have preserved the lives of many horses. ”

“ And, how strange soever it may appear, it is true, that those who are most adventurous, seem to be in better spirits, and more free from complaints, than others who are inclined to keep within-doors. And indeed, such of my patients as have received the benefit of this treatment themselves, seldom permit those who are in the hardest part of the distemper, the eruptive, to keep much in the house ”

“ Some for Want of timely Care, through Ignorance or Obstinacy, will permit the Distemper to lurk about them so long, till at last it has reduced them to an irrecoverable, lingering, ill Habit of Body; especially if they live meanly, drinking too much Water, and eating too much salt Meat ”

“ Even those amongst the diseased who were not in the very last stages of the distemper, though they had been long confined to their hammocks, exerted the small remains of strength that were left them, and crawled up to the deck to feast themselves with this reviving prospect. ”

“ In some those swellings were made hard partly by the force of the distemper and partly by their being too violently drawn, and were so hard that no instrument could cut them, and then they burnt them with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the torment, and some in the very operation. ”

“ They carry off a Heap of Matter that may have been long amassed and corrupted in the Body; which, if not discharged, might have produced some Distemper; and, far from weakening the Body, such Purgings as these render it more strong, light and active. ”

“ But after the violence of the distemper is once abated, and the raging heat hath left the middle parts, the moisture begins to disperse itself again; and according to its natural motion, by a speedy conveyance into all the parts, it refreshes the entrails, softens and makes tender the dry and parched flesh. Very often also it causes sweat, and then the defect which occasioned thirst ceases; for the moisture leaving that part of the body wherein it was forcibly detained, and out of which it hardly made an escape, retires to the place where it is wanted. ”

“ This is a very dangerous Distemper; because, in the first Place, it chiefly attacks those Persons whose Temperament and Constitution are deprived of the ordinary Resources for Health and Recovery: in the second Place, because it is of a precipitate Nature, the Patient sometimes dying on the third Day, and but seldom surviving the seventh ”

“ It is true that shutting up of Houses had one Effect, which I am sensible was of Moment, namely, it confin’d the distemper’d People, who would otherwise have been both very troublesome and very dangerous in their running about Streets with the Distemper upon them, which when they were dilirious, they would have done in a most frightful manner ”

“ It is a Truth established by the first of Physicians, above two thousand Years past, and still further ratified by his Successors, that as long as a sick Person has a bad Humour or Ferment in his Stomach, his Weakness increases, in Proportion to the Food he receives. For this being corrupted by the infected Matter it meets there, proves incapable of nourishing, and becomes a conjunct or additional Cause of the Distemper. ”

“ It is senseless to hope to overcome some sorts of convulsive distempers, by holding the patient’s hands, and tying him with ropes, which will only increase the malady; whereas the softest remedies ought to be used: Violent methods may stop the distemper for a little time ”

“ Where, in the third place, I encounter a patient with no very prominent peculiarity, nor with symptoms demanding extraordinarily active measures, experience has taught me the propriety of cautiously combining the two methods—a mild aperient had best always a precede a tonic or a stimulant, in cases where there is a doubt of inflammation lurking in the system; and, recollecting the tendency our complicated organization has, when assailed by a distemper, [30] to become irritable, it is always as important to know when to withhold a remedy as when to prescribe one. ”

“ Neither are Purges without their Abuse and Danger; they determine the Course of all the Humours more violently to the tender afflicted Parts; the Body becomes exhausted; the Digestions fail; the Bowels are weakened, and sometimes even lightly ulcerated, whence incurable Diarrhœas or Purgings ensue, and prove fatal after many Years Affliction.
§ 343. If the Evacuations prove excessive, and the Distemper tedious, the Patient is likely to fall into a Dropsy; but if this is immediately opposed, it may be removed by a regular and drying Diet, by Strengthners, by Friction and proper Exercise. ”

“ The distinguishing Criterion or Mark of malignant Fevers is a total Loss of the Patient's Strength, immediately on their first Attack. They arise from a Corruption of the Humours, which is noxious to the very Source and Principle of Strength, the Impairing or Destruction of which is the Cause of the Feebleness of the Symptoms; by Reason none of the Organs are strong enough to exert an Opposition sufficiently vigorous, to subdue the Cause of the Distemper. ”

“ Tho I was sorry to find myself engag'd with so tedious a Distemper yet the Knowledge of it, set me very much at ease, by satisfying me that my former Coldness, proceeded not from any Defect of Temper or Genius, but from a Disease, to which any one may be subject. I now began to take some Indulgence to myself; studied moderately, & only when I found my Spirits at their highest Pitch, leaving off before I was weary, & trifling away the rest of my Time in the best manner I could. ”

“ These dreams and disorders are often forgotten; but the uneasy states of body, which then happen, leave vestiges of themselves, which increase in number and strength every day from the continuance of the cause, till at last they are ready to be called up in crowds upon slight occasions, and the unhappy person is unexpectedly, and at once, as it were, seized with a great degree of the hypochondriac distemper, the obvious cause appearing no ways proportionable to the effect. ”

“ I think now this very Answer is enough to give any Body a Shock if duly considered; for an ill Husband may, or ten to one if he does not, bring home to his Wife an ill Distemper, or at least Vexation and Disturbance. Besides as she takes the Child out of meer Necessity, her Food will be accordingly, or else very coarse at best ”

“ If the Distemper, at this Juncture, is not of many Days standing; if the Patient is a strong Person; if he has not as yet been plentifully bled; if there be still some Blood mixed with the Humour he expectorates; or if the Pulse be strong and hard, he should be bled immediately in the Arm; and constantly receive the Steam of hot Water and Vinegar by the Mouth, and drink plentifully of the Ptisan No. ”