On Regimen In Acute Diseases   

the draughts at that season. Fevers of this description are apt to
be protracted, and to have determinations, if the inferior extremities
be cold, about the ears and neck, or, if these parts are not cold,
to have other changes; they have epistaxis, and disorder of the
bowels. But in cases of fever attended with nausea, or distention of
the hypochondria, when the patients cannot lie reclined in the same
position, and the extremities are cold, the greatest care and
precaution are necessary; nothing should be given to them, except
oxymel diluted with water; no draught should be administered, until
the fever abate and the urine be concocted; the patient should be laid
in a dark apartment, and recline upon the softest couch, and he should
be kept as long as possible in the same position, so as not to toss
about, for this is particularly beneficial to him. Apply to the
hypochondrium linseed by inunctions, taking care that he do not
catch cold when the application is made; let it be in a tepid state,
and boiled in water and oil. One may judge from the urine what is to
take place, for if the urine be thicker, and more yellowish, so much
the better; but if it be thinner, and blacker, so much the worse;
but if it undergo changes, it indicates a prolongation of the disease,
and the patient, in like manner, must experience a change to the worse
and the better. Irregular fevers should be let alone until they become
settled, and, when they do settle, they are to be treated by a
suitable diet and medicine, attending to the constitution of the
patient.
9. The aspects of the sick are various; wherefore the physician
should pay attention, that he may not miss observing the exciting
causes, as far as they can be ascertained by reasoning, nor such
symptoms as should appear on an even or odd day, but he ought to, be
particularly guarded in observing the odd days, as it is in them, more
especially, that changes take place in patients. He should mark,
particularly, the first day on which the patient became ill,
considering when and whence the disease commenced, for this is of
primary importance to know. When you examine the patient, inquire into
all particulars; first how the head is, and if there be no headache,
nor heaviness in it; then examine if the and sides be free of pain;
for if the hypochondrium be painful, swelled, and unequal, with a
sense of satiety, or if there be pain in the side, and, along with the
pain, either cough, tormina, or belly-ache, if any of these symptoms
be present in the hypochondrium, the bowels should be opened with
clysters, and the patient should drink boiled hydromel in a hot state.
The physician should ascertain whether the patient be apt to faint
when he is raised up, and whether his breathing be free; and examine
the discharges from the bowels, whether they be very black, or of a
proper color, like those of persons in good health, and ascertain
whether the fever has a paroxysm every third day, and look well to
such persons on those days. And should the fourth day prove like the
third, the patient is in a dangerous state. With regard to the
symptoms, black stools prognosticate death; but if they resemble the
discharges of a healthy person, and if such is their appearance
every day, it is a favorable symptom; but when the bowels do not yield
to a suppository, and when, though the respiration be natural, the
patient when raised to the night table, or even in bed, be seized with
deliquium, you may expect that the patient, man or woman, who
experiences these symptoms, is about to fall to fall into a state of
delirium. Attention also should be paid to the hands, for if they
tremble, you may expect epistaxis; and observe the nostrils, whether
the breath be drawn in equally by both; and if expiration by the
nostrils be large, a convulsion is apt to take place; and should a
convulsion occur to such a person, death may be anticipated, and it is
well to announce it beforehand.
10. If, in a winter fever, the tongue be rough, and if there be
swoonings, it is likely to be the remission of the fever. Nevertheless
such a person is to be kept upon a restricted diet, with water for
drink, and hydromel, and the strained juices, not trusting to the