1 11
2 to the above-mentioned custom. All was legally signed by the
3 parties and witnesses. I caused the troublesome spectators to
4 withdraw, as by their thronging around the bed they occasioned
5 disturbance and confusion, and only permitted four of them to
6 remain as attendants. Then I was able to reflect, and found
7 that the patient had been wrongly treated by his former phy-
8 sicians, and so reduced to a most pitiable condition.
9 They had copiously bled him unnecessarily, and, led by a false
10 diagnosis, they had prescribed him a quantity of decoctions and
11 purgatives. I learned from the attendants, that four days pre-
12 viously the patient was constipated, which occasioned him to fall
13 into a state of insensibility. I found it necessary to commence
14 my treatment with a lenitive clyster, which did not fail to have
15 its good effect ; I afterwards ordered the room to be aired,
16 sprinkled the patient’s face with vinegar mixed with rose-water,
17 and ordered his feet to be warmed by friction.
18 At ten in the evening I applied a blister on the nape, and
19 administered a compound opiate powder, which was given in a
20 strong dose. I put it into his mouth, rinsed it from his tongue,
21 after which he began to perspire, and passed a tolerably quiet
22 night. The beneficial result was owing to the properly propor-
23 tioned mixture of the opium, as I afterwards experienced in many
24 cases, whilst a lesser dose (1 — 2 grains opium) made the malady
25 worse. By this process the patient was saved. On the day of
26 the recovery of the bishop, I had an opportunity to cure another
27 patient, which occasioned a great sensation. The sexton of the
28 patriarch was troubled with a tertian-ague. It was the fever day ,
29 and the patient complained of feeling dizzy, want of appetite, a
30 bitter taste in his mouth ; he looked very ill, and the white of his
31 eyes was rather of a yellow colour. I ordered him an emetic, he
32 vomited, and a long tape-worm was expelled, which I drew until
33 it broke. On giving him a second dose of solution of tartar-
34 emetic, it operated, and caused the ejection of the rest of the
35 worm by an evacuation. I ordered the pieces of the ejected
36 worm to be washed. I measured them afterwards, and they were
37 fifty-two yards long. I found among them three heads, and I