seldome, much farther: And while the Decision is thus suspended, all that the Physician has to do, is to order Clysters to be often injected; to apply Vesicatories, so as to keep two always at work, to continue each Night the quieting Draughts, to support Nature by generous and operative Succours and wait her Steps for a favourable Issue.
If it be demanded, whether in such Cases, purging Medicines ought to be administred to carry off the Putrefaction, and so bring the Contest to a happy Conclusion; I answer, I can by no means approve of that Practice: I have formerly made Tryal of it, but I must acknowledge, I never once saw any good Event. The purging Remedies, instead of carrying off the putrid Humours, diminish the Patient’s Strength; and Nature before almost exhausted, being more enfeebled by this unseasonable Evacuation, always sunk beneath her Burthen; and I have known that other Physicians have had no better Success, and it would be wonderful if they should; for while the malignant Matter is crude and indigested, no evacuating Medicine can disengage and free the Blood from it. It may waste the Spirits by putting them upon insuperable Tasks, and weaken the Patient by expelling the wholsome, instead of noxious Humours, but cannot separate from the Mass the poisonous matter, till it is disposed and prepared by Digestion, for such a Separation, according to the established Maxim, cocta non cruda
