good Purpose, at which they aim; but in a general and mechanical Way they prescribe such Medicines as are in Fashion, and often given, tho’ perhaps in different Circumstances, by the leading Gentlemen of the Profession.
But because it very frequently happens, that the active and governing Principles of the Blood are unable by their own native Strength to subdue this powerful Enemy, the Assistance of the Physician is demanded where his Skill and Abilities will be fully tried. It often happens that in this second Stage of the Disease, the Glands of the Throat called the Tonsills are much inflam’d and hinder the Deglutition or Swallowing of Food and Liquors for the Patient’s Support, and sometimes to that Degree that they entirely stop the Passage of the Gullet, which will admit no Descent of Aliments to the Stomach; and sometimes this Suffering is protracted beyond two Days successive, and should this Symptom continue much longer it would evidently prove fatal: But I never saw any Person suffocated or starved by this Swelling and Inflammation of the Throat; for by the Assistance of softning, cooling and astringent Gargarisms and Injections of the same Kind by the Syringe, and in more difficult Cases by opening the Veins under the Tongue, or by the Course of Nature in such Inflammations, and the subsiding of the Swellings themselves, after such a Period of Time, the
