Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/204

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

136

to his legs. The state of his bowels became so alarming, that on Sunday the eighteenth, it was judged necessary to apply a blister, with a view of allaying internal inflammation, supposed to have existed from an early stage of the disorder. There had indeed been some grounds for supposing, that it was abated by more gentle methods; but it seemed to recur with additional violence, and to require the most active practice to keep it under, which the constitution and tender age of the patient would admit. In consequence of this application, aided by a very judicious and delicate medical treatment in other respects, the original disease, by the end of the week, was to all appearance in a course of being essentially relieved. But new evils were on the point of presenting themselves; for on Friday the twenty-third, we first perceived his legs, though the pain in them was much less than it had been, beginning to swell. This aggravation of his sufferings was continually on the increase; and by Sunday the twenty-fifth, it