DYSENTERY (See MEDICINE-Index, Encycl.). For the cure of this disease we have the following simple prescription by Dr Perkins and Dr B. Lynde Oliver, of the State of Massachusetts in North America.
Saturate any quantity of the best vinegar with common marine salt; to one large table-spoonful of this solution add four times the quantity of boiling water; let the patient take of this preparation, as hot as it can be swallowed, one spoonful once in half a minute until the whole is drunk: this for an adult. The quantity may be varied according to the age, size, and constitution of the patient. If necessary, repeat the dose once in six or eight hours. Considerable evacuations I conceive (says Dr Perkins) to be not only unnecessary, but injurious, as they serve to debilitate and prolong the disease. A tea of plantain, or some other cooling, simple drink, may be useful; and if a thirst for cyder be discovered, it may be gratified. Carefully avoid keeping this preparation in vessels partaking of the qualities of lead or copper, as the poison produced by that means may prove dangerous.
The success of the remedy depends much on preparing and giving the dose as above directed. — The simplicity of this treatment renders it the more valuable, as all persons have it in their power to avail themselves of its use.
Dr Perkins says, that he has found it useful in agues, diarrhoeas, and the yellow fever.