BURNING, among surgeons, denotes the application of an actual cautery, that is, a red-hot iron instrument, to the part affected: otherwise denominated cauterization. The whole art of physic among the Japanese lies in the choice of places proper to be burnt: which are varied according to the disease. In the country of the Mogul, the colic is cured by an iron ring applied red-hot about the patient's navel. Certain it is, that some very extraordinary cures have been performed accidentally by burning. The following case is recorded in the Memoirs of the academy of sciences by M. Homberg. A woman of about 35 became subject to a head-
Burning. ach, which at times was so violent that it drove her out of her senses, making her sometimes stupid and foolish, at other times raving and furious. The seat of the pain was in the forehead, and over the eyes, which were inflamed, and looked violently red and sparkling; and the most violent fits of it were attended with nausea and vomitings. In the times of the fits, she could take no food; but out of them, had a very good stomach. Mr Homberg had in vain attempted her cure for three years with all kinds of medicines: only opium succeeded; and that but little, all its effect being only the taking off the pain for a few hours. The redness of her eyes was always the sign of an approaching fit. One night, feeling a fit coming on, she went to lie down upon the bed; but first walked up to the glass with the candle in her hand, to see how her eyes looked: in observing this, the candle set fire to her cap: and as she was alone, her head was terribly burnt before the fire could be extinguished. Mr Homberg was sent for, and ordered bleeding and proper dressings: but it was perceived, that the expected fit this night never came on; the pain of the burning wore off by degrees; and the patient found herself from that hour cured of the headache, which had never returned in four years after, which was the time when the account was communicated. Another case, not less remarkable than the former, was communicated to Mr Homberg by a physician at Bruges. A woman, who for several years had her legs and thighs swelled in an extraordinary manner, found some relief from rubbing them before the fire with brandy every morning and evening. One evening the fire chanced to catch the brandy she had rubbed herself with, and slightly burnt her. She applied some brandy to her burn; and in the night all the water her legs and thighs were swelled with was entirely discharged by urine, and the swelling did not again return.