On a new and successful treatment for febrile and other diseases, through the medium of the cutaneous surface. Illustrated with cases / [William Taylor].

  • Taylor, William, active 1850.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new and successful treatment for febrile and other diseases, through the medium of the cutaneous surface. Illustrated with cases / [William Taylor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was expected to use regular therapeutical means; but not to order the patient to be rubbed. And thus, with all the startling facts that were accumu- lating under my eyes, I did not once expect to gain opinions in favour of my seemingly irregular practice, the more so, as my own partner, who heard perpetually of the cures, invariably re- garded them as the happy consequences of purges, diuretics, &c. Still, as already stated, a forcible impression having been made on my mind that fever was cured by the skin, and that a healthy action of that organ was producible by rubbing it to saturation, with some fatty or greasy substance, I set to work, in order to ascertain what form of ointment was most likely to be efficacious. At first, common oil was used, but without benefit ; then lard, with a little more advantage, on account of its greater consistence; but this also passed quickly off the skin, and was mostly absorbed by the bedclothes. It then occurred to me that a much firmer ointment would be less liable to absorp- tion by the bed-linen, that it would more readily be taken up by the skin, and be rubbed in more easily. A variety of further experiments were accordingly made: proceeding from oil at the one extremity, to wax at the other, and attempting to