_Of the Morbis Pedicularis_, or, _Lousy Disease_.
It is an unhappy circumstance on board a ship, when a man is afflicted with this filthy distemper; and such a man is as pernicious to a ship’s crew, as a rotten sheep in a whole herd. If it proceeds from a lazy filthiness of body, a gentle washing with a good scrubbing-brush, and rubbing the back with the boatswain’s towel,[12] is a pretty amusement enough to circulate the blood and to excite cleanliness. But sometimes this disorder has its seat in the very blood itself, and that filthy vermin will breed under the skin, and eat their way through, by clusters.—I have opened boils as big as pigeons eggs, from which large bunches of lice have followed the lancet.
These patients are in every respect wretched, and are actually objects of pity. They generally have a pale, sullen, heavy, half-starved, cowardly, in short a lousy, look; habitually lazy, and seem to be void of every manly passion; neither good nor ill-natured; and are stimulated by nothing but pusillanimity; and as they seem neither sick nor well, I say they are objects both of pity and contempt; though the latter is unjust, because they cannot help it.
The reason of all this wretchedness is because the blood is degenerated into a lifeless mass of pituitous corruption; and wants that spirit which gives a relish to life. Hence we see in this one instance, how much the mental faculties depend upon the state of the body.
In order to cure this unhappy patient, the blood must be purified, and the whole system stimulated to a brisk circulation. Nothing less than mercury will do the one, and stimulants together with exercise, effect the other.
In the first place give him the following medicine.
_Take ipecacuanha_ (S) _one scruple; jalap_ (R) _ten grains; calomel_, (N) _four grains; make it into a draught or bolus._
Let him take this in a morning upon a fasting stomach, and let him drink plenty of chamomile tea after every vomiting; then give him the following electuary.
_Take lenitive electuary_ (I.) _two ounces; black pepper powdered, two drachms; calomel_ (N), _one scruple; mix them._
Of this let him take every morning one tea spoonful; upon which let him rub himself all over with the mercurial cloth as follows, till he comes by this exercise into a breathing sweat, at least for an hour; and for the rest of the day keep him in continual exercise.