I asked one day how many grains I should prepare, and
was told to give half a teaspoonful. The difference of climate
must, I imagine, make a difference in the effect of this drug, or
the practice of the old and new world could hardly differ so
widely as it does in the use of it. Anstey, speaking of the Bath
physicians, says,
"No one e'er viewed
Any one of the medical gentlemen stewed."
But I can vouch, upon my own experience, that no similar
imputation lies against the gentlemen who prescribe large
quantities of calomel in America. To give one instance in proof
of this, when I was afterwards in Montgomery county, near
Washington, a physician attended one of our neighbours, and
complained that he was himself unwell. "You must take care of
yourself, Doctor," said the patient; "I do so," he replied, "I
took forty grains of calomel yesterday, and I feel better than I
did." Repeated and violent bleeding was also had recourse to in
the case of my son, and in a few days he was able to leave his
room, but he was dreadfully emaciated, and it was many weeks
before he recovered his strength.
As the heat of the weather increased we heard of much sickness
around us. The city is full of physicians, and they were all to
be seen driving about in their cabs at a very alarming rate. One
of these gentlemen told us, that when a medical man intended
settling in a new situation, he always, if he knew his business,
walked through the streets at nights, before he decided.
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