_April_ 12th. Mrs. H----, of L----, AEt. 61. In _December_ last this
Lady, then upon a visit in London, was attacked with severe symptoms
of peripneumony. She was treated as an asthmatic patient, but finding
no relief, she made an effort to return to her home to die. In her way
through this place, the latter end of December, I was desired to see
her. By repeated bleedings, blisters, and other usual methods, she was
so far relieved, that she wished to remain under my care. After a
while she began to spit matter and became hectic. With great
difficulty she was kept alive during the discharge of the abscess, and
about the end of March she had swelled legs, and unequivocal symptoms
of dropsy in the chest. Other diuretics failing, on the 12th of April
I was induced to give her the Digitalis in small doses. The relief was
great and effectual. After an interval of fifteen days, some swellings
still remaining in the legs, I repeated the medicine, and with such
good effect, that she lost all her complaints, got a keen appetite,
recovered her strength, and about the end of May undertook a journey
of fifty miles to her own home, where she still remains in perfect
health.