THE following case being very singular has induced me to lay it before
the Royal Society, and beg the favour to do it through your means.
Although numerous instances are related in the records of medicine, of
the great danger in interrupting nature in her operations, there is not
one (so far as I know), in which more violent and extraordinary effects
have been produced, than in the following.
It may happen also, that this instance may be of service in
ascertaining the virtue of the medicine in intermittents, when in the
hands of men of judgment.
On the 28th of June 1757. Mary Alexander, aged 31 years, of the
parish of Whitechapel, was brought into the London hospital, having
a mortification in both hands, which reached about an inch and half
above the wrists. All her toes, and about an inch of one foot beyond
the last joint, were mortified; her nose was also intirely destroyed
by a mortification; and all these happened at the same time. Upon
inquiry into the cause of this misfortune, I found, that on Monday
the 30th of May she was seized with a quotidian ague, which usually
began about three of the clock in the afternoon, and lasted near two
hours; which was succeeded by a hot fit, and then a violent sweat. And
in this manner she was afflicted for seven days without any material
alteration; when, being informed by a neighbour, of a person, who had
an infallible remedy for the cure of an ague, she applied to him. He
brought her two phials, containing about an ounce and half each, of a
pale yellowish liquor; one of which he directed her to take directly,
promising, that she should have no return of the fit of consequence;
and that, if she had any small return, the second bottle should cure
her effectually. In consequence of which, she took one dose, which
was at the time the cold fit had been on about a quarter of an hour:
she had no sooner swallowed it, but, as she says, her stomach was on
fire, and felt as if she had swallowed the strongest dram possible.
The cold fit left her instantly; but she was immediately seized with
so violent a fever, as to make her burn, and be extremely thirsty,
all the following night; much more so than ever she had been before,
till the next morning, when a sweat a little relieved her from the
violent heat. When she rose in the morning, she was much troubled with
a great itching in the hands, feet, and nose; and soon after all those
parts began to feel numbed, or, as she describes it, as if her hands
and feet were asleep; which she took but little notice of, till the
evening of that day, when she found the nails of both hands and feet
were turning black, and, at the same time feeling great pain in both,
as also in her nose, and that they appeared of a darkish red colour,
like the skin in cold weather. Upon which, at nine o’clock that night
she sent for an apothecary, from whom, I have since been informed, the
person before mentioned had bought the medicine, which he gave her.
The apothecary was not at home; his journeyman went, and finding the
woman had a difficulty of breathing, ordered her a mixture with sperma
ceti and ammoniacum to be taken occasionally. The apothecary did not
see her himself till the 16th of June, when finding her in a very bad
condition, that her hands, and feet, and nose, were intirely black, and
had many vesicles or small bladders upon them, filled with a blackish
bloody water; he opened them, and let out the fluid, and dressed them
with yellow basilicon; and in this manner continued treating her till
the 20th of the same month, when, finding no material alteration for
the better, he ordered her a brownish mixture, of which she was to
take four spoonfuls every four hours; which, he informed me, was a
decoction of the bark; and says, on taking this, she was better, as the
mortification seemed inclined to stop. But as it was a bad case, he
advised the woman to be carried to an hospital: and in this condition
was she brought in, when she was immediately put into a course of the
bark, taking a drachm of the powder every four hours; and in 48 hours
taking it there was a perfect separation of all the mortified parts.
She was then ordered to take it only three times in 24 hours; and
pursuing this method for eight days, there was a very good digestion
from the parts above the mortification.
The mortified part became now so offensive, that the poor woman pressed
me much to take off her hands, assuring me she would go through the
operations with good courage, being very desirous to live, though in
this miserable condition.
On the 12th of July I took off both her hands: I had very little more
to do, than saw the bones, nature having stopped the bleeding, when she
stopped the mortification. In a day or two after, I took off all the
toes from both feet, and now discontinued the bark, the parts appearing
in a healthy and healing condition; which went on so for five weeks,
when, on a sudden, the parts began to look livid, her stomach failed
her, and she was feverish; but, upon taking an ounce of the bark, in 36
hours her sores began again to look well. She was not suffered to leave
off the bark so soon this time, but continued taking it twice a day for
a month. She is now almost well: that part of her face, from whence the
nose mortified, was healed in seven weeks; the stumps of both arms are
intirely healed; and both feet are well, only waiting for one piece of
bone scaling off, which I believe will be in a very short time; and she
is now in good health.
The person, who gave her this medicine, is a Barber and Peruke-maker
at Bow. I applied to him several times, to inform me what it was he
had given her. The affair was talked of so much in his neighbourhood,
and the man threatned by the woman’s husband, that for a long time I
could not get him to tell me, till I told him, I had been informed
where he bought the medicines; and the time of the day, that he had
them, corresponding with the time of his giving them to the woman, and
that I knew it was tincture of myrrh, he at last told me, that he had
frequently given the above quantity of an ounce and half of it in an
ague; that it had never done any harm; and hardly ever failed to cure.
Upon which information, I carried some tincture of myrrh to the woman,
who tasted it, and is well assured it is the same liquor the barber
gave her in her ague-fit.