Page 149 - Reading Mercury

the Yellow Fever, a disorder, which, alas! has so often baffled the skill of medical
practitioners (Page 80)—
“The whole crew had been smote or less affected by the Yellow Fever, from which
horrid disorder I was however so fortunate as to recover them, by adopting the method
that I saw practised by the Natives of Spanish America, when I was a prisoner among
them. On the first symptoms appearing, the fore part of the head was immediately
shaved, and the temples and poll washed with vinegar and water. The whole body was
then immersed in warm water, to give a free course to perspiration: some opening
medicine was afterwards administered, and every four hours a dose of ten grains of
James’s Powders. If the patient was thirsty, the drink was weak white wine and water,
and a slice of bread to satisfy an inclination to eat. An increasing appetite was
gratified by a small quantity of soup, made from the mucilaginous part of the turtle,
with a little vinegar in it. I also gave the sick sweetmeats and other articles from my
private stock, whenever they expressed a distant wish for any, which I could supply
them with.—By this mode of treatment, the whole crew improved in their health,
except the carpenter, who, though a very stout, robust man, was, at one time in such a
state of delirium, and so much reduced that I gave him over, but he at length
recovered.
A more judicious treatment of this disorder could not have been devised. The same
good sense indeed, which directed the medical concerns (for there was no surgeon on
board), seems to have prevailed upon every occasion of difficulty or danger, which
required nautical skill, but of this we are the less surprised, when we find that Captain
Colnett has served under that celebrated navigator, Captain Cook; to whose Works
this Publication will no doubt be considered as a valuable Supplement.

th
Mon 25 Feb
TURNPIKE
Between Speenhamland and Reading.
Notice is hereby given, that the TOLLS arising at the Toll-gates at THATCHAM
near Newbury in the county of Berks, will be LETT by AUCTION to the best Bidder,
at the house of John Coultas, commonly called or known by the name or sign of the
Globe situate in Newbury aforesaid, on Monday, the eleventh day of March next,
between the hours of twelve and two, in the manner directed by an Act passed in the
thirteenth year of the Reign of his present Majesty King George the Third, “For
regulating the Turnpike Roads,” which Tolls were LETT the last year for the sum of
six hundred and thirty-eight pounds, and will be put up at that sum.
Whoever happens to be the best bidder must, at the same time, give security, with
sufficient securities, to the satisfaction of the Trustees of the said Turnpike Road, for
payment of the rent agreed for, and at such times as they shall direct.
RICHARD TOWNSEND
Clerk to the said Trustees

READING, SATURDAY, April 6.
On Saturday last the workshop of a broom-maker in the parish of Wokingham, by
some means took fire, and by the violence of the wind, the burning flakes were driven
upwards, of 50 yards to the cottage of Thomas Shorter, an industrious poor man,
which was instantly in a blaze and entirely consumed, with almost the whole of his
furniture and apparel.

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