1843 Yellow Fever cure with mustard and tea

Dr. Holt's prescription for the treatment of yellow fever ... D. Holt, M. D. New- Orleans, October 1, 1843. According to this doctor, drinking a lot of tea, Castor oil, and soaking your feet with some mustard will do the trick. It was not until 1881 that it was discovered that it was transmitted mostly by mosquitoes, and vaccines were made available in the 1930's. This pamphlet is transcribed below.

One who has not had yellow fever, and is apprehensive that he may have been exposed to its cause by a residence after midsummer, in a city where yellow fever is often epidemic if attacked a few weeks after such exposure, would reasonably suppose it to be an attack of yellow fever. If attacked with a chill, attended with violent head-ache, soon followed by severe pain of the back, and, in some cases, of the limbs also— prudence would dictate an immediate recourse to an appropriate method of treating yellow fever.

Let the patient at once take his bed and he covered with blankets. As soon as it can be done, have the orange leaves drawn in two or three pints of boiling water, and give a cup of orange leaf tea, sweetened to suit the taste, every fifteen or twenty minutes; at the same time have the feet immersed in a hot foot bath from fifteen to thirty minutes, or until the patient is in a free perspiration. This free perspiration immediately succeeding the chill, attended with much febrile heat and much pain, I regard as a distinguishing symptom of yellow fever. Mustard, though not essential, is a good addition to the foot bath.

When the chill is entirely off, the foot bath having been used and the tea given, let the patient rest quietly for half an hour. if then his hands and feet are about as hot as his body, give him the powder mixed with water, in a table spoon, and let him drink some water after it if he choose.

If the hands and feet remain comparatively cool, and the pulse small, you must delay giving the powder a while longer, until the reaction is more complete. Having given the powder, let the patient remain undisturbed for eight hours, giving only a little weak orange leaf tea or a little water at his request, which should be of the atmospheric temperature if the weather is warm, and a little above it if cool.

Six hours after giving the powder, let the senna and manna be put to draw in a pint of boiling water, and in two hours — that is, eight hours after giving the powder—give a fourth part of the senna tea, and repeat the dose every half hour until it be all taken, or until it excites copious purging.

The covering of the patient should be so regulated, as to make him comfortable; and when he may have occasion to rise to the vessel, he should be gently aided; and as soon as he is up, a cloak or blanket should be thrown over his shoulders. Too much care cannot be taken to avoid a check of perspiration; and that the feet may not be exposed to a sudden change on rising, it will be prudent to spread a wool rug or blanket by the bed side, on which to set the vessel.

About the time that the senna tea is made, let a third part of the pearl barley be thoroughly washed in cold water, and put to boil in about six pints of water, and when it has boiled down to four pints, have it poured into an earthen vessel, and kept in the patient’s room, to be used as his constant drink from the time his medicine begins to operate. Some of the barley water may be sweetened with loaf sugar if the patient desire it, and he may be indulged in a little water, as directed above.

Twenty-four hours after giving the senna tea, give a full dose of Castor oil. A good method of giving the oil, is to drop on a lump of sugar, of the size of a nutmeg, eight or ten drops of the essence of peppermint, dissolve it in a table spoonful of hut water, add four table spoonful of oil, stir it together and give it.

When the oil operates, aid and nurse the patient as directed above. Have fresh barley water made, and let him by no means take into his stomach any thing stronger or more nutritious than barley water.

By the end of the next twenty-four hours, the fever will have subsided. Half a seidlitz powder may then be given in a little less than half a tumbler of water, of the atmospheric temperature, well sweetened and in half an hour give the other half adding the acid in its dry state, and stirring it round once just as the patient is ready to drink it. The remaining barley may be now made into a light barley broth, by adding a squab of a part of a chicken; and after it is prepared season with salt to suit the taste of the convalescent.

From the Library of Congress.