Letter from Dr. Turbervile of Salisbury Containing Some Considerable Observations in the Practise of Physic

Letter from Dr. Turbervile of Salisbury containing some considerable Observations in the Practice of Physic. Sir! I will now proceed in communicating more of my Observations to you; at present be pleas'd to accept these which follow. I had a Gentlewoman my Patient, who was much troubled with the falling Sickness; in her Water I saw a great number of short Worms, full of legs, and like Millepedes: I gave her two or three purges, first with Pil: Agaric: & Rhubarb; but I still perceiv'd, in every Water was brought me, eight, or ten, or more, of the Worms; they appear'd lively, and full of Motion; and the fits continued daily: at last I gave Her half an ounce of Oxymel Helleboratum in Tansy Water; which wrought well and was successfull; so that she had a compleat cure. I shall leave you to judge of the cause of the Malady. About six or seven years since, I had a Gentleman (Mr. Oyliff by name,) in cure of his Eye; which was as big as my fist, black, fleshy, and full of blewish bladders; this I judgd to be a Cancer: after purging, and bleeding, I cut out the ball, and ulcer'd flesh, by many Cuts, which were all insensible to Him, till I came to the Optic Nerve: at the last Cutt He complained, and bled a little; the Wound was heal'd in about a fortnight; He now wears a black patch over the place. Not long after this, a young man (my Patient,) had an Eye as big as a Hen's Egg, very fair, without blemish, Rheum, or redness; and his sight was pretty tolerable; I judgd these Symptomes to proceed from thin humors fallen on the Eye, and Extending its Coats: I cured this distemper by applying drying Medicines to the head, and Eyes, and making an Issue in Nucha, appello Morbum Oculum Bovinum, sive Oculi Hydropem: If these Observations are acceptable to you, you may command more of a like nature from. Sarum Dec. 10th 1684. Your very humble Servant Dawbeney Turberville.