Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

For the NEW-HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.

MR. PRINTER,

As you favoured the public in your last paper, with some observations on the medicinal virtues and effects of eggs, externally used, for the relaxing of contractions of the limbs, occasioned by a rigidity of the fibres; I have taken the liberty to send you some observations on their use, internally taken, their efficacy in resolving and opening the obstructions in the duct, or pipe that conveys the bile from the gall bladder into the bowels, so frequently taking place, occasioning the jaundice with all its distressing circumstances, will be fully evinced by the following extract from a publication of the ingenious and worthy Dr. White, of Manchester, in Great Britain: - Your giving them a place in your paper, though they may not be entertaining to your readers in general, may be beneficial to some unfortunate persons, who are labouring under the disorder, and seeking relief from remedies much less easy to obtain, much more expensive, and infinitely less efficacious.

A. B.

The attention I have to such age, who have been cured by frequent taking raw eggs in cold spring water, has inclined me much to this opinion. My supposition is, that eggs act as a dissolvent of the gluten, obstructing the mouth of the duct, thereby opening a free passage for the bile into the duodenum. We know that yolks of eggs will destroy the tenacity of gums and resins, and render not only them, but also oils, and natural balsams miscible with water.

The first trial I had of this remedy was upon myself about fourteen years ago, when I had been afflicted with the jaundice many weeks, and was much reduced, no bile having for a long time passed into the intestines, when my skin was almost black, and after I had in vain taken large quantities of soap, madder, steel, rhubarb, and aloetic medicines. An officer of marines told me that if he might be allowed to prescribe, he would immediately cure me. I laughed at his proposal, when he informed me that some years before, in the Mediterranean, he was troubled with the same disorder to as great a degree as myself, and that after he had ineffectually tried all the remedies the Surgeon of the ship could think of, a Spanish Physician at Minorca had assured him he could cure him in a few days by this simple prescription only, - two raw eggs, the whites as well as yolks, to be taken every morning in a glass of water fasting, with the addition of an egg every four hours during the day. That in three days after following this advice he began to perceive the bile in his stools, though none had appeared in them for many weeks before; that he immediately began to recover, and was very soon effectually cured. Upon considering the dissolvent property of yolks of eggs, and that eggs must at least afford a nourishment totally void of acrimony, I began to entertain a more favourable opinion of the recipe: I tried it and found it had exactly the same effect which he had promised me. Though I was certain no bile had passed through me for six weeks before, upon taking the eggs only three days it began to flow, and in one day more in as great plenty as I could wish. I continued however to take them several months, and have never since had any return of the disorder. I have recommended the use of them to many persons under the same complaint, and have always had the satisfaction of finding their success, except in cases where the disorder was occasioned by a diseased liver, or by stones in the gall bladder.

--EXTRACT from a celebrated Author.