Class I. i. 2. 3. OF IRRITATION. 1: 



much fait, or falted meat, the fea-fcurvy is produced ; which 

 confilts 111 the inirritability of the bibulous terminations of the 

 veins ariiin 2; from the capillaries ; fee Clafs I. 2. 1. 14. The 

 fcrofuh, or inirritability of the lymphatic glands, feem3 alio to be 

 occasionally induced by an excefs in eating fait added to food of 

 bad nourifhmerit. See Clafs I. 2. 3. 21. If an excefs of per- 

 fpiration is induced by warm or ftimulant clothing, as by wear- 

 ing flannel in contact with the fkin in the fummer months, a per- 

 petual febricula is excited, both by the preventing the acceis of 

 cool air to the fkin, and by perpetually goading it by the numerous 

 and hard points of the ends of the wool ; which when applied to 

 the tender flcins of young children, frequently produce the red 

 gum, as it is called ; and in grown people, either an eryCpe- 

 3as, or a miliary eruption, attended with fever. See Clafs II. 

 1. 3. 12. 



Shirts made of cotton or calico itimulate the fkin too much 

 by the points of the fibres, though lefs than flannel ; whence 

 cotton handkerchiefs make the nofe fore by frequent ufe. The 

 fibres of cotton are, I fuppofe, ten times ihorter than thofe of 

 flax, and the number of points in confequence twenty times the 

 number; and though the manufacturers fmge their calicoes on a 

 red-hot iron cylinder, yet I have more than once feen an eryiip- 

 elas induced or mereaied by the ltimulus of calico,, as well as of 

 flannel ; and have during the laft fummer prevailed on two, who 

 were confined to their beds by fevers, and three, who were in a 

 ftate of great debility, to difencumber themfelves of the flan- 

 nel Hurts, which they had worn for fome time ; all cf them be- 

 came immediately and considerably relieved ; and found no in- 

 convenience afterwards by discontinuing an imneceffary ltimulus, 

 which had nothing to recommend it to thcie patients but tjae 

 frivolous famion of the day. 



The inconvenience, which weak confutations experience from 



faring flannel flints* ariies from this circumftance ; that the ex- 

 tremities of their limbs are more liable to become cold, than the 

 furface of the chef! and abdomen, and that hence they mould ia 

 preference wear warmer ltockings, fhoes, and ibeE's^ or gloves. 

 By ftimulating the warmer parts of the ikln into too ftrong and 

 ufdefs exertion, as by the hard points of a flannel (hirt at all fea- 

 Fons, and by its confining the warmth of the ikin too much in 

 the fummer months, a part of the fenfoviai power becomes un- 

 neceflarily expended ; and in weak constitutions, where there is 

 none to fparc, fome other pa r ts of the fyftcn muft ait wife! 

 energy; and thus I believe the gxtremitie " people be- 



come colder ' ufe of I ;i ■-.'■. 



perhaps in w ■ the ex- 



\ J ol If. D 



