44 8 THEORY OF FEVER. Sup. I. i. $ 4 



ries, as appears in the fudden bluih of fhame ; which may be 

 owing to their being more liable to perpetual varieties of activi- 

 ty from their expofure to the viciflitudes of atmofphericVheat. 

 And becaufe in inirritative fevers, or thofe with arterial debility* 

 the capillaries acquire increafed ftrength, as is evinced by the 

 heat of the (kin, while the pulfations of the heart and arteries 

 remain feeble. 



5. It was faid above, that the cutaneous capillaries, when 

 they were rendered torpid by expofure to cold, either recover- 

 ed their activity by the reapplication of external warmth } or 

 by their increafed irritability, which is caufed by the accumu- 

 lation of that fenforial power during their quiefcence. An 

 example of the former of thefe may be feen on emerging from 

 a very cold bath ; which produces a fit of fimple fever ; the cold 

 fit, and confequent hot fit, of which may be prolonged by con- 

 tinuing in the bath ; which has indeed proved fatal to fome weak 

 and delicate people, and to others after having been much ex- 

 haufted by heat and exercife. See Seel:. XXXII. 3. 2. An 

 example of the latter may be taken from going into a bath of 

 about eighty degrees of heat, as into the bath at Buxton, where 

 the bather firft feels a chill, and after a minute becomes warm, 

 though he remains in the fame medium, owing to the increafe 

 of irritability from the accumulation of that fenforial power 

 during the fhort time which the chilnefs continued. 



6. Hence fimple fevers are of two kinds ; firft, the febris ir- 

 ritativa, or fever with ftrong pulfe ; which confifts of a previous 

 torpor of the heart, arteries, and capillaries, and a fucceeding 

 orgafm of thofe vefTels. Secondly, the febris inirritativa, or fe- 

 .ver with weak pulfe, which confifts of a previous torpor of the 

 heart, arteries, and capillaries ; and of a fucceeding orgafm of 

 the capillaries, the torpor of the heart and arteries continuing* 

 But as the frequency of the pulfe occurs both in the ftate of tor- 

 por, and in that of orgafm, of the heart and arteries •, this con- 

 stitutes a criterion to diftinguiih fever from other difeafes, which 

 are owing to the torpor of fome parts of the fyftem, as parens, 

 and hemicrania. 



7. The reader will pleafe to obferve, that where the cutane- 

 ous or pulmonary capillaries are mentioned, their mucous and 

 perfpirative glands are to be underftood as included ; but that 

 the abforbents belonging to thofe fyitems of vefTels, and the 

 commencement of the veins, are not always included ; as thefe 

 are liable to torpor feparately, as in anaiarca, and petechia ; or 

 to orgafm, or increafed acHon, as in the exhibition of ftrong 

 emetics, or in the application of vinegar to the lips ; yet he will 

 alfo pleafe to obferve, that an increafed or decreafed action of 



thefe 



