Stjp. I. if 4. THEORY OF FEVER, 4^7 



Sicknefs might alfo be produced probably with advantage by- 

 whirling the patient in a chair fufpended from the ceiling by 

 two parallel cords *, which after being revolved fifty or a hun- 

 dred times in one oirec~tion, would return with great circular 

 velocity, and produce vertigo, fimilar I fuppofe to fea-ficknefs. 

 And laflly the ficknefs produced by refpiring an atmofphere 

 mixed with one tenth of carbonated hydrogen, difcovered by 

 Mr. Watt, and publifhed by Dr. Beddoes, would be well wor- 

 thy exact, and repeated experiment. 



4. Cool air, cool fomentations, or ablutions, are alfo ufeful 

 in this inflammatory fever ; as by cooling the particles of blood 

 in the cutaneous and pulmonary vefTels, they mull return to the 

 heart with lefs fiimulus, than when thev are heated above the 

 natural degree of ninety-eight. For this purpofe fnow and ice 

 have been fcattered on the patients in Italy ; and cold bathing 

 has been ufed at the eruption of the fmall-pox in China, and 

 both, it is faid, with advantage. See Clafs III. 2. 1. 12. and 

 Suppl. I. 8. 



5. The lancet however with repeated mild cathartics is the 

 great agent in deftroying this enormous excitement of the fyf- 

 tern, fo long as the ftrength of the patient will admit of evacua- 

 tions. Blifters over the painful part, where the phlegmon or 

 topical inflammation is fituated, after great evacuation, is of ev- 

 ident fervice, as in pleurify. Warm bathing for half an hour 

 twice a day, when the patient becomes enfeebled, is of great 

 benefit, as in peripneumony and rheumatifm. 



6. When other means fail of fuccefs in abating the violent 

 excitement of the fyflem in inflammatory difeafes, might not 

 the (haved head be covered with large bladders of cold water, in 

 which ice or fait had been recently diffolved ; and changed as 

 often as necefTary, till the brain is rendered in fome degree tor- 

 pid by cold ? — -Might not a greater degree of cold, as iced water, 

 or fnow, be applied to the cutaneous capillaries ? 



7. Another experiment I have frequently wifhed to try, 

 which cannot be done in private practice, and which I there- 

 fore recommend to fome hofpital phyfician ; and that is, to en- 

 deavour to ftill the violent actions of the heart and arteries, aftef 

 due evacuations by venefe£tion and cathartics, by gently com* 

 preffing the brain. This might be done by fufpending a bed, 

 fo as to whirl the patient round with his head moil diftant from 

 the centre of motion, as if he lay acrofs a mill-ftone, as defcrib- 

 ed in Seer. XVIII, 20. For this purpofe a perpendicular fhafc 

 armed with iron gudgeons might have one end pafs into the. 

 floor, and the other into a beam in the ceiling, with an horizon- 

 tal arm, to which a fmall bed might be readily fufpended. 



Vol. II. Qj^q s v 



