Sect. XXXII. n. u OF IRRITATION. 303 



ver are neceiTary confequences of the perpetual and inceffanE 

 action of the arterial and glandular fyilem ; fince thole mufcu- 

 lar fibres and thofe organs of fenie, which are moil frequently 

 exerted, become neceffariiy mod affected both with defect and 

 accumulation of fenforial power : and that hence fever-fits are 

 not an effort of nature to relieve her/elf and that therefore they 

 fhould always be prevented or diminiihed as much as pofiible, 

 by any means which decreafe the general or partial vafcular ac- 

 tions, when they are greater, or by increafing them when they 

 are lefs than in health, as defcribed in Seel. XII. 6. 1. 



Thus have I endeavoured to explain, and I hope to the fatis- 

 faction of the candid and patient reader, the principal fymp- 

 tcms or circumftances of fever without the introduction of the 

 iupernatural power of fpafm. To the arguments in favour of 

 the doctrine of fpafm it may be fufheient to reply, that in the 

 evolution of medical as well as of dramatic catailrophe, 



Nee Deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus 

 Incident. Hor. 



XI. i. Since I printed the above in the firit edition of this 

 work, I am told, that the fpafmodic doctrine of fever has yet its 

 • advocates ; who believe that the coidnefs at the beginning of in- 

 termittent fevers is owing to a fpafm of the cutaneous verTels. 

 But as the ikin is at that time lax and foft, the mufcular fibres 

 of thofe cutaneous vefTels cannot be in action or contraction, 

 which conflitute fpafm. Whence we have the evidence both 

 of our fight and touch againft this wild imagination. 



Others have advanced, that this fpafmodic contraction of the 

 cutaneous vefTels or pores confines the heat, or drives it to the 

 heart ; which in the hot fit of fever repels the heat again to the 

 Ikin by its reaction. Thofe, who efpoufe this doctrine, feem to 

 conceive, that the particles of heat are as large as (hot-corns, or 

 as the globules of blood ; and not that it is an ethereal fluid, in 

 which all things are immerfed, and by which all things are 

 penetrated ; an opinion which originated from Galen, and muft 

 have been founded on a total ignorance of chemiftry, and natu- 

 ral philofophy. Others, I hear, ftiii fuppofe coid to be a ftima- 

 lus, not underftanding that it is fimply the abfence of heat ; and 

 that darknefs might as well be called a ilimulus to the eye, or 

 hunger a (limulus to the ftomach, as cold to our {en[c, which 

 perceives heat ; which is commonly confounded with our fenie 

 of touch, which perceives figure. The pain, which we experi- 

 ence on being expofed to a want of heat, which is termed chill- 

 aefs, or coidnefs \ and the pain we experience in our organs of 



digeftkm 



