48 Dr. Mac Cnlloch on Fevers. 



tent, if of an obscure character, and such spasmodic attack 

 is the cold fit or its substitute. If the disease is chronic and 

 there are relapses, one relapse may be pure fever, while an- 

 other is the spasmodic disease, whatever that may be. The 

 spasmodic disease replaces or puts a stop to the fever sud- 

 denly, or, reversely, the fever replaces the nervous affection : 

 or else this last is interchanged with some other anomaly, 

 and so on through a period of years. Lastly, all the colla- 

 teral and accompanying symptoms are the same, and the 

 nervous disorder is cured and aggravated by the same reme- 

 dies or treatment as the intermittent; while the ultimate 

 consequences of persistent ill treatment are the same in all ; 

 being, namely, palsies, fatuity, and death — or, in the slighter 

 cases, incurable inveteracy. 



There follows a long list of nervous affections of the same 

 origin and character, of which some are attended by autho- 

 rities, while, for the others, we must take the author's word 

 and experience. Among these, we must pass over dyspepsia, 

 chlorosis, hypochondriasis, debility, atrophy, and what are 

 called generally nervous disorders ; having already no- 

 ticed them perhaps sufficiently, and having at any rate no 

 room to dwell on them. After this, mania and fatuity 

 are the most interesting ; and here we have the authority of 

 Sydenham, among others, to prove that these are either 

 anomalies or consequences of intermittent fever ; while the 

 latter disease, fatuity, is here shown to be a very common 

 result of the evacuant practice in marsh fevers, being by no 

 means rare, as is v/ell known, as the termination of severe 

 cases of this disease. That, in a modified degree, it is a very 

 common result of the delibitating practice in nervous affec- 

 tions, is tolerably familiar ; and according to our author, it is 

 the consequence in these cases, of the errors which he has 

 laboured so hard to point out. 



As the subject of headach is again treated under neu- 

 ralgia, we shall here pass it over; as we may amaurosis, for 

 the same reason, and proceed to the list of simulations 

 classed under the term inflammatory. This catalogue com- 

 prises pleurisy, rheumatism under various forms, nephralgia, 

 catarrh, and phthisis ; together with a fictitious hectic 

 which we have already noticed, and sciatica, which is treated 

 of under neuralgia. The author has endeavoured to show in 

 various parts of his work, and by the comparison of symp- 

 toms and dissections, together with the consideration of 

 causes, the transitions of these diseases, the effects of reme- 

 dies for good and evil, and further, by authorities, accom- 



