Cu. VIL SOUTH AMERICA. 91 



the head ; and these nerves being- the channels 

 wliich convey nourishment to the body, and this 

 nourishment being precluded by the constriction of 

 its conduits, they ail successively sufl'er ; the mus- 

 cles, by having* lost their activity, cannot assist in 

 the motion of the nerves, and these being constrin- 

 ged, can no longer perform their office. Add to this 

 a pungent humour dispersing itself through all the 

 membranes of the body, and causing insupportable 

 pains ; so that the groaning patient labours under 

 inconceivabie tortures, which are still increased on 

 his being moved, though with the greatest care and 

 gentleness, from one side to the other. The throat 

 is so contracted that nothing can be conveyed into 

 the stomach. The jaws are also sometimes po close! v 

 locked, as impossible to be opened. Thus the ímiser- 

 able patient lies without motion, and tortured in 

 every part of his body, till nature quite exhausted 

 falls a victim to this deleterious distemper. 



In the partial kind, the pulse is more aii'ected 

 than in the distemper which preceded it, and com- 

 monly abates the violence of a fever. But in the 

 malignant kind it augments, the circulations being 

 quickened ; and whether it be the effect of the humour 

 impetuously circulating througli every part, or of the 

 pain proceeding from the laceration of the membranes 

 and abrading the muscles, the patient fails into a 

 lethargy, but which does not remove the torturing sen- 

 sation ofthese punctures, often so insuppjirtable, that 

 the miserable patient violently turns fiimself, and thus 

 augments his agonies, as evidently appears from his 

 piercing cries and groans. 



The maligiiant and arched spasm, even in the first 

 stage, is so violent ¿is to cause a contraction of the 

 nerves of the vertebice from the brain downwards ; 

 and as tiie distemprr iiicreases, and the malignant 

 liumour acquires great activity, the nerves become 

 more and more constricted, that the body of the 



patieiQt:, 



