Br. Fercival on the Effects of Famine., &c. 505 



pel the fcanty current of blood. Under fu a 

 pircumftances, the treatment of Travis was pro- 

 per, with refpeft to the application of heat, by 

 placing on each fide a healthy man in contadt 

 with him. Pediluvia or fomentations might, 

 slfo, have been ufed with advantage. The tem- 

 perature of thefe fhould be lower than that of 

 the human body, and gradually increafed, ac- 

 cording to the effeds of their ftimulus. New 

 milk, weak broth, or water gruel ought to be 

 employed both for the one and the other, as 

 nutriment may be conveyed into the fyflem, this 

 way, by paffages, probably the moft pervious 

 in a ftate of farting, if not too long protraded. 

 *^ A lad at New-marker, a few years ago, hav- 

 5' ing been almoft llarved, in order that he might 

 " be reduced to a proper weight, for riding a 

 *' match, was weighed at nine o'clock in the 

 *' morning, and again at ten ; and he was found 

 *' to have gained near thirty ounces in weight, 

 *' in the courfe of an hour, though he had only 

 *^' drank half a glafs of wine in the interval. The 

 '* wine probably ftimulated the adion of the 

 f nervous fyftem, and incited nature, exhaufted 

 " by abilinence, to open the abforbent pores of 

 *' the whole body, in order to fuck in fomc 

 .** nourifhment from the air."* But no fuch ab- 

 forption, as this, can be expefled, in a ftate of 



♦ Bifl)0|) Watfon's Chemical Effays, vol. III. p. loi. 



extreme 



