On Medical Entomology/. 239 



tain, that the plague may be considered as a very severe 

 ataxic fever complicated with an affection of the glandular 

 system. It is indebted to this double character for the de- 

 nomination of adeiio-nervous. It is here in particular that 

 the organs which have fallen into a state of stupor and in- 

 sensibility must be strongly excited. With what prompti- 

 tude ought we not then to have recourse to vesicatories, 

 sinapisms, and friction, with alcoholic solution of cantha- 

 ndes or with ammonia ! 



Ought we to unite phlegmasiag with anajiotenic fevers, 

 or establish between them an immense line of demarcation, 

 by placing them in different classes, as Pinel has done ? 

 The fear of losing sight of the principal object prevents me 

 from discussing this interesting question, which does not 

 appear to have been fully resolved. 



To form an exact idea of phlegmasire, it is essential in 

 fix our examination on those which attack the surface of 

 the body, and the progress of which can therefore be very 

 easily observed. 



The prodigious quantity of nerves which spread them- 

 selves in the tissue of the skin communicate to it extreme 

 delicacy, and such sensibility, that the slightest touch can 

 excite in it the sweet emotions of pleasure or the acute sen- 

 sations of pain. The nervous fibres, irritated by any cause, 

 soon re-act on the raniifications of the sanguine and Ivmph- 

 atic vessels with which they are interwoven, and detcrminr; 

 a considerable afflux of these two fluids. Do we not see- 

 all the symptoms which characterize inflammation succes- 

 sively develop themselves in erysipelas? and does not the 

 action of vesicatories effect in a few hours w hat erysipelas 

 effects more slowly : pain, redness, heat, tension, and ac- 

 cumulation of limpid serosity beneath the epidermis? Do 

 not these effects announce a salutary effort of nature in t!ie 

 erysipelas as in angiotenic fevers ? and ought ihey not to 

 render the practitioner very circumspect in regard to the use 

 of topics, and particularly repercusbives ? Do ihey not throw 

 light also on the use of vesicatories, and prove the utility, and 

 often the indispensable necessity, of attracting to the surface 

 a phlegmasia which threatens an important organ? This 

 simple, and, as I may sav, mechanical explanation is 

 founded on multiplied and incontestable facts. It embraces 

 almost the whole of the doctrine of epispastics ani! con- 

 sequently freis me from the necessity of cnleruig into 

 longer details oh the employment of them in phlcgmuslce. 



It the small-pox always passed regularly through tb(ir 



pcrivdi 



