end of Contagious Di/eafes. 1S5 



ihere is now a greater appetency in the conftitution for 

 heat; more vital air is decompounded in the lungs; and 

 more ftimulus is applied, by means of the increafed heat and 

 oxygen now in the blood, to the heart and arteries : thefe 

 ftimuli operate more powerfully on account of the accumu- 

 lated excitability of the body; and a degree of excitement is 

 thence induced, which fometimes ends in death, fometimes 

 caufes delirium, and in almoft every cafe exceeds the healthy 

 temperature. 



" The duration and violence of the hot ftage will be, ceteris 

 paribus, in a compound ratio of the excitability accumulated 

 in the cold ftage, and the heat and oxygen evolved in the 

 hot one. When the excitability is exhaufted by the opera- 

 tion of the ftimuli, the violence of action will ceafe, and the 

 body grow cool, 



" The doctrine of intermitting fever, then, is briefly this : 

 the vitiated atmofpheric fluid, by interfering with the pul- 

 monic action, brings on the cold ftage, and would continue 

 the fame until its termination in death, did not the confti- 

 tution in the mean time acquire fuch a habit as to gain a 

 temporary infenfibility to its action. This habit being in- 

 duced, the cold ftage abates by reafon of the ftate of direct 

 debility into which the body had been brought; anxiety 

 continues, and, by the quickening of refpiration, heat and 

 oxygen are fet loofe in the lungs, and becoming incorporated 

 with the blood, now warm and ftimulate every part with 

 more than ulual power, and occafion the phaenomena of the 

 hot ftage, which terminates as foon as the accumulated ex- 

 citability of the fyftem is exhaufted.— The fweating ftage 

 follows of courfe, as in other cafes of the fubfidence of 

 violent action : for, after a time, the exhaufted excitability 

 of the animal fyftem allows exceffive action to go on no 

 longer; the refpiration grows more moderate and eafy ; the 

 heart beats with lefs frequency and force; the arterial con- 

 tractions arc alio more How and health-like; and, as the 

 arterial contractions relax, the hydrogen and oxygen of the 



blood 



