tS8 The Mitchillian Theory of Fever, &f c . 



to the facility with which a temporary habit is broken or 

 gives way. 



" The cold ftage is the moft dangerous ; and perfons dying 

 in it, die of the direct: debility induced by the vitiated at- 

 mofphere they refpire. 



** The hot ftage is lefs dangerous, and perfons who die in 

 it expire in a ftate of indirect debility. But, according to 

 circumftances, death may happen in both the cold and hot 

 flages. 



" The fweating ftage is a mere confequence of the cooling 

 of the body, after the preceding heat and excitement of it." 



Our limits will not permit us to detail, at length, all the 

 arguments that have been brought forward in fupport of 

 this theory, by its author ProfetTor Mitchill of New York, 

 and by thofe medical gentlemen in America who have em- 

 braced his opinions. We have however endeavoured to 

 give fuch a concife yet accurate account of the theory, and 

 the grounds on which it is fupported, as may enable thofe 

 of our medical readers, who have not feen the American 

 publications on the fubject, to form fome opinion refpect- 

 ing it. We give no opinion of our own — that does not 

 belong to our province. It will not however efcape the 

 notice of medical men, that daily obfervation prefents fome 

 fails which, on firft view at leaft, do not appear rcconcile- 

 able with this theory. Copper-plate engravers, in the courfe 

 of their bufinefs, are often obliged to breathe an atmofphere 

 loaded with feptic (nitrous) gas, without appearing to be 

 more liable to contagious difeafes than other men ; and, to 

 mention no other fa£t of this kind, it has been proved, by 

 the experiments made on board the Union hofpital {hip by 

 defire of the Lords Commiffioners of the Admiralty, of which 

 we gave an account in our laft Volume, page 68, that the 

 fumes of the nitric acid are not only a cure, but an anti- 

 dote againft contagion. A. T. 



XIV. De~ 



