CONTINUED FEVER. 439 



advantage. It was by suffering the body to lie for some time in a 

 bed of cold water, that the inhabitants of the island of Massnah 

 cured the most violent bilious fevers. When applied in this way, 

 it gradually abstracts the heat from the body, and thereby lessens 

 the action of the system. It differs as much in its effects upon the 

 body from the cold-bath as rest in a cold room differs from exercise 

 in the cold open air. 



" I was first led to the partial application of cold water to the 

 body, in fevers of too much force in the arterial system, by observ- 

 ing its good effects in active hemorrhages, and by recollecting the 

 effects of a partial application of warm water to the feet, in fevers 

 of an opposite character. Cold water, when applied to the feet, as 

 certainly reduces the pulse in force and frequency, as warm water 

 applied in the same way produces contrary effects upon it. In an 

 experiment which was made at my request by one of my pupils, by 

 placing his feet in cold pump-water for a few minutes, the pulse 

 was reduced twenty -four strokes in a minute, and became so weak 

 as hardly to be perceptible." 



In a disease that is so painful, pervading, and rapid in its 

 progress, it would hardly be possible to do too much in the begin- 

 ning, and before the prominent symptoms are effectually quelled. 

 Long-continued shallow-bath frictions, affusions upon the head and 

 body generally, clysters and tepid water-drinking, with the cooling 

 wet-pack between times, if properly managed, make quick work in 

 subduing all pains and uneasiness, and consequently give the patient 

 the best possible chance. 



CONTINUED FEVER. 



Treatment The treatment of continued fever is to be con- 

 ducted on general principles. We are to employ ablutions, spong- 

 ings, wet bandages, clysters, wet-packs, etc., according to the symp- 

 toms of the particular case, just as we would in any other form of 

 fever, remembering always that we should treat the case as it is and 

 not merely according to a name. The particulars of, such treatment 

 are more fully entered into under the head of " Typhus and Typhoid 

 Fevers," to which the reader is referred. 



Whenever a general feverishness, from whatever cause, is 

 brought on in animals, they not only instinctively drink water, but 

 immerse themselves in it, if it is possible for them to do so. It is 

 said that in some countries wild pigs become violently convulsed by 

 eating henbane, and that by going into water and by drinking it 

 they recover. And when animals become feverish from mutila- 

 tions or mechanical injury, they seek lying down upon the damp 

 ground in the cool air and even in mud and wet, and go not 

 infrequently into the water. 



TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVEK. 



1. Envelop the patient in one or more heavy wet linen sheets, 

 according to the heat and strength, the sb^^s not much wrung out 



