COLDS. 157 



riety of additional impositions) happen every- 

 day. Having here obliquely remarked what 

 I naturally conclude is almost universally 

 known, I shall be studiously anxious to ex- 

 plain the nature of colds and their different 

 effects, so as to urge the necessity of their 

 being perfectly understood, that preven- 

 tion in future may become an object of at- 

 tention . 



The process of Nature we allude to, in 

 the appellation of cold, is a general ob- 

 struction of the cutaneous passages or pores 

 of the skin, formed for the transpiration of 

 perspirable matter, proportionally emiited 

 from every part of the frame, and intended 

 to expel that superfluous moisture by an al- 

 most insensible evacuation. But this exer- 

 tion of Nature being totally suppressed, by 

 a sudden collapsion, or closing of the pores, 

 from one of the causes before described, the 

 perspirable matter is prevented in its na- 

 tural course, and returned lipon the body in 

 a preternatyral and niQrbid state. 



We now come to the mischievous eifect, 

 according to the degree of inveteracy or ia- 



