Royal Society. 109 
iTiore violence, and no lels frequency, than it did thele coun- 
tries 5 ib that hardly was ever any epidemic diftemper obierved to 
extend lb far: No inflance of any epidemic diftemper feems in all 
refpecis to come nearer to this general cold, than the tranfienl 
fever in id88 ^ this fever was fir ft obierved in liubUn^ about the 
beginning o{ July^ and it lb univerially feized all degrees of men. 
whatever, that not above one in fifteen efcaped ; it begun as gene- 
rally fevers do, with a chilneis and Ihivering all over, like that of 
an ague, but not lb violent, which loon broke out into a dry 
burning heat, with great uneafinels, which commonly confined 
the patients to their beds, where they paffed the cnfuing night in 
a very reftlels manner^ they complained likewile of giddinels, 
and a dull pain in the head, chiefiv about the eyes, with wander- 
ing pains in the limbs, and about the fmall of the back, with 
aches all over the body, a lols of appetite, a Naufcdi and an 
unulual ill tafte in the mouth, yet little or no thirft; and tho' 
thele lymptoms were very violent for a time, yet they did not 
continue long 5 for about the fecond day of the diftemper, the 
patient ufually of himfelf fell into a fweat, unlefs it was prevented 
by letting blood, which, however beneficial in other fevers, 
manifeftly retarded the progrefs of this 5 and if the fweat was 
encouraged for five or fix hours, by laying on more cloaths, or 
taking lorae fudorific, moft of the dilbrders above-mentioned 
would entirely vanifli, or at leaft very much abate 5 giddincfs and 
want of appetite would often continue fome days after, but by 
ufing the frelh air, they would infallibly in four or five days at 
fartheft recover, and be perfe6fly well j this tranfient difeafe was 
fo favourcible, that not one in a thouland died of it, and by the 
middle o^. Auguft it wholly dilappeared, fo that its whole period 
was leven weeks 5 it alio Ipread itfelf all over England^ and 
raged as generally in London as in jDublin^ and with the fame 
fyraptomsj but it began to be obferved at London about the 
middle of Mdy^ and continued there till the latter end o't June^ {o 
that it did not fhew itfelf at Tsublin till it had wholly dilappear- 
ed there j and it Vv/as very remarkable, that in Bngland^ as well 
as at Dublin, a little time before this general fever, a flight 
difeafe, but very univerfal, affe61:ed horles too, and ft^ewed itfelf 
by a great defluxion of rheum from their nofes^ which proves the 
caufe of Ipreading diftempers to be fo powerful, as to afTe61 not 
only the finer and more delicate compofition of human bodies, 
but even the ftronger and groffer frame of the moft robuft ani- 
mals in nature : From thefe hiftories one may probable infer, that 
Ipreadgig epidemic diftempers tike their progrels from eaft to 
weft 5 
