FEVERS. 405 



spasm at the beginning of fever, is a part of the operation of the 

 vis medicatrix ; but, at the same time, it seems to me probable, 

 that during the whole course of the fever there is an atony sub- 

 sisting in the extreme vessels, and that the relaxation of the 

 spasm requires the restoring of the tone, and action of these. 



XL IV. This it may be difficult to explain, but I think it 

 may be ascertained as a fact by the consideration of the symp- 

 toms which take place with respect to the functions of the 

 stomach in fevers, such as the anorexia, nausea, and vomiting, 

 (XIV.) 



From many circumstances it is sufficiently certain, that there 

 is a consent between the stomach and surface of the body ; and 

 in all cases of the consent of distant parts, it is presumed to be 

 by the connexion of the nervous system, and that the consent 

 which appears between the sentient and moving fibres of the one 

 part with those of the other, is such, that a certain condition 

 prevailing in the one part occasions a similar condition in the 

 other. 



In the case of the stomach and surface of the body, the con- 

 sent particularly appears by the connexion which is observed 

 between the state of the perspiration and the state of the appe- 

 tite in healthy persons ; and if it may be presumed that the ap- 

 petite depends upon the state of tone in the muscular fibres of 

 the stomach (See Physiology, CCIIL), it will follow, that 

 the connexion of appetite and perspiration depends upon a con- 

 sent between the muscular fibres of the stomach and the mus- 

 cular fibres of the extreme vessels, or of the organ of perspira- 

 tion, on the surface of the body. 



It is further in proof of the connexion between the appetite 

 and perspiration, and at the same time of the circumstances on 

 which it depends, that cold applied to the surface of the body, 

 when it does not stop perspiration, but proves a stimulus to it, 

 is always a powerful means of exciting appetite. 



Having thus established the connexion or consent mentioned] 

 we argue, that as the symptoms of anorexia, nausea, and vomit- 

 ing, in many cases manifestly depend upon a state of debility, 

 or loss of tone in the muscular fibres of the stomach, so it may 

 be presumed that these symptoms, in the beginning of a fever, 

 depend upon an atony communicated to the muscular fibres of 



