FEVERS. 517 



versity ; but physicians have not been successful in marking 

 these differences, or in reducing them to any general heads. 

 The distinctions made by the ancients are not well understood ; 

 and, so far as either they or the modern Nosologists have dis- 

 tinguished continued fevers by a difference of duration, their 

 distinctions are not well founded, and do not apply in such a 

 manner as to be of any use. 



" Sauvages has five genera of continued fevers Ephemera, 

 Synocha, Synochus, Typhus, and Hectica, which he has distin- 

 guished by their respective durations. The Ephemera ex- 

 tends to half a week ; the Synocha to about a week ; the Syno- 

 chus to two or three weeks ; the Typhus frequently to three 

 weeks ; and the Hectica beyond a month. In like manner the 

 Continentes of Linnaeus are divided into four genera Diaria, 

 which is the same with the Ephemera of Sauvages, Synocha, 

 Synochus, and Lenta. 



"With respect to these distinctions, I have to remark, Jirst, that 

 they are not founded in the nature of fevers ; and, secondly, that 

 though they were, they do not apply as characters. (See Introduc- 

 tory Lectures, page 455.) The inflammatory fever indeed is gen- 

 erally shorter than the nervous ; but it has no certain limits to 

 its duration. It is sometimes protracted beyond a week, whilst 

 the nervous fever sometimes is within that period. We seek, 

 therefore, for some other distinctions ; and now almost all physi- 

 cians have agreed to divide continued fevers into the inflam- 

 matory and the nervous." 



We think it agreeable to observation, and to the principles 

 above laid down (LXII. LXIII.), to distinguish continued 

 fevers according as they shew either an inflammatory irritation 

 or a weaker reaction. 



LXVII. This distinction is the same with that of fevers into 

 the Inflammatory and Nervous, the distinction at present most 

 generally received in Britain. To the first, as a genus, I have 

 given the name of Synocha ; to the second, that of Typhus ; 

 and little studious whether these names be authorized by the 

 ancient use of the same terms, I depend upon their being un- 

 derstood by the characters annexed to them in our Nosology, 

 which I apprehend to be founded on observation. 



" This distinction is founded in nature and observation, and 



