FEVERS. 



rung, without sediment. The disease generally is of short dur- 

 ation : I would not pretend to limit it to days, but it is agreed 

 that its most common termination is in seven days. In the course 

 of it the exacerbations and remissions, which we maintain do 

 truly happen, are here obscure in their symptoms. The ter- 

 mination is cc mmonly by a sensible evacuation, as hsemorrhagy 

 or sweat ; the urine, at the same time, while these evacuations 

 take place, depositing a considerable sediment. 



" Now these are shortly the phenomena of inflammatory fe- 

 ver, always supposing that it is of the most pure kind. But I 

 must observe that the character as I have given it purely is sel- 

 dom to be found, but it is generally accompanied with more or 

 less of catarrh, rheumatism, or some other inflammatory afiec- 

 tion. I have found the symptoms of inflammatory fever no- 

 where so fully enumerated, or its combinations so distinctly 

 marked, as I have described it ; but it has been best done by 

 Dr. Hoffmann (Opp. torn. ii. p. 105.), where he treats of this 

 fever under the title of < Febris acuta sanguinea, Graecis Syn- 

 ocha.' 



" I next proceed to relate the phenomena of that fever which 

 is called the Nervous, named in our Nosology, Typhus. It 

 very commonly arises from contagion or effluvia, or some fo- 

 reign matter introduced into the body. It most readily affects 

 persons of weak constitutions, or those who were lately before 

 exposed to particular causes of debility, and also to the action 

 of cold, which generally appears as the exciting cause. The 

 disease generally comes on by degrees and slowly, and before it 

 appears formally, the person is previously affected with loss of 

 appetite, languor, and lassitude. Then there is a sense of cold, 

 or rather a sensibility to the coldness of the air, especially to- 

 wards the evening, with a slight degree of horror ; in the course 

 of the night a slight degree of heat comes on, with uneasy and 

 restless sleep, which, however, is relieved in the morning ; but 

 at this time the chilliness returns, and towards the evenirtg 

 the same symptoms recur again, accompanied with a more con- 

 siderable hot fit during the following night. This becomes more 

 constant during the following day ; and after two or three such 

 days as this, the hot fit becomes more and more remarkable and 

 constant, with a frequent, but neither full, nor strong, nor hard 



VOL. i. 2 P 



