524 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



but we observe that they may be separated in his sixth chapter ; 

 and he is the first author who describes Petechiae." 



LXIX. Besides these differences of continued fever now 

 mentioned, I am not certain of having observed any other that 

 can be considered as fundamental. But the most common form 

 of continued fevers in this climate seems to be a combination of 

 these two genera ; and I have therefore given such a genus a 

 place in our Nosology under the title of Synochus. At the 

 same time, I think that the limits between the Synochus and 

 Typhus will be with difficulty assigned ; and I am disposed to 

 believe, that the Synochus arises from the same cause as the 

 Typhus, and is therefore only a variety of it. 



" Were the two principal forms of continued fever, Synocha 

 and Typhus, tolerably understood in their appearance, we should 

 have much less difficulty in their theory ; but the phenomena of 

 fevers are greatly diversified and variously combined ; and the 

 symptoms of inflammatory and nervous fevers are so often inter- 

 mixed with one another, that it is necessary to explain this more 

 particularly. 



" For this purpose, we observe that the causes of fever, what- 

 ever they are, do not preserve and continue in the same tenor 

 and condition in which they operate on their first attack, but as 

 the fever proceeds in its course, the repetition of the paroxysms 

 makes a considerable change in its circumstances. It is proba- 

 ble, on the one hand, that the power of reaction does increase, 

 so that by repeated paroxysms it overcomes the spasm to 

 which it was not equal at the first ; and it is from this consideration 

 that we account for the spontaneous solution of fevers : and on 

 the other hand, it appears that the repetition of paroxysms di- 

 minishes the power of reaction, and so increases the force of 

 the spasm ; or from other causes the force of the spasm is in- 

 creased, so that the disease is protracted, and a greater number 

 of paroxysms is required to restore the energy of the brain for 

 overcoming the spasm, and so obtaining a solution of the dis- 

 ease ; or the force of the spasm may be increased to such a de- 

 gree, that it is not capable of being resolved at all, but subsists, 

 till at last the reaction ceases, and death ensues. And here it 

 is difficult to say what bad symptoms are to be imputed to de- 



