FEVERS. 597 



yet it must be owned, that some of these testimonies may be 

 suspected to have arisen rather from a veneration of Hippocrates 

 than from accurate observation. 



CXXIII. With respect to the opinions of many moderns, 

 who deny the prevalence of critical days, they are to be little 

 regarded ; for the observation of the course of continued fevers 

 is known to be difficult and fallacious ; and therefore the regu- 

 larity of that course may have often escaped inattentive and 

 prejudiced observers. 



" Many of the physicians of modern times have that venera- 

 tion for antiquity that they will not refuse these facts as deliv- 

 ered by Hippocrates, and therefore say, that they believe it to 

 be true that such critical days occur in Greece ; but they think 

 that they do not happen with the same regularity in northern 

 climates, especially now in the improved state of physic, when 

 the power of our remedies is more capable of disturbing the 

 course of nature. I maintain, however, that they do occur, 

 though not in such a remarkable manner. I formerly gave you 

 the reasons why the continued fever is more frequent in this 

 country, and the intermittent less so ; but from the general 

 tendency of the animal economy, there is no room to doubt that 

 the power operates, and that the tendency subsists, though this 

 is more obscure and undiscernible to us. In short, the chief 

 argument that has arisen for refusing these days, is a negative 

 one that they are not observed. They have been observed 

 formerly however. This, therefore, is no proof that they do 

 not happen ; their not being observed is owing to the physician, 

 and not to any change in the state of nature. 



" We have the authority of almost every eminent practitioner, 

 from Hippocrates to Sydenham the last of whom is as much 

 an advocate for this doctrine as the first. Authorities, in mat- 

 ters of opinion, are of little value ; but in matters of fact, as in 

 this case, authorities are testimonies, and the testimonies with 

 respect to these days in fevers are very numerous." 



CXXIV. Our own observations amount to this, that fevers 

 with moderate symptoms, generally cases of the synocha, fre- 

 quently terminate in nine days, or sooner, and very constantly 

 upon one or other of the critical days which fall within that 



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