598 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



period : but it is very rare in this climate that cases of either 

 the typhus or synochus terminate before the eleventh day ; and 

 when they do terminate on this day, it is for the most part fatally. 

 When they are protracted beyond this time, I have very con- 

 stantly found that their terminations were upon the fourteenth, 

 seventeenth, or twentieth day. 



In such cases, the salutary terminations are seldom attended 

 with any considerable evacuation. A sweating frequently ap- 

 pears, but is seldom considerable ; and I have hardly ever ob- 

 served critical and decisive terminations attended with vomiting, 

 evacuations by stool, or remarkable changes in the urine. The 

 solution of the disease is chiefly to be discerned from some re- 

 turn of sleep and appetite, the ceasing of delirium, and an abate- 

 ment of the frequency of the pulse. By these symptoms we 

 can often mark a crisis of the disease ; but it seldom happens 

 suddenly and entirely : and it is most commonly from some fa- 

 vourable symptoms occurring upon one critical day, that we can 

 announce a more entire solution upon the next following. 



Upon the whole, I am persuaded, that if observations shall 

 be made with attention, and without prejudice, I shall be al- 

 lowed to conclude with the words of the learned and sagacious 

 Gaubius, " Fallor, ni sua constiterit HIPPOCRATI auctoritas, 

 GALENO fides, NATURAE virtus et ordo." 



" One general rule, both with regard to the event, and the 

 duration of fevers, is taken from what has usually happened in 

 like diseases formerly or for the time epidemic. This is the 

 foundation of all observation, shewing the importance of every 

 sign without regard to the reasoning a priori ; and this the 

 ancients understood as well or better than the moderns." 



CHAP. VI. OF THE METHOD OF CURE IN FEVERS. 



" This is to be delivered as adapted to the genera ; because 

 the species are uncertain, because the supposed species may 

 be only varieties, and because it is probable that the species are 

 formed by combinations of the differences distinguishing the 

 genera.' 1 



