616 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



fever. While the cold fit exists, venesection, by weakening 

 the system, increases the spasm which lays the foundation of the 

 disease. We have been so much accustomed to inflammatory 

 fevers, in which we universally have recourse to bleeding as a 

 remedy, that this caution has been very much neglected ; but I 

 have often observed bleeding indiscreetly employed. Our fevers 

 do not come to the hot fit for several days ; and so long as the 

 shiverings recur, I hold it dangerous to admit of bleeding. ' In 

 ipso impetu sanguinem mittere hominem jugulare est,' says Cel- 

 sus. His observation applies especially to intermittent fevers ; 

 .but we can mark, in the first two days of continued fevers also, 

 that a little after noon, and again towards the evening, when if 

 not a cold fit, at least something analogous to it may be ob- 

 served ; and at these times, as long as the hot stage of the fever, 

 or the increased reaction, has not entirely taken place, we should 

 abstain from bleeding." 



CXLIV. Another evacuation whereby the quantity of fluids 

 contained in the body can be considerably diminished, is that of 

 Purging. 



CXLV. If we consider the quantity of fluids constantly 

 present in the cavity of the intestines, and the quantity which 

 may be drawn from the innumerable excretories that open into 

 this cavity, it will be obvious that a very great evacuation 

 can be made by purging ; and if this be done by a stimulus 

 applied to the intestines, without being at the same time com- 

 municated to the rest of the body, it may, by emptying both 

 the cavity of the intestines, and the arteries which furnish the 

 excretions poured into it, induce a considerable relaxation in the 

 whole system ; and therefore purging seems to be a remedy 

 suited to moderate the violence of reaction in fevers. 



CXLVI. But it is to be observed, that as the fluid drawn 

 from the excretories opening into the intestines, is not all drawn 

 immediately from the arteries, as a part of it is drawn from the 

 mucous follicles only, and as what is even more immediately 

 drawn from the arteries is drawn off slowly ; so the evacuation 

 will not, in proportion to its quantity, occasion such a sudden 

 depletion x>f the red vessels as blood-letting does ; and therefore 

 cannot operate so powerfully in taking off the phlogistic diathesis 

 of the system. 



