FEVERS. 619 



in any part of the system, and which are known under the title 

 of ANTISPASMODICS. 



CLIII. Those remedies which are fit to determine to the 

 surface of the body, are, 



1. DILUENTS. 



2. NEUTRAL SALTS. 



3. SUDORTFICS. 



4. EMETICS. 



CLIV. Water enters, in a large proportion, into the compo- 

 sition of all the animal fluids, and a large quantity of it is al- 

 ways diffused through the whole of the common mass. Indeed, 

 in a sound state, the fluidity of the whole mass depends upon 

 the quantity of water present in it. Water, therefore, is the 

 proper diluent of our mass of blood ; and other fluids are di- 

 luent only in proportion to the quantity of water they contain. 



" We may seek for various impregnations of water with a 

 view to dilution, but the chief matter always is water in a large 

 proportion ; it is a substance especially fitted for dilution, being 

 most bland and fluid, entering into the smallest vessels of our 

 system, filling and dilating them, and thereby exciting their ac- 

 tion/' 



CLV. Water may be said to be the vehicle of the several 

 matters which ought to be excerned ; and in a healthy state the 

 fulness of the extreme vessels, and the quantity of excretions, 

 are nearly in proportion to the quantity of water present in the 

 body. In fever, however, although the excretions are in some 

 measure interrupted, they continue in such quantity as to ex- 

 hale the more fluid parts of the blood ; and while a portion of 

 them is, at the same time, necessarily retained in the larger 

 vessels, the smaller and the extreme vessels, both from the defi- 

 ciency of fluid and their own contracted state, are less filled, 

 and therefore allowed to remain in that condition. 



CLVI. To remedy this contracted state, nothing is more ne- 

 cessary than a large supply of water, or watery fluids, taken in 

 by drinking, or otherwise ; for as any superfluous quantity of 

 water is forced oft" by the several excretories, such a force ap- 

 plied may be a means of dilating the extreme vessels, and of 

 overcoming the spasm affecting their extremities. 



CLVII. Accordingly the throwing in of a large quantity of 



2x2 



