622 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



beginning attended with sweatings that do not prove final ; and, 

 on the contrary, whether spontaneous or excited by art, seem 

 often to aggravate the disease. 



CLXV. From these considerations, it is extremely doubtful 

 if the practice of sweating can be admitted very generally ; but, 

 at the same time, it is also doubtful, if the failure of the prac- 

 tice, or the mischiefs said to have arisen from it, have not been 

 owing to the improper conduct of the practitioner. 



With respect to this last, it is almost agreed among physi- 

 cians, 



1. That sweating has been generally hurtful when excited by 

 stimulant, heating, and inflammatory medicines ; "by the force 

 of such medicines as have the power of inflaming the particular 

 part to which they are applied, from which we know their in- 

 flammatory nature. Such medicines, about one hundred and 

 fifty years ago, were employed by the Chemists and Cartesians, 

 under the title of Alexipharmics ; and it was this very practice 

 that Sydenham took so much pains to explode, in banishing the 

 use of these heating medicines, from which some persons cer- 

 tainly did escape ; but to use the expression we have in scrip- 

 ture, they escaped J 3< *vfa, purged as byjire" 



2. That it has been hurtful when excited by much external 

 heat, and continued with a great increase of the heat of the 

 body. 



3. That it is always hurtful when it does not soon relieve, 

 but rather increases the frequency and hardness of the pulse, 

 the anxiety and difficulty of breathing, the headach, and de- 

 lirium. 



4. That it is always hurtful if it be urged when the sweat is 

 not fluid, and when it is partial, and on the superior parts of 

 the body only. 



CLXVI. In these cases it is probable, that either an inflam- 

 matory diathesis is produced, which increases the spasm on the 

 extreme vessels, or that, from other causes, the spasm is too 

 much fixed to yield easily to the increased action of the heart 

 and arteries ; and, upon either supposition, it must be obvious, 

 that urging the sweat, as ready to produce a hurtful determina- 

 tion to some of the internal parts, may be attended with very 

 great danger. 



