FEVERS. 661 



determine against venesection take place, and epecially in the 

 fourth case (d.\ that of typhus or petechial fever, the question 

 may be put, if sweating is a remedy to be attempted, in order 

 to cut short the course of the disease ? I have given all the 

 various considerations that can influence us. I have told you 

 that practical authors themselves are undetermined. Sir John 

 Pringle allows that very early in the disease it may be attempt- 

 ed, but not if the disease has been of any standing. He has not, 

 however, been explicit enough in limiting that duration. But, I 

 would say, as soon as the fever puts on its proper form, that 

 sweating is always attended with hazard ; and I would join to 

 that, that in several cases where it has spontaneously occurred, 

 or where especially it has been excited by art, it has been prose- 

 cuted and encouraged with very bad effects ; and, as the sudo- 

 rific regimen is unavoidably attended with the application of a 

 considerable degree of heat, which must prove a considerable 

 stimulus to the system, it is certainly attended with hazard. 

 But, at the same time, from the consideration of what is the 

 successful practice in the case of the plague, and from the near 

 approach of petechial fevers in their nature to the pestilential, I 

 am still under a suspicion that sweating may be employed with 

 advantage in order at once to cut short the disease. In the 

 many instances where it has been attended with mischief, it is 

 very doubtful if the measures employed were proper. I have 

 mentioned the difficulty. The sweating is to be carried on 

 without any additional stimulus, and must be protracted for a 

 due length of time ; and I dare not conclude, but that the at- 

 tempting it by emetics, and the following these with the exhi- 

 bition of neutrals, and perhaps even the addition of some quan- 

 tity of opium may be of advantage. Many of you may come 

 to be in a situation, where, in a disease that is frequently fatal, 

 and where every other measure is of little consequence, you may 

 be tempted to try it. 



" We have now considered the variety in the cases of fever, 

 which occurs during the first days of the disease. I consider 

 these as very important cases. We do not pretend to cut short 

 the course of fevers ; the most we can pretend to do, is to con- 

 duct them safely to their destined termination, and that, I 

 think, is chiefly to be done by the remedies we employ during 



