170 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



not been of a violent kind, to be succeeded by inflammatory af- 

 fections, particularly ophthalmia and phthisis. 



" When the eruption has ceased, a general inflammatory dia- 

 thesis sometimes appears by several symptoms ; and generally, 

 though no particular determination does immediately appear, 

 the diathesis remains for a long time after, so that a variety 

 of external and internal causes afterwards direct it to a parti- 

 cular part. Thus, when the catarrh itself has subsided with the 

 fever and eruption, such persons as have had the measles, are 

 more liable to have it renewed in a more violent degree, and to 

 have various inflammatory affections in the lungs and other parts. 



" The general inflammatory diathesis may be supposed to be 

 merely an attendant on the catarrhal state : but I think it is of 

 consequence to observe, that the general diathesis here be not 

 considered as a symptoma symptomatis, but as a symptoma 

 causae, as depending on the same cause ; for we find many other 

 parts of the system affected with inflammation besides the lungs 

 and bronchiae. I make this observation to introduce the general 

 one, that the whole of the danger arising, or to be suspected, 

 from the measles, is from more or less of the topical inflamma- 

 tion produced by them ; and which, I say, may be in different 

 parts of the system, although there is a more particular deter- 

 mination to the lungs, and peripneumony is more commonly 

 their consequence than any other disease. 



" I must allow that the effects of the measles are sometimes 

 very difficultly perceived : and, as contagious matter in several 

 other instances takes its course through, or is deposited in the 

 lymphatic glands, so this happens also in consequence of measles. 

 I have known the Atrophia infantium, as it is called, or the 

 strumous affection of the mesenteric glands, take its rise from 

 hence : it attacks more commonly the lymphatic glands of the 

 lungs, and lays the foundation of the tubercles, which appear 

 only a long time afterwards in Phthisis pulmonalis. Thus, what 

 is commonly called the dregs of the measles, arises, partly in con- 

 sequence of the inflammatory diathesis, and partly in consequence 

 of the deposition of matter in particular parts, and especially in 

 the lymphatic glands. Whether it depend upon a portion of the 

 morbillous matter still remaining in the system, or if it be only 



