ERUPTIVE FEVERS. 19? 



eruptive diseases were ready to be hurt by cold ; and that it was, 

 therefore, necessary to cover up the body very closely, so as 

 thereby to increase the external heat. We now know that this 

 is a mistaken opinion ; that increasing the external heat of the 

 body is very generally mischievous ; and that several eruptions 

 not only admit, but require the application of cold air. We 

 are now persuaded, that the practice which formerly prevailed, 

 in the case of miliary eruptions, of covering up the body close, 

 and, both by external means and internal remedies, encouraging 

 the sweatings which accompany this eruption, was highly perni- 

 cious, and commonly fatal. I am therefore of opinion, even 

 when a miliary eruption has appeared, that in all cases where 

 the sweating is not manifestly critical, we should employ all the 

 several means of stopping it that are mentioned above ; and I 

 have sometimes had occasion to observe, that even the admis- 

 sion of cool air was safe and useful. 



DCCXXIX. This is, in general, the treatment of miliary 

 eruptions ; but, at the same time, the remedies suited to the 

 primary disease are to be employed ; and, therefore, when the 

 eruption happens to accompany inflammatory affections, and 

 when the fulness and hardness of the pulse or other symptoms 

 show an inflammatory state present, the case is to be treated by 

 blood-letting, purging, and other antiphlogistic remedies. 



Upon the other hand, when the miliary eruption attends dis- 

 eases in which debility and putrescency prevail, it will be pro- 

 per to avoid all evacuations, and employ tonic and antiseptic 

 remedies, particularly the Peruvian bark, cold drink, and cold 

 air. 



I shall conclude this subject with mentioning, that the ven- 

 erable octogenarian practitioner, de Fischer, when treating of 

 this subject, in laying down the indications of the cure, has 

 given this as one of them : " Excretionis peripheries non prim- 

 ariain habere rationem." 



