458 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



disease very frequently accompanied with pyrexia, sometimes 

 from the very beginning, but more frequently only after the 

 disease had continued for some time. When it does accompany 

 the disease, we have not found it appearing under any regular 

 intermittent form. It is constantly in some degree present ; 

 but with evident exacerbations towards evening, continuing till 

 next morning. 



DCCCCXI. Another symptom very frequently attending 

 the chincough, is a difficulty of breathing ; and that not only 

 immediately before and after fits of coughing, but as constantly 

 present, though in different degrees in different persons. I 

 have hardly ever seen an instance of a fatal chincough, in 

 which a considerable degree of pyrexia and dyspnoea had not 

 been for some time constantly present. 



MCCCCXII. When, by the power of the contagion, this 

 disease has once taken place, the fits of coughing are often re- 

 peated, without any evident exciting cause : but, in many cases, 

 the contagion may be considered as giving a predisposition only , 

 and the frequency of fits depends in some measure upon vari- 

 ous exciting causes ; such as violent exercise, a full meal, the 

 having taken in food of difficult solution, irritations of the lungs 

 by dust, smoke, or disagreeable odours of a strong kind ; and, 

 especially, any considerable emotion of the mind. 



MCCCCXIII. Such are the chief circumstances of this 

 disease, and it is of various event ; which, however, may be 

 commonly foreseen by attending to the following considera- 

 tions. 



The younger that children are, they are in the greater dan- 

 ger from this disease ; and of those to whom it proves fatal, 

 there are many more under two years old than above it. 



The older that children are, they are the more secure against 

 an unhappy event ; and this I hold to be a very gei: eral rule, 

 though I own there are many exceptions to it. 



Children born of phthisical and asthmatic parents are in the 

 greatest danger from this disease. 



When the disease, beginning in the form of a catarrh, is at- 

 tended with fever and difficult breathing, and with little expec- 

 toration, it often proves fatal, without taking on the form of the 

 hooping-cough ; but, in most of such cases, the coming on of 



