58 PHYSIC 



proportion of the eruptive diseases, inasmuch as the type 

 of the eruption seems not to depend on the surface distri- 

 bution of the blood capillary circulation, but on that of 

 some other surface textural element what then can that 

 be ? In our opinion, it can only be the nerve terminal 

 arborisations, their distribution determining the position, 

 shape, and duration of the eruption, or rash. This occur- 

 rence would and could, of course, only be the pathological 

 outcome of a previous invasion and sepsis of the cerebro- 

 spinal lymph cavities, and the subsequent outflow along 

 the nerve trunks and their terminal distributions of the 

 resultant microbe-laden fluid the primary infection taking- 

 place from the blood streams communicating with the 

 brain and nervous system, or by direct transit into the 

 cerebro-spinal lymph circulation via the neural lymph 

 channels. 



The process of eruption is attended by more or less 

 profound disturbance of the peripheral or distal ends of 

 the sensory nervature, with an appreciable subjective 

 experience of motor involvement, in many cases followed 

 sooner or later by a "sense of relief" and gradual de- 

 fervescence. 



In diseases in which the nerve terminal textures are 

 simultaneously affected with the blood capillary circu- 

 latory vessels, as in haemorrhagic variola, the prognosis is 

 always grave, the apparent reason being the re-invasion and 

 sepsis of the blood by a fresh culture, so to speak, under- 

 going excretion from the cerebro-spinal septic lymph 

 spaces. 



The presence in the cerebro-spinal lymph of a microbic 

 organism undergoing the process of more or less rapid 

 growth and decay, with the resultant accumulation of 

 toxinal matter, explains much of the intellectual and 

 nervous disturbance so frequently associated with exanthe- 

 matous disease, and affords a clue by which its future 

 course and conduct may be anticipated and its progress, 

 to some extent, guided thus the preliminary flushing of 

 the excretory apparatus, most involved in the process of 

 eruption, assists in determining and accomplishing it, as 

 we observe when we succeed in setting up a free dia- 

 phoresis. 



