GLASS. I. 1. 2. 3. OF IRRITATION. 15 



moisture of the skin; whence arose the fatal practice of forcing 

 sweats by the external warmth of air or bed-clothes in levers: 

 for external warmth increases the action of the cutaneous capil- 

 laries more than that of the other secerning vessels; because the 

 latter are habituated to 98 degrees of heat, the internal warmth of 

 the body; whereas the cutaneous capillaries being nearer the sur- 

 face are habitually kept cooler by the contact of the external air. 

 Sweats thus produced by heat in confined rooms are still more 

 detrimental; as the air becomes then not only deprived of a part 

 of its oxygene by frequent respiration, but is loaded with animal 

 effluvia as well as with moisture, till it can receive no more; and 

 in consequence, while the cutaneous secretion stands upon the 

 skin in drops for want of exhalation, the lungs are exposed to an 

 insalubrious atmosphere. 



I do not deny, that sweating may be so managed as to be 

 serviceable in preventing the return of the cold paroxysm of fevers; 

 like the warm bath, or any other permant stimulus, as wine, or 

 opium, or the bark. For this purpose it should be continued 

 till past the time of the expected cold fit, supported by moderate 

 doses of wine-whey, with spirit of hartshorn, and moderate de- 

 grees of warmth. Its salutary effect, when thus managed, was 

 probably one cause of its having been so much attended to; and 

 the fetid smell, which when profuse is liable to accompany it, 

 gave occasion to the belief, that the supposed material cause of 

 the disease was thus eliminated from the circulation. 



When too great external heat is applied, the system is weak- 

 ened by excess of action, and the torpor which causes the cold 

 paroxysm recurs sooner and more violently. For though some 

 stimuli, as of opium and alcohol, at the same time that they ex- 

 haust the sensorial power by promoting increase of fibrous action, 

 may also increase the production or secretion of it in the brain, 

 yet experience teaches us that the exhaustion far out-balances the 

 increased production, as is evinced by the general debility, which 

 succeeds intoxication. 



In respect to the fetor attending copious continued sweats, it 

 is owing to the animalized part of this fluid being kept in that de- 

 gree of warmth, which most favours putrefaction, and not suf- 

 fered to exhale into the atmosphere. Broth, or other animal 

 mucus, kept in similar circumstances, would in the same time 

 Acquire a putrid smell; yet has this error frequently produced 

 iniliary eruptions, and increased every kind of inflammatory or 

 sensitive fever. 



The ease, which the patient experiences during sweating, if 

 it be not produced by much external heat, is similar to that of 

 the warm bath; which by its stimulus applied to the cutaneous 



