18 DISEASES CLASS I. 1. 2. 3, 



tremities may not be perceptible; as stronger persons can better 

 bear some increased exertion, and the consequent unnecessary 

 loss of some sensorial power; and in warmer climates the ex- 

 tremities may not be so liable to become cold. 



Analogous to this I remember to have seen an inoculated child 

 about six years old, whose bosom and face, at the beginning of the 

 eruptive fever were of a fiery red colour, and exceedingly hot to 

 the touch; and whose feet were at the same time pale, and cold 

 to the touch. When on exposing the bosom and face to colder 

 air with the feet only slightly covered, the colour of the former in 

 a few minutes became nearly natural, with little excess of tangi- 

 ble heat, and at the same time the feet became as warm as natural. 



Whence I conclude, that all unnecessary increase of stimuli, as 

 of warm clothing, wine, and opium, is more injurious to fee- 

 ble constitutions than to robust ones; and that such stimuli alone 

 are salutary to weak persons, as increase those actions of the sys- 

 tem, which are immediately necessary to life and health, as the 

 class of medicines termed sorbentia, as peruvian bark, and other 

 bitters, and very small quantities of steel, as these seem to increase 

 the activity of the absorbent system, both of the lymphatic and 

 venous ones, and thus supply more nutrition, with all its salutary 

 consequences. And that the use of these sorbentia, as well as 

 of the occasional use of warmer clothing, wine, and opium, 

 should be discontinued, as soon as the system can acquire the 

 natural habit of acting with sufficient energy without them, See 

 Article II. 2. 2. 1. of the Materia Medica. 



The increase of perspiration by heat either of clothes, or of fire, 

 contributes much to emaciate the body; as is well known to jock- 

 eys, who, when they are a stone or two too heavy for riding, 

 find the quickest way to lessen their weight is by sweating them- 

 selves between blankets in a warm room; but this likewise is a 

 practice by no means to be recommended, as it weakens the sys- 

 tem by the excess of so general a stimulus, brings on a premature 

 old age, and shortens the span of life; as may be further deduced 

 from the quick maturity, and shortness of the lives, of the inhabi- 

 tants of Hindostan, and other tropical climates. 



When the heat of the body in weak patients in fevers is in- 

 creased by the stimulus of the points of flannel, a greater conse- 

 quent debility succeeds, than when it is produced by the warmth 

 of fire; as in the former the heat is in part owing to the increas- 

 ed activity of the skin, and consequent expenditure of sensorial 

 power; whereas in the latter case it is in part owing to the 

 influx of the fluid matter of heat. 



So the warmth produced by equitation, or by rubbing the body 

 and limbs with a smooth brush or hand, as is done after bathing 



