SUP. I. 14. 1. THEORY OF FEVER. 493 



shewed, that there was no increase of action either of the kid- 

 neys, or of the urinary absorbents. 



The bathing his legs and hands and face for half an hour twice 

 a day seemed to refresh him, and sometimes made his pulse 

 slower, and thence I suppose stronger. This seems to have been 

 caused by the water, though subtepid, being much below the 

 heat of his skin, and consequently contributing to cool the capil- 

 laries, and by satiating the absorbents to relieve the uneasy sen- 

 sation from the dryness of the skin. 



He continued the use of three drops of tincture of opium 

 from about the eighth day to the twenty-fourth, and for the 

 three preceding days took along with it two large spoonfuls of 

 an infusion of bark in equal parts of wine and water. The 

 former of these by its stimulus seemed to decrease his languor 

 for a time, and the latter to strengthen his returning power of di- 

 gestion. 



The daily exacerbations or remissions were obscure, and not 

 well attended to; but he appeared to be worse on the fourteenth 

 or fifteenth days, as his pulse was then quickest, and his inat- 

 tention greatest; and he began to get better on the twentieth 

 or twenty-first days of his disease; for the pulse then became 

 less frequent, and his skin cooler, and he took rather more food: 

 these circumstances seemed to observe the quarter periods oC 

 lunation. 



XIV. Termination of Continued Fever. 



1 . When the stomach is primarily affected with torpor not by 

 defect of stimulus, but in consequence of the previous exhaustion 

 of its sensorial power; and not secondarily by its association with 

 other torpid parts ; it seems to be the general cause of the weak 

 pulsations of the heart and arteries, and the consequent increased 

 action of the capillaries, which constitute continued fever with 

 weak pulse. In this situation if the patient recovers, it is owing 

 to the renovation of life in the torpid stomach, as happens to the 

 whole system in winter-sleeping animals. If he perishes, it is 

 owing to the exhaustion of the body for want of nourishment oc- 

 casioned by indigestion; which is hastened by the increased ac- 

 tions of the capillaries and absorbents. 



2. When the stomach is primarily affected by defect of stimu- 

 lus, as by cold or hunger; or secondarily by defect of the power 

 of association, as in intermittent fevers; or lastly in conse- 

 quence of the introduction of the sensorial power of sensation, 

 as in inflammatory diseases; the actions of the heart and arteries 

 are not diminished, as when, the stomach is primarily affected 



