510 THEORY OF FEVER. SUP. I. 16. 10. 



pulse from the strong one, it may generally be assisted by count- 

 ing its frequency. For when an adult patient lies horizontally 

 in a cool room, and is not hurried or alarmed by the approach of 

 his physician, nor stimulated by wine or opium, the strong pulse 

 seldom exceeds 118 or 120 in a minute; and the weak pulse 

 is generally not much below 130, and often much above that 

 number; except where a patient has naturally a pulse slower 

 than usual in his healthy state. Secondly, in sitting up in bed, 

 or changing the horizontal to a perpendicular posture, the quick- 

 ness of the weak pulse is liable immediately to increase 10 or 

 20 pulsations in a minute, which does not, I believe, occur in the 

 strong pulse, when the patient has rested himself after the exer- 

 tion of rising. 



I shall here insert a remark on the general use of stimulating 

 materials, whether medicinal or culinary, to counteract or pre- 

 vent debility. When a stimulating material is exhibited, as the 

 Peruvian bark, or opium, or wine; it should be continued but 

 a certain time, as half a lunation, or a whole lunation. If the 

 whole system be stimulated into increased exertion, as by wine 

 or opium, there appears to be a temporary increased secretion of 

 sensorial power in the brain, so long as this stimulus affects the 

 system. If a part only of the system be stimulated, as by the 

 exhibition of spices, essential oils, or bitter medicines, or metal- 

 lic ones, then the stimulated organ has derived to it a greater 

 quantity of sensorial power, or a greater secretion of it is pro- 

 duced in that part of the brain, where the stimulated nerves 

 arise. Which is probably owing to the sympathy of the stimu- 

 lated extremity of every nerve, or its organ of sense, with the 

 other extremity of it in the brain, in the same manner as when 

 the excretory duct of a gland is stimulated, a greater secretion 

 is produced in the body of it, as when the ducts of the lachrymal 

 glands in the eyes, or of the salivary glands in the mouth, are 

 stimulated by dust or acrid materials. 



Now if a stimulating medicine be given at certain intervals of 

 time, as the Peruvian bark or wine in fevers, the increased ac- 

 tion of a part or of the whole system soon becomes a link of 

 the associated circle of diurnal actions, and may be said to be- 

 come habitual. 



The quantity of the stimulating medicine may then be dimi- 

 nished, and yet the increased activity of the system will continue; 

 because the increased exertions are now produced partly by the 

 sensorial power of association, as they are become a part of the 

 diurnal circle of actions. And finally the stimulating medicine 

 maybe totally omitted, and yet the increased activity of the sys- 

 tem continue for the same reason. 



