SECT. XXXIL 1 1. i. OF IRRITATION. 303 



ver are neceflary confequenccs of the perpetual and inceffant 

 action of the arterial and glandular fyftem ; fince thofe mufcu- 

 lar fibres and thofe organs of fenfe, which are moll frequently 

 exerted, become neceflarily mod affected both with defect and 

 accumulation of fenforial power : and that \\zncefever-jits are 

 not an effort of nature to relieve herfelf> and that therefore they 

 {hould always be prevented or diminifhed as much as poflible, 

 by any means which decreafe the general or partial vafcular ac- 

 tions, when they are greater, or by increafing them when they 

 are kfs than in health, as defcribed in Sect. XII. 6. i. 



Thus have I endeavoured to explain, and I hope to the fatis- 

 faclion of the candid and patienc reader, the principal fymp- 

 toms or circumftances of fever without the introduction of the 

 fupernatural power of fpafm. To the arguments in favour of 

 the doftrine of fpafm it may be fufficient to reply, that in the 

 evolution of medical as well as of dramatic cataftrophe, 



Nee Deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus 

 Incident. HOR, 



XI. i. Since I printed the above in the firft edition of this 

 work, I am told, that the fpafmodic doctrine of fever has yet its 

 advocates ; who believe that the coldnefs at the beginning of in- 

 termittent fevers is owing to a fpafm of the cutaneous veflels. 

 But as the fkin is at that time lax and foft, the mufcular fibres 

 of thofe cutaneous veflels cannot be in action or contraction, 

 which conltitute fpafm. Whence we have the evidence both 

 of our fight and touch againtt this wild imagination. 



Others have advanced, that this fpafmodic contraction of the 

 cutaneous veflels or pores confines the heat, or drives it to the 

 heart ; which in the hot fit of fever repels the heat again to the 

 fkin by its reaction. Thofe, who efpoufe this doctrine, feem to 

 conceive, that the particles of heat are as large asfhot-corns, or 

 as the globules of blood ; and not that it is an ethereal fluid* in. 

 which all things are immerfed, and by which all things are 

 penetrated ; an opinion which originated from Galen, and mufb 

 have been founded on a total ignorance of chemiftry, and natu- 

 ral philoi'ophy. Others, I hear, ftili fuppofe cold to be a ftimu- 

 lus, not understanding that it is fimply the abfence of heat-, and 

 that darkneis might as well be called a (timulus to the eye, or 

 hunger a itimulas to the ftomach, as cold to our fenfe, which 

 perceives heat ; which is commonly confounded with our fenfe 

 of touchj which perceive figure. The pain, which we experi- 

 ence on being expofed to a want of heat, which is termed chill- 

 nefs, or coldnefs j and the pain we experience in our organs of 



digeition 



