SECT. XXXVI. 4- i- OF DISEASES. 359 



fluenced by lunations, may begin at one or"other of the above 

 times, namely at the changes or quadratures ; though fufficient 

 obfervations have not been made to afcertain this rircumftance. 

 Hence I conclude, that the fmall-pox and meafie? have their 

 critical days, not governed by the times required for certain 

 chemical changes in the blood, which affect or alter the ftimu- 

 lus of the contagious matter, but from the daily increafing or 

 decreafing effect of this lunar link of catenation, as explained in 

 Se6lion XVII. 3. 3. And as other fevers terminate moft fre- 

 quently about the feventh, fourteenth, twenty- firft, or about the 

 end of four weeks, when no medical affiftance has difturbed 

 their periods, I conclude, that thefe crifes, or terminations, are 

 governed by periods of the lunations, though we are (till igno- 

 rant of their manner of operation. 



In the diftincl fmall-pox the veiliges of lunation are very ap- 

 parent ; after inoculation a quarter of a lunation precedes the 

 commencement of the fever, another quarter terminates with 

 the complete eruption, another quarter with the complete matu- 

 ration, and another quarter terminates the complete abforption 

 of a material now rendered inoffenfive to the confthution. 



SECT. 



