ART. VII. 2. 3. 2. TORPENTIA. 77 



and exhilarated ; the animal power, which was thus waded in 

 vain, being now applied to more ufeful purpofes. Thus when 

 the limbs on one fide are difabled by a ftroke of the pally, thofe 

 of the other fide are perpetually in motion. And hence all 

 people bear riding and other exercifes beft in cold weather. 



Patients in fevers, where the (kin is hot, are immediately 

 flrengthened by cold air ; which is therefore of great ufe in fe- 

 vers attended with debility and heat ; but may perhaps be of 

 temporary diflervice, if too haftily applied in fome fituations of 

 fevers attended with internal topical inflammation, as in peri- 

 pneumony or pleurify, where the arterial fhrength is too great al- 

 ready, and the increafed action of the external capillaries being 

 deftroyed by the cold, the action of the internal inflamed part 

 may be fuddenly increafed, unlefs venefection and other evacu- 

 ations are applied at the fame time. Yet in mod caies the ap- 

 plication of cold is neverthelefs falutary, as by decreafing the 

 heat of the particles of blood in the cutaneous veffels, the ftim- 

 ulus of them, and the diitention of the veflels becomes confider- 

 ably lefTened. In external inflammations, as the fmall-pox, and 

 perhaps the gout and rhcumatifm, the application of cold air 

 muit be of great fervice by decreafing the action of the inflamed 

 fkin, though the contrary is too frequently the practice in thofe 

 difeafes. It muft be obferved, that for all thefe purpofes the ap- 

 plication of it fhould be continued a long time, other wife an in- 

 creafed exertion follows the temporary torpor, before the difeafe 

 is deftroyed. 



The topical application of cold to relieve inflammatory pains, 

 or to deftroy the too great action of the vefTels, may be ufed 

 with great advantage. In local inflammations, as in the pleuri- 

 fy, or ophthalmia, or in local pains from the ftimulus of an ex- 

 traneous body, as in gravel descending along the ureter, the ap- 

 plication of cold on or near the affected part may be ufed with 

 falutary effect, as by prefling on the part a bladder full of cold 

 water with fait difiblving in it ; or by the evaporation of ether 

 on it ; which may render the vefTels torpid or inactive. But the 

 application of cold to the whole fkin might increafe the action 

 of the inflamed vefTels by diminifhing that of the fkin and lungs, 

 and thus accumulating a greater quantity of fenforial power \ 

 and this efpecially if it was applied previous to evacuations by 

 the lancet or by cathartics. 



I am informed that an ingenious and eminent furgeon in 

 Shropfhire, when he was himfelf afreet ed with gravel in the ure- 

 ter, attended with exceflive and continued pain, found inftanta- 

 neous relief frequently in a day by applying on the painful part 

 a bag of fnow or pounded ice, and fuffering it to diflblve. And 

 in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London, Vol. V. Mr. 



Parkinfon 



