PERIODS OF DISEASES. SECT. XXXVI. 5, 



1. A diurnal fever in fome weak people is diftinft- 

 !y obferved to come on towards evening, and to 

 ceafe with a moift (kin early in the morning, obey- 

 ing the folar periods. Perfons of weak conftituti- 

 ons aie liable to get into better fpirits at the accefs 

 of the hot fit of this evening fever; and are thence 

 inclined to fit up late ; which by further enfeebling 

 them increafes the difeafe ; whence they lofe their 

 ftrength and their colour. 



2. The periods of hectic fever, fuppofed to arife 

 from abforptionof matter, obeys the diurnal periods 

 like the above, having the exacerbefcence towards 

 evening, and its remifiion early in the morning, with 

 fweats, or diarrhoea, or urine with white fediment. 



3. The periods of quotidian fever are either cate- 

 nated with folar time, and return at the intervals of 

 twenty-four hours ; or with lunar time, recurring 

 at the intervals of about twenty-five hours. There 

 is great ufe in knowing with what circumftances the 

 periodical return or new morbid motions are con- 

 joined, as the moil effectual times of exhibiting the 

 proper medicines are thus determined. So if the 

 torpor, which ufhers in an ague fit, is catenated 

 with the lunar day : it is known, when the bark or 

 opium mud be given, fo as to exert its principal 

 effect about the time of the expected return. Solid 

 opium mould be given about an hour before the 

 expected cold fit ; liquid opium and wine about half 

 an hour ; the bark repeatedly for fix or eight hours 

 previous to the expected return. 



4. The periods of tertian fevers, reckoned from 

 the commencement of one cold fit to the commence- 

 ment of the next cold fit, recur with folar intervals 

 of forty-eight hours, or with lunar ones of about 

 fifty hours. When thefe of recurrence begin one 

 or two hours earlier than the folar period, it (hews, 

 that the torpor or cold fit is produced by lefs ex- 

 ternal influence ; and therefore that it is more liable 



to 



