CLASS I. i. 2. 3. OF IRRITATION. 17 



inach fait, or falted meat, the fea-fcurvy is produced ; which 

 confiit i in the inirritability of the bibulous terminations of the 

 Veins arifing from the capillaries j fee Clafs I. 2. i. 14. Tha 

 fcrofula, or inirritability of the lymphatic glands, feems alib to be 

 occafion-illy induced by an excefs in eating fait added to food of 

 bad nouri foment. See Clafs I. 2'. 3. 21. If an excefs of per- 

 fpiration is induced by warm or ftimulant clothing, as by wear- 

 ing flannel in contact with the (kin in the fiimmer months, a per- 

 petual febricula is excited, both by the preventing the accefs of 

 cool air to the {kin, and by perpetually goading it by the numerous 

 and hard points of the ends of the wool j which when applied to 

 the tender fkinsof young children, frequently produce the red 

 gum, as it is called ; and in grown people, either an eryfipe- 

 las, or a miliary eruption, attended with fever. See Ciafs II. 

 i. 3. 12. 



Shirts made of cotton or calico ftimulate ths (kiri too much 

 by the points of the fibres, though lefs than flannel ; whence 

 cotton handkerchiefs make the note fore by frequent ufe. The 

 fibres of cotton are, I fuppofe, ten times fhorter than thofe of 

 flax, and the number of points in confequence twenty times the 

 number; and though the manufacturers fmge their calicoes on a 

 red-hot iron cylinder, yet I have more than once teen an eryiip- 

 elas induced or increaied by the ftimulus of calico, as well as of 

 flannel j and have during the lail fummer prevailed on two, who 

 were confined to their beds by fevers, and three, who were in a 

 ftate of great debility, to difencumber themfeJves of the flan- 

 nel Hurts, which they had worn for fome time j all of them be- 

 came immediately and confiderably relieved ; and found no in- 

 convenience afterwards by difcontinuing an unneceflary ftimulus, 

 which had nothing to recommend it to thofe patients but the 

 frivolous fafhion of the day. 



The inconvenience^ which weak conftitutions experience frorri 

 wearing flannel fhirts, arifes from this circumitance 5 that the ex- 

 tremities of their limbs are more liable to become cold, than the 

 furface of the cheil and abdomen, and that hence they fhould in 

 preference wear warmer (lockings, (hoes, and focks, or gloves. 

 By ilimulating the warmer parts of the (kin into too ftrong and 

 iifelefs exertion, as by the hard points of a flannel fnirt at ali iea- 

 fons, and by its confining the warmth of the (kin too much i:i 

 the fummer months, a part of the fcnforial power becomes un- 

 neceflarily expended ; and in weak conftitutions, where there is 

 none to fpare, fome other parts of the fyftem mud act with Icfs 

 energy ; and thus I believe the extremities of feeble people be- 

 come colder by the ufe of a flannel fliirt ; in ftronger people, and 

 perhaps in warmer climates, this increafsd cakiaefs of the e.t- 



Vol. II. D treuiiti"., 



