32 DISEASES CLASS it i. 4. i f 



> ORDO I. 



Increafed Senfation. 



GENUS V. 



With the Production of new Vejjjels by external Membranes or 

 G lands > Without Fever. 



THE ulcers, or eruptions, which are formed on the external 

 fkin, or on the mouth or throat, or on the air-cells of the lungs, 

 or on the inteftines, all of which are more or lefs expo fed to the 

 contact of the atmofpheric air, which we breathe, and which in 

 feme proportion we fwallow with ow food and faliva 5 or to 

 the contact of the inflammable air, or hydrogen, which is fet at 

 liberty by the putrefying aliment in the intellines, or by putre- 

 fying matter in large abfcefies * all of them produce contagious 

 matter ; which, on being inoculated into the fein of another 

 perfon, will produce fever, or a fimilar difeafe. 



Irt fome cafes even the matter formed beneath the fkin be- 

 comes in fome degree contagious, at lead fo much fo as to pro- 

 duce fever of the hectic or malignant kind, as foon as it has pierc- 

 ed through the (kin, and has thus gained accefs to fome kind of 

 air ; as the frefh pus of a common abfcefs ; or the putrid pus 

 of an abfcefs which has been long confined ; or of cancerous 

 ulcers. 



From this analogy there is reafon to fufpect that the matter of 

 all contagious difeafes, whether with or without fever, is not in-* 

 fedtious till it has acquired fomething from the air ; which, by 

 oxygenating the fecreted matter, may probably produce a new 

 acid. And, fecondly, that in hectic fever a part of the purulent 

 matter is abforbed ; or acts on the furface of the ulcer ; as va- 

 riolous matter affects the inoculated part of the arm. And that 

 hectic fever is therefore caufed by the matter of an open ulcer ; 

 and not by the fenfation in the ulcer independent of the aerated 

 pus, which lies on it Which may account for the venereal mat- 

 ter from buboes not giving the infection, according to the exper- 

 iments of the late Mr. Hunter, and for fome other phenomena 

 f contagion. See Variola difcreta, Clafs II. I. 3.9. 



SPECIES. 



I. Gonorrhoea venerea. A pus-like contagious material dif- 

 charged from the urethra after impure cohabitation, with fmart- 





