THEORY OF FEVER. SUP. 1. 15. 2. 



are alfo inflamed, the febris fenfitiva irritata, or inflammatory 

 fever, exifts. 



In all thefe fevers the part inflamed is called a phlegmon, and 

 by its violent actions excites fo much pain, that is, fo much of 

 the fenforial power of fenfation, as to produce more violent ac- 

 tions, and inflammation, throughout the whole fyftem. Whence 

 great heat from the excited capillaries of the fkin, large and 

 quick pulfations of the heart, full and hard arteries, with great 

 univerfal fecretions and abforptions. Thefe perpetually con- 

 tinue, though with exacerbations and remiilions \ which feem 

 to be governed by folar or lunar influence. 



2. In this fituation there generally, I fuppofe, exifts an in- 

 creafed activity of the fecerning veflels of th^ brain, and confe- 

 quently an increafed production of fenforial jfower ; in lefs vio- 

 lent quantity of this difeafe however the increafe of the action 

 of the heart and arteries may be owing fimply to the accumula- 

 tion of fenforial power of affociation in the ftomach, when that 

 organ is affected by fympathy with fome inflamed part. In the 

 fame manner as the capillaries are violently and permanently ac- 

 tuated by the accumulation of the fenforial power of affociation 

 in the heart and arteries, when the ftomach is affected primari- 

 ly by contagious matter, and the heart and arteries fecondarily. 

 Thus I fufpect, that in the diftinct fmall-pox the ftomach is af- 

 fected fecondarily by fympathy with the infected tonfils or 

 inoculated arm ; but that in the confluent fmall-pox the ftom- 

 ach is affected primarily, as well as the tonfils, by contagious 

 matter mixed with the faliva, and fwallowed. 



3. In inflammatory fevers with great arterial action, as the 

 ftomach is not always affected with torpor, and as there is a di- 

 rect fympathy between the ftomach and heart, fome people have 

 believed, that naufeating dofes of fome emetic drug, as of anti- 

 monium tartarizatum, have been adminiftered with advantage, 

 abating by direct fympathy the actions of the heart. This the- 

 ory is not ill-founded, and the ufe of digitalis, given in fmall 

 dofes, as from half a dram to a dram of th faturated tincture, 

 two or three times a day, as well as other lefs violent emetic 

 drugs, would be worth the attention of hofpital phyficians. 



In three cafes of what I believed to be inflammatory rheu- 

 matifm, two of them attended with pain of the fide, and diffi- 

 cult refpiration, and the other with fwelled joints, after repeated 

 venefedtions and moderate cathartics, and mild dofes of anti- 

 monials, without fuccefs, the tincture of digitalis given in the 

 fmall dofe of ten drops every fix hours, appeared to abate the 

 quicknefs and hardnefs of the pulfe in two or three or four 

 xvithout inducing any degree of ftcknefs. 



Sickncfs 



