a = ee 
SECT. VII. PHYSIOLOGY. "3 
close, that if I had had the treatment of them, 
my attention would have been directed more to 
the brain and spinal marrow than to the alimentary 
canal. Besides removing constipation, purgatives 
are probably beneficial in causing a derivation 
from the brain. 
cLxx1. Like other spasmodic diseases, chorea 
has been cured by fever: I might easily illustrate 
this by a case, but I prefer quoting a general 
_ observation of the illustrious Stahl, on the auto- 
crateia: “ Hee est vera illa medicina nature, qua, 
sine medico externo consilio et auxilio, multos 
sanari jampridem monuit Hippocrates. Hee est 
_ methodus illa autocratica summe dignitatis ad 
considerationem, atque pensationem solertissimam 
adhibendam, qua homines e gravissimis etiam 
quibuslibet morbis, sponte nature, ut loquuntur, 
mortis periculum evadunt, et ad sanitatem rever- 
tuntur.” 
cLxxit. Convulsions of Hydrophobia—Most of 
the poisons have something peculiar in their action 
on the nervous system; the virus of hydrophobia 
is remarkable for the slowness and the destructive 
certainty of its operation. The hydrophobic virus 
is usually communicated by the bite of a rabid 
animal, which heals like a common wound; and 
the symptoms of the disorder often do not appear 
for months afterwards. Gentilis mentions, in a 
quotation, that hydrophobia has appeared forty 
K 
