1034 THEORY OF DU. S. SMITH. 



to induce a preternatural temperature; as in syn- 

 cope, apoplexy, the worst forms of cholera, cold 

 plague, tetanus, hydrophobia, and other spasmodic 

 affections. Yet the most enlightened authors of 

 the present day admit, that the theory of fever is 

 wholly unknown ;* consequently, that the various 

 methods of treating it are empirical, vacillating, 

 inefficient, and often injurious. 



It may also be received as a fundamental prin- 

 ciple in pathology, that every variety of constitu- 

 tional disease is ushered in with a loss or deficient 

 supply of animal heat. But we are informed by 

 Dr. Southwood Smith, in his work on Fever, 

 that physiologists know so little about the mode 

 in which animal heat is generated, that they have 



* Dr. James Johnson observes, in his work on Tropical Climates, 

 that the proximate cause of fever and other forms of. disease is 

 totally beyond our comprehension ; and Dr. Alison regards it as 

 " unreasonable to expect that we shall ever go far in explaining 

 the peculiar phenomena of fever." (Outlines of Physiology and 

 Pathology, p. 513.) He further observes, in another work, that 

 " the adaptation of arterial blood to the maintenance of vital 

 action in general and of circulation in particular, seems to be one 

 of the primary laws or conditions of vitality, for which it is in 

 vain to look for an explanation." (Cycl. of Pract. Med. Part 

 xxiv.) Dr. George Gregory also observes, that " if we cannot 

 unfold the nature of the healthy vital actions, it is not surprising 

 that pathologists have failed in explaining those which occur in 

 disease." (Theory and Practice of Physic, p. 164.) He seems 

 fully aware that all the phenomena of disease are immediately 

 connected with some derangement of the nutritive process. But 

 he adds, " the whole subject of the functions of the capillary 

 system is exceedingly obscure; and that Bichat considered it 

 altogether beyond our reach." 



