RATIO SYMPTOMATUM. 1043 



after all, or the greater part of the excretions have 

 been locked up for several days, as in most cases 

 of fever ? 



In the mean time, as the brain and nervous 

 system are no longer supplied with good arterial 

 blood, there is a loss of sensibility, impaired 

 memory, confusion of thought, head-ache, and 

 stupor, which, in some cases, approaches the 

 condition of apoplexy. Again, that the loss of 

 appetite, nausea, and sometimes vomiting, which 

 attend the cold stage, are owing to a deficiency 

 of good arterial blood in the capillaries of the 

 stomach, is evident from the fact, that the very 

 same symptoms are produced by excessive loss 

 of blood, the influence of intense cold, the inhala- 

 tion of mephitic gases, or the rarefied air of high 

 mountains, emetics, the narcotic and other poisons, 

 or whatever tends to debilitate that important 

 organ, arrest the secretion of gastric juice, and 

 with it the process of digestion. The consequence 

 of which is, that no chyme is formed during the 

 cold stage of fever to unite with bile, which accu- 

 mulates in the gall bladder arid duodenum, until 

 discharged by vomiting, or in the form of bilious 

 stools. It is therefore obvious that the proximate 

 cause of fever is not an excess of bile, as main- 

 tained for the last two thousand years ; nor debi- 

 lity of the brain and a spasmodic state of the 

 extreme vessels, as supposed by Cullen ; nor in- 

 flammation of the stomach and bowels, as sup- 



