THEORY OF METASTASIS. 1091 



jury has been so serious as nearly to arrest the 

 process of breathing, the extremities remain cold, 

 and the pulse feeble, for two or three days, or 

 until death. And as the stomach is no longer 

 supplied with good arterial blood, the secretion 

 of gastric juice is arrested, causing a loss of appe- 

 tite, nausea, or even vomiting. For the same 

 reason, the voluntary muscles being no longer 

 duly nourished, lose the power of contraction, 

 and the healthy state of all the functions is no 

 less certainly destroyed than by a dose of arsenic, 

 oxalic acid, or any of the narcotic poisons, which, 

 as I have already shewn, never produce their 

 deleterious effects by sympathy or nervous influ- 

 ence, but always by impairing the vital properties 

 of the blood. And it is equally manifest, that 

 the hectic fever which attends phthisis, is not 

 owing to sympathy of the whole body with the 

 primary affection of the lungs, but to a loss of the 

 nutritive properties of the blood. 



It has been long known, that rheumatism, gout, 

 erysipelas, and other local inflammations are 

 sometimes suddenly removed from the surface or 

 extremities to the stomach, brain, heart, lungs, 

 &c. by what has been called metastasis, the 

 rationale of which is no less obscure than that of 

 sympathy. By far the most frequent cause of 

 this change or transfer of disease from superficial 

 to deep seated parts, is the local application of 

 cold, when the body is in a feeble state. For 



