360 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



This extraordinary symptom would seem to 

 depend on the same condition of the blood and its 

 distribution that we stated to exist in diarrhoea. 

 In hysteria, nervous diseases, spasmodic asth- 

 ma,* and in several febrile affections, the urine is 

 much changed either in its general colour or quan- 

 tity, or in both. The ancients, who attended much 

 to critical days, considered a favourable crisis at 

 hand when the urine in fever deposited a sedi- 

 ment, or lost its usual watery appearance. The 

 moderns, who observe, are disposed to regard 

 this occurrence in the same light. Why the ab- 

 sence or presence of this simple sign should 

 be believed untoward or propitious has never 

 been explained. Fever never exists without dis- 

 turbing the whole frame : when ushered in, it 

 generally excites the organic and animal func- 

 tions, and as long as this action continues the 

 urine is neither particularly copious nor limpid, 

 often in the opposite states : but when the symp- 

 toms are changed, and we perceive them to be 

 of an asthenic character, or in any measure ap- 

 proaching to it, the urine is then pale, showing 

 that the blood Jrom which it is formed is deficient 

 in its usual properties. 



CCCCXXXII. When the internal organs are 

 gradually relieved of the increased quantity and 

 improper quality of the blood, they allow this to 



* It has previously been shown that the symptoms which 

 characterise these diseases indicate internal congestion. 



