AND ANIMAL LIFE. 403 



mind ; but in every one of these cases, the debi- 

 lity, in relation to the condition of the solids and the 

 fluids, is as various as its causes. If we, for a mo- 

 ment, examine a patient labouring under phthi- 

 sical symptoms, we perceive the fair complexion 

 intermingled with a florid flush, white teeth, and 

 snowy hands, body easily fatigued, and mind 

 buoyant with bright hopes ; but are these the 

 symptoms we observe in the latter stage of typhus? 

 CCCCLXXXI. The nature of the sanguine- 

 ous fluid will vary with the character and dura- 

 tion of the disease ; and the state of the whole 

 system will be influenced more or less by the 

 same causes. If the body suddenly become 

 weak, we cannot expect that the blood, the fluids, 

 and the solids of the system, shall have undergone 

 those minute and extensive changes which in- 

 variably follow or accompany opposite circum- 

 stances. The healthy action of vessels may be 

 as much deranged as the fluids which circulate 

 in them ; and when this general diseased state 

 occurs, we certainly have a right to anticipate 

 the well-marked indications of asthenic affec- 

 tions. We have then petechias or ecchymoses, 

 not because the blood alone is diseased, or the 

 capillary vessels, or the various solids or fluids of 

 the body, but because the whole of them are 

 more or less affected. If this reasoning be cor- 

 rect, is it consistent to expect in a paralyzed limb, 

 or in the decrepid weakness of old age, or in the 



last moments of life, the same external signs of 

 ccSI 



