I 14 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 17'25. 



proportionate to the vehemence of the distemper, but without any disadvantage 

 to the patients; the running of the blister supplying the defect of the spitting. 

 It seems then but reasonable, when we expect the translation of the noxious 

 humour to the hands, which is what nature itself affects, to endeavour to pro- 

 mote its flux thither, and give it vent. 



How advantageous discharges of this nature may be, the Doctor had occasion 

 once to observe in the case of a lady ; where through the prodigious discharge 

 of blisters, applied to her neck, ears, and arms, as also a plentiful flux of urine, 

 she neither swelled nor salivated, through the whole course of a very danger- 

 ous, confluent small-pox, and yet recovered. 



Any person, that has been conversant in practice, cannot but have observed 

 translations of the morbid matter, from one part to another, sometimes of the 

 greatest service, especially where it has had a discharge. Indeed, all critical 

 evacuations are of this nature. But he means, how often has a bile, an im- 

 posthume, or swelling of the limbs, been the evident means of terminating a 

 fever ? This he experienced particularly in himself, several years before at Paris, 

 when labouring under a violent inflammatory fever, with delirium, the Qth day 

 towards night, he was seized with excessive pain in the arms and hands, upon 

 which he bathed his hands a long time in warm water, by the persuasion of 2 

 gentlemen of the faculty. In a little time his hands began to swell, and in 4 

 or 5 hours the delirium and fever went off entirely, though the hands remained 

 swoln and pained for some time. 



If nature therefore, in some cases, take such extraordinary methods to free 

 herself from diseases, how intent ought we to be in promoting her operations, 

 in a distemper, where the metastasis of the morbific matter to the hands and 

 feet is generally regular and salutary. It is doubtless on this view, that Baglivi 

 orders sponges soaked in a warm emollient decoction, to be applied to the hands 

 and feet in the small-pox : and this, he says, he has done with great success. 

 The Doctor has seen no less from blisters maturely applied to the arms and legs; 

 ordering the patients to drink plentifully of a thin whey, or the like, which 

 takes off, in great measure, the acrimony of the cantharides. 



The Doctor observes, that the delirium, attending the eruption of the small- 

 pox, is very much alleviated by the application of emollient cataplasms to the 

 feet, in children especially; and in many cases it has been the means of deriving 

 the variolous matter that way ; and by making the eruptions more copious in 

 the lower parts, the face and breast have suffered less than otherwise might have 

 happened. The great tenderness of the feet, which happens after their appli- 

 cation, is a trifling disadvantage, in comparison of the benefit that may be re- 

 ceived by them; and so are those shooting pains, which often affect the legs on 



