10 REMARKABLE EFFECTS OF SOL-LUNAR 



In my explanation of this theory, I have hither- 

 to confined myself as much as possible to examples 

 of the typhus, and of the endemic, remitting, and 

 intermitting bilious fevers of this country ; parti- 

 cularly those without local affection; and such 

 therefore as are strictly denominated fevers. I 

 now mean to extend it to every disease that is dis- 

 tinguished by febrile paroxysms, returning in coin- 

 cidence with the periods of increased sol-lunar 

 poM'cr, whether with or without local afiection; 

 and as there is no disease of the numerous list de- 

 tailed at the beginning of this paper, excepting 

 the plague* catarrhal fevers, and one or two 

 more, in which I have not myself distinctly ob- 

 served the coincidence of concomitant fever with 

 the exacerbations of sol-lunar influence ; the whole 

 of that catalogue, and many others, though not 

 generally distinguished by the appellation of fevers, 

 are to be considered as nothing more than so many 

 different modifications of fever; in which the pe- 

 culiar constitution of each is variously affected by 

 the action of sol-lunar power, and in such a man- 

 ner as to produce the great variety of febrile forms 

 that daily appear. 



The exacerbation and remission of febrile pa- 

 roxysm in coincidence with the rising and falling 

 of sol-lunar power constitutes the general and dis- 

 tinguishing cliaracter of fever or febrile disease ; 



* In several of the ca'^es of the plague, recorded by Dr. Pa- 

 TT?ICK RussEL, the febrile paroxysms returned obviously every 

 IweJve hours in coincideitce witii the periods of tbe tides; and his 

 predecessor and relalion, the author of the Natural History of 

 Aleppo, says positively " that tlie generahty of fevers there, and 

 " iiult'cd almost all acute diseahcs, are subject to exacerbations 

 " once or twice in twenty-four hours." f^ide Doctor Millar's 

 Observations on the prevailing Diseases of Great Britain, page 

 203. 



