INFLUENCE IX THE FEVERS OF IXDIA, &C. 25 



specting tlie nature and cure of fevers, it has be- 

 come an object of real importance : first, to secure 

 the knowledge we have ah-eady obtained of this 

 principle; that it may not succumb to any illiberal 

 attempt to suppress or smother it, by representing 

 it as insignificant and useless ; or by ascribing to 

 it, the \vild and groundless delusions of astrology : 

 secondly, to render the road to future observation 

 and further discovery more easy and accessible, by 

 removing the almost unsurmountable obstacles 

 that present themselves, in the intricacy and la- 

 bour of astronomical investigations : and thirdli), to 

 render our knowledge of it so precise and well de- 

 fined, that it may assume the form and attributes 

 of real science, by furnishing precepts for the pur- 

 pose of applying it to the improvement of useful 

 arts. 



\st. To place this theory on a firm and secure 

 foundation, I shall follow the example of the 

 learned Abbe' ^Iaxx, in his observations on the 

 flux and reflux of the atmosphere * : and shall 

 assume it as a principle requiring no further de- 

 monstration than what it has already received 

 from astronomy, that the influence of that attrac- 

 tion, which regulates the motions of tl>e planetary 

 system, is continually and without ceasing exert- 

 ing itself, in a proportionable degree, on every 

 particle of this globe ; and that it cannot be other- 

 Avise. 



The existence of sol-lunar influence being de- 

 monstated by astronomy, its action on the human 

 frame is no longer a m.atter of doubt; and the 

 only question that we have to consider is, not 

 whether that power does actually exist, but whe- 



* The Philosophical Mao:azine, Vol. V, page 105. 



C4 



