of a partial Obstruction of the Circulation. 485 



respiration short, frequent, and anxious. In some few cases 

 drowsiness and stupor have prevailed in so high a degree as 

 to resemble coma or apoplexy. 



This cold stage is succeeded by the hot stage which is 

 ushered in by a decline of the above symptoms, followed by 

 an increase of heat over the whole body, and this is, in its 

 turn, succeeded by perspiration, or the sweating stage. 



In different individuals a considerable variation may be 

 observed, both in the severity of these symptoms, and in the 

 mode of succession, and the stages may be in different pro- 

 portions of duration to each other. In some cases such 

 a prostration of strength takes place as to endanger the life 

 of the patient. In general however the disease is rarely fatal 

 when the interval between two paroxysms is distinct and 

 of considerable length. But even in these cases the person 

 becomes weakened by the repeated paroxysms, which occa- 

 sion a loss of appetite, flatulency, and other symptoms of 

 indigestion, enlargement of the spleen, and its distressing 

 consequences, and of the liver, followed by dropsy, and gene- 

 ral debility. Such attacks of fever may terminate in chronic 

 organic diseases, though in some instances the fever changes 

 from the intermittent to the remittent and continuous forms, 

 which often prove fatal, unless the patient removes to a more 

 salubrious climate. It is therefore of the greatest importance 

 to cut short the ague as soon as possible. 



The usual directions given for the treatment of ague are 

 empirical and uncertain ; and the disease is so very distressing 

 in tropical climates as to deserve a careful consideration. 

 The stoppage of the circulation in one or more limbs is the 

 most simple, yet at the same time a powerful therapeutical 

 agent in the case of intermittent fevers, and forms a striking 

 contrast to the usual feeble and ineffectual method of the 

 application of warm clothes, heat, and internal stimulants. 

 These, it is true, diminish the distressing feeling of cold, and 



