90 
ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 
case is bound to do his utmost in order to extinguish it ; and, 
however severe his measures may seemingly be, will any person 
with common judgment say “ that less severe, less active means 
would have done equally well, or better, thereby saving a need- 
less waste of blood, and a still more needless waste of medicine ?” 
The point in dispute is simply a rule-of-three question, and it 
is this, — if so much bleeding and medicine did great good, will 
not much less of both do ill? Most assuredly it would. A trifling 
bleeding is often worse than none, and I may say the same of a 
limited quantity of medicines given. But the lost balance of the 
circulation must be restored, and the stomachs and bowels roused 
to a healthy vigorous action ; and as soon as these are accom- 
plished, the case will be likely to do well. 
It is a matter of moonshine to me whether I can do this by the 
use of one kind of medicine or by the use of twenty, if I can 
gain my object in removing the original cause, — fever; and until 
this is done, until re-action takes place, I will never be debarred 
from depletion, however oppressed the animal may appear to be, 
because the parent of this oppression is fever. 
• In my last paper, without thinking much upon the matter, I 
termed this “ oppression” " debility ;” and I also stated that 
“ the animal seemed to be worn out from complete general ex- 
haustion.” Of this mistake Mr. F. has taken hold ; he has, to 
use an expressive Scotch phrase, “got a hair to make a tether 
o’.” He did not make any allowance for it, as I did for his 
blunders ; but I will not, I cannot, appeal to the profession, 
whether I did not know better : I would make no such appeal 
to any one, were it in my power to do so ; for a blunder, whoever 
commits it, is always a blunder. However, the inability to get 
up or stand does not arise from paralysis; it does not arise from 
debility, but from “ oppression,” from the balance of the circu- 
lation being upset. 
It may be asked. Why should fevers not cause weakness? 
because, if they did, the ionger the fever existed the greater the 
weakness would be, and they would never have an end. It may 
also be inquired, When does “ re-action” take place, and what is 
it? Re-action may never take place ; and when it does so, no one 
can describe the cause or the mode of acting. It is owing to 
some principle of life of which we are at present ignorant. 
Some persons maintain that “fevers arise from diminished 
action of the brain ;” but these very persons cannot tell us what 
“ diminished action of the brain” is. I should think fevers may 
arise from diminished action in all organs. 
I think I have shewn with sufficient clearness that, in puerperal 
fever, fever is the " cause” and not the “ consequence” of some 
