[80] See an Account of an Ague being cured by the Patient being pushed into a Pool of Water without any previous Notice, and being much frightened, in _Mason’s Account of Agues_, p. 222. [81] The common Account given of the Cause of Agues, and of the regular Return of their Paroxysms, has been: That the Ague takes its Rise from some Sort of Matter, bilious, or whatever it may be, either mixed with the Blood, or lodged in the Bowels, or in some other Part of the Body; that a great Part of this Matter is thrown out of the Body, in the Time of the Paroxysm; but that so much remains as serves by Way of a Ferment to assimilate other Particles to its own Nature; which, when collected in a certain Quantity, produce a new Fit; and, according to the Time that it takes to produce this Quantity, the Disorder assumes the Form of a Quotidian, Tertian, or Quartan Ague. The Soldiers were subject to this Disorder, particularly in Spring, if they took the Field soon, and in Autumn: The Frequency of it was in a great Measure determined by the Nature of the Ground on which they were encamped, or the Situation of the Garrison or Town in which they were quartered; for the lower and moister the Camp or Garrison, and the more moist the Season, the more subject an Army is to Agues; and the drier the Situation of the Camp or Garrison, and the finer and drier the Weather is, the freer they are from Disorders of this Kind. In Winter 1761, we had but very few Agues in the Hospitals; but on the Return of the Troops from the Expedition into _Hesse-Cassel_, and during the Spring, some (though not many) were attacked with Quotidian and Tertian Agues, and but very few with Quartans.--In _July_ and _August_ they were more frequent, and accompanied with more bilious Symptoms. At _Bremen_, during the latter End of Autumn, and throughout the Winter and Spring 1762, we had Agues of all Sorts, and many inveterate Cases; and all this Spring, and during the Summer and Autumn, the Ague was the epidemic Disorder all over _Westphalia_, as well as among the Troops.