An Essay on Contagious Diseases: more particularly on the small-pox, measles, putrid, malignant, and pestilential feversWintringham, Clifton
History
An Essay on Contagious Diseases: more particularly on the small-pox, measles, putrid, malignant, and pestilential fevers
Wintringham, Clifton
Communicable diseases -- Early works to 1800; Fever -- Early works to 1800; Smallpox -- Early works to 1800
These likewise depend on the too great Cohesion of the sanguineous
Particles, on which account the Circulatory as well as the Motion of the
intestine Particles of the Blood being diminish'd, and many of the
Igneous Particles intangled in the viscous Cohesions, a Sensation of
Cold must necessarily ensue, and especially in those Parts where the
Motion of the Blood is most slow, and its Cohesion increased as happens
in the Extremities. The nervous Juice being likewise for the same reason
determin'd Irregularly, and in less Quantity into the Muscles, sometimes
one, sometimes another of them will be weakly contracted, or a
Shuddering will ensue.
[Sidenote: _A Low, quick, unequal
Pulse._]
These arise from the Secretion of a smaller Quantity of Animal Spirits,
and those too unfit to actuate the Heart and other Muscles, whence their
Contractions will be more weak, and being stimulated by the Acrimony of
the Juices more frequent than in a Natural State. The Derivation
likewise of the Nervous Fluid into the _Fibres_ of the Heart being
irregular, for the Reasons afore-given, the Motion of the Heart, and
consequently of the Pulse, must be weak, quick, and unequal.
[Sidenote: _Loathing, Vomiting._]
These are occasion'd partly by the Contagious Particles being drawn in
with the Breath, and in their Passage tainting the _Saliva_, which when
swallowed Irritates the Nervous Filaments of the Stomach, and partly by
the Secretion of a more Pungent and Acrid Matter by its Glandulous Coat;
as appears from their spontaneous Ceasing as soon as a Sweat can be
procured, and the Discharge of these Acrid Particles promoted by the
Perspirable Glands[u], and seldom otherwise.
[u] _Sydenham_ de Peste.
[Sidenote: _Diarrhoea._]
A _Diarrhoea_ is likewise oftentimes a Concomitant of these Fevers, and
ever of most dangerous Consequence in the Beginning of the Disease,
inasmuch as it exhausts the Strength of the Patient, and prevents the
regular Expulsion of the Perspirable Matter, by which Experience assures
us that these Contagious Particles are most effectually discharg'd.
These then indicate such Medicines as cleanse the _Primæ Viæ_ from the
Contagious Particles, and other Crudities lodged in them, blunt the
Acrimony of the Saline Particles, and promote the Regular Expulsion of
the Perspirable Matter.
[Sidenote: _Coldness of the
Extremities._]
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