CAUSES.——The pleurisy may be occasioned by whatever obstructs the perspiration; as cold northerly winds; drinking cold liquors when the body is hot; sleeping without doors on the damp ground; wet clothes; plunging the body into cold water, or exposing it to the cold air, when covered with sweat, &c. It may likewise be occasioned by drinking strong liquors; by the stoppage of usual evacuations; as old ulcers, issues, sweating of the feet or hands, &c. the sudden striking in of any eruption, as the itch, the measles, or the small-pox. Those who have been accustomed to bleed at a certain season of the year are apt, if they neglect it, to be seized with a pleurisy. Keeping the body too warm by means of fire, clothes, &c. renders it more liable to this disease. A pleurisy may likewise be occasioned by violent exercise, as running, wrestling, leaping, or by supporting great weight, blows on the breast, &c. A bad conformation of the body renders persons more liable to this disease, as a narrow chest, a straitness of the arteries of the pleura, &c. SYMPTOMS.—This, like most other fevers, generally begins with chillness and shivering, which are followed by heat, thirst, and restlessness. To these succeeds a violent pricking pain in one of the sides among the ribs. Sometimes the pain extends towards the back bone, sometimes towards the fore-part of the breast, and at other times towards the shoulder blades. The pain is generally most violent when the patient draws his breath. The pulse in this disease is commonly quick and hard, the urine high-coloured; and if blood be let, it is covered with a tough crust, or buffy coat. The patient’s spittle is at first thin, but afterwards it becomes grosser, and is often streaked with blood. REGIMEN.——Nature generally endeavours to carry off this disease by a critical discharge of blood from some part of the body, by expectoration, sweat, loose stools, thick urine, or the like. We ought therefore to second her intentions by lessening the force of the circulation, relaxing the vessels, diluting the humours, and promoting expectoration. For these purposes the diet, as in the former disease, ought to be cool, slender, and diluting. The patient must avoid all food that is viscid, hard of digestion, or that affords much nourishment; as flesh, butter, cheese, eggs, milk, and also every thing that is of a heating nature. His drink may be whey, or an infusion of pectoral and balsamic vegetables[66].