Cloudy or Rainy, or Fair and Sun-shining days: or like the Four Seasons of the Year, where the Cold Fits are like _Winter_, cold and windy; the Hot Fits like _Summer_, hot and dry; the Sweating Fits like _Autumn_, warm and moist; and, when the Fit is past, like the _Spring_. But, to conclude, the chief Cause of Agues, is, Irregular Digestions, that make half-concocted Humours; and according as these half-concocted Humours digest, the Patient hath his Aguish Distempers, where some are every day, others every second day, some every third day, and some _Quartans_: but, by reason those half-concocted Humours, are of several sorts of Humors, some Cold, some Hot, some Cold and Dry, some Hot and Dry, or Hot and Moist; and those different sorts, raw, or but half-concocted Humours; they occasion such disorder, not only by an unnatural manner of Digestion, as not to be either timely, or regular, by degrees; but, those several sorts of Raw Humours, strive and struggle with each other for Power or Supremacy: but, according as those different Raw Humours concoct, the Fits are longer or shorter: also, according to the quantity of those Raw Humours, and according as those Humours are a gathering, or breeding, so are the times of those Fits and Intermissions. But here is to be noted, That some Agues may be occasioned from some Particular Irregular Digestions; others from a General Irregular Digestion, some from some obscure Parts, others from ordinary Humours. CHAP. V. Of CONSUMPTIONS. There are many sorts of _Consumptions_; as, some are Consumptions of the Vital Parts, as the Liver, Lungs, Kidneys, or the like Parts: Others, a Consumption of the Radical Parts: Others a Consumption of the Spiritous Parts: Other Consumptions are only of the Flesh; which, in my opinion, is the only Curable Consumption. But, all Consumptions, are not only an Alteration, but a Wasting and Dis-uniting of the Fundamental Parts; only those Consuming Parts do, as it were, steal away by degrees; and so, by degrees, the Society of a Human Creature is dissolved. CHAP. VI. Of DROPSIES. _Dropsies_ proceed from several Causes; as, some from a decay of some of the Vital Parts; others through a superfluity of indigested Humours; some from a supernatural Driness of some Parts; others through a superfluity of Nourishing Motions; some, through some Obstructions; others, through an excess of Moist Dyet: but, all Dropsies proceed not only from Irregular Motions, but from such a particular Irregularity, as all the Motions endeavour to be of one Mode, (as I may say) that is, To move after the manner of those sorts of Motions which are the innate Nature of Water, and are some sorts of Circular Dilatations: but, by these actions, the Human Society endeavours to make a Deluge, and to turn from the Nature of Blood and Flesh, to the Nature of Water. CHAP. VII. Of SWEATING.