III. Sweating was introduced into practice at a time when morbific matter was supposed to be the proximate cause of fever. It acts, not by expelling any thing exclusively morbid from the blood, but by abstracting a portion of its fluid parts, and thus reducing the action of the blood-vessels. This mode of curing fever is still fashionable in genteel life. It excites no fear, and offends no sense. The sweating remedies have been numerous, and fashion has reigned as much among them, as in other things. Alexipharmic waters, and powders, and all the train of sudorific medicines, have lately yielded to the different preparations of antimony, particularly to James's powder. I object to them all, 1. Because they are uncertain; large and repeated doses of them being often given to no purpose. 2. Because they are slow, and disagreeable, where they succeed in curing fever. 3. Because, like vomits and purges, they are not under the direction of a physician, with respect to the quantity of fluid discharged by them. 4. Because they are sometimes, even when most profuse, ineffectual in the cure of fever. 5. The preparations of antimony, lately employed for the purpose of exciting sweats, are by no means safe. They sometimes convulse the system by a violent puking. Even the boasted James's powder has done great mischief. Dr. Goldsmith and Mr. Howard, it is said, were destroyed by it. None of these objections to sweating remedies are intended to dissuade from their use, when nature shows a disposition to throw off a fever by the pores of the skin; but, even then, they often require the aid of bleeding to render them effectual for that purpose. IV. Mercury, the Sampson of the materia medica, after having subdued the venereal disease, the tetanus, and many other formidable diseases, has lately added to its triumphs and reputation, by overcoming the inflammatory and malignant state of fever. I shall confine myself, in this place, to its depleting operation, when it acts by exciting a salivation. From half a pound to two pounds of fluid are discharged by it in a day. The depletion in this way is gradual, whereby fainting is prevented. By exciting and inflaming the glands of the mouth and throat, excitement and inflammation are abstracted from more vital parts. In morbid congestion and excitement in the brain, a salivation is of eminent service, from the proximity of the discharge to the part affected. But I object to it, as an exclusive evacuant in the cure of fever, 1. Because it is sometimes impossible, by the largest doses of mercury, to excite it, when the exigences of the system render it most necessary. 2. Because it is not so quick in its operation, as to be proportioned to the rapid progress of the malignant state of fever. 3. Because it is at all times a disagreeable, and frequently a painful remedy, more especially where the teeth are decayed.