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Show Temperature small rooms in lowu-oofcd houses ; yet more proportionally of the Foresters were recovered, and that much sooner than any of the rest." Two army physicians, Dr. Sinnot and 'Dr. Sut~ ton, have severally attested a similar fact, reSpecting the recovery of British fever-patients, "'1. 1‘s. 7 --.... . u. FLA}?I"2. '51. hastily driven along day and night in Open wag- i gons during that terrible winter when the French forced us out of Holland. Our airy apartments and lighter bed-clothes, in the same manner as our comparative abstinence from a profusion of hot liquids (for the tea we drink is hardly to be set in competition with the plentiful use of soups in foreign countries) seem very favourable to the sick of fever. And our practitioners in general have more attended to ventilation. if mi The salutary effect of cold afihsion appears simply to consist in putting an end to the heatproducing process of fever. Warm affusion will sometimes lower the temperature as speedily ; but theheat returns. In weak persons who unadvisedly use the cold bath, extreme coldness is frequently produced. I have attended a near relation of the late Dr. Seward of Worcester, 1n whom washing the hands in spring water before breakfast has repeatedly produced universal coldness to the touch (I never had an opportunity of applying the thermometer) and even syncope. The knowledge of extreme cases often makes the meanv 909 mean more readily understood. For my own part, Isee no occasion to refer to the effect of sudden cold on sensation or in producing count erirritation as ofleading importance in conceiving its good effects in fever, convulsion, syncope: and constipation; or its bad ones in local inflammation, as I shall soon explain. It is impossible perhaps to separate the share which sensation bears whenever it is strongly affected. Nor do I deem cold an absolute sedative. But Dr. Currie has advanced nothing to render his idea probable, and I prefer the simple explanation as such and as more conformable to analogy. The secondary or propagated operation is by no means to be overlooked. It seems in the most favourable cases to be an extension of the lowered processes on the surface to the interior. But in a system so variable and so complicated as the human frame, the general condition at the time, that of particular organs, and the manner of application, will produce the greatest variations. The principle of reducing (calorific) action I have applied to variety of local ailments. Considering that water is always at hand, I think cold affusion the best way of treating sealds and burns. It is perfectly effectual. The method is easy: continue pouring till the pain subside. Cover the part with wetth clothes. If pain return, re- peat the anusion and so on. Persons stung by venomous insects are saved from suffering by the p same m-u._-_-_w.~-m-.... .. can-www- 9f tire body. m wrung-«M... 178 |