Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/46

18 And now the noxious Matter being subdued and entirely expelled from the Blood, Nature, as said, is more at ease, and seems to revive and triumph, as conscious of its own superiour Strength, and the Weakness of its Enemy, which clearly presages a happy Event. During this Stage of the Disease, while all Things are in a greater Quiet and Repose, the Small-Pox being constantly recruited by new Supplies from the Blood, swell to a larger Size, if compared with that of the worst Sort, and continue red and separated from each other by intervening Spaces: But after three Days, which forms the second Stage from their Invasion, or the first from the Eruption; on the eighth Day begins the third, when the small Swellings or Boils begin to acquire a State of Maturity, which appears by their whitening Heads, the Mark of Suppuration; and at this Time the Patient undergoes much Pain: for the greatest Part of these little Boils, as well as the Skin about them, continuing red, fiery, and crude, an extraordinary Effort of the active Principles of the Blood is required to digest them; for as Nature in the first Stage of this Disease, by exerting her Force and Vigour to concoct in some Measure, and dispose the putrid Particles for Separation, was during that Labour and Conflict in a feverish State; so now, when she undertakes to ripen and digest entirely these numerous little Boils, her Attempt must be accompanied with the like feverish Symptoms, which arise from her Strife and