Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/47

Rh and Contest with the Matter as yet crude and not mastered by Suppuration; and if the ripening of one common Boil demands so great a feverish Ferment, it is no Wonder that such a mighty Number, though of small ones, dispersed over the whole Body, should be attended with so much Heat, when they grow to Maturity.

This is called the Fever of Maturation, or the second Fever. It must however be acknowledged, that there is but one and the same continued Fever from the Beginning, though under various Appearances of Heat, sometimes greater, sometimes more moderate, according to the several Stages of the Distemper, and the different Exigencies of Nature. The Small-Pox is allowed to be a Fever; and if that which accompanies their first breaking out, is a distinct Fever, as some have asserted, from that, which attends the ripening of them, then it is manifest, that every Small-Pox is two Diseases, which would be a very harsh and absurd Position. If a Fever, that is simple and not putrid at the Beginning, should by irregular Conduct, or by its own intrinsick Nature, after a considerable Time, degenerate into one that is Malignant, which often happens, attended with the worst Symptoms, could the different States or Stages of this one, be reckoned so many distinct Fevers?

It is the constant Property of this mildest Sort of Small-Pox, that the Pustules or Boils continue distinct and separate on the Face and Rh