Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/64

36 be absurd to say that the Matter which caused the Swelling of the first, even after it is concocted and ripened, is translated to the last? And the like may be argued from other inflammatory Tumours, that should in Time succeed one another.

And as there is no Need to fetch any noxious Humours from the Face, to furnish out Materials for the Tension of the Hands, the Heat and Anguish of their own Pustules being abundantly sufficient for that Purpose, as well as those in the Face were able to cause the Protuberance or Elevation there, so no Manner of Conveyance, no Road or Passage, can be accounted for to favour this Supposition: For the Matter must of Necessity retreat from the Cheeks into the Blood, and then the Consequence will be, that the Blood must suffer a new feverish Conflict, while Nature struggles with these returning malignant Particles, and exerts its Force to exclude and send them to the Skin, which Event however does never happen, for the Fever at this Time is generally abated: And why should the Blood expell it, to augment and raise the Pustules in the Hands, rather than those in the Breast, or any other Part of the Body? But to put it out of Doubt, that Confluent Pustules may swell and ripen of themselves, without any Communication of Materials from the Face; I have known in the middle Kind of Small-Pox, which I have described before, that the Pustules in the Face have con-