Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/67

Rh fatal; their Nature being so malignant, and their Number so immense, that it is not possible for the active Principles to digest and bring them to Maturity, especially if at the same Time a Multitude of scarlet or livid Spots are interspersed and scattered over the Skin, particularly in the Neck and Breast, for this shews the Putrefaction to be in a very high Degree. This Symptom therefore presages the greatest Danger, for notwithstanding, as I have said, a few such Spots are sometimes consistent with Recovery, as well in the Small-Pox, as malignant Fevers; yet when they appear in great Numbers, they discover such a degenerate State of the Blood, as cannot be repaired by Nature, though assisted by the greatest Art. Another Symptom belonging to this Kind, is a Discharge of Blood by Urine, and sometimes by other Sluices, as by the Seat, by the Mouth, and by the Eyes; but as to bleeding at the Nose, it is sometimes very useful by preventing or abating the feverish Heat, and never so dangerous, as such Evacuations from other Parts, which is an Argument that the Frame and Contexture of the Blood is not only shaken and disordered, but dissolved and broken into minute Atoms; and being thus severed, and its Continuity ruined, it is ready to issue through the Glands, and pass thro’ any Strainers of the Body without Opposition, especially those of the Kidneys; and this is a Discovery of the greatest Putrefaction, or a state of Mortification in a great part