Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/92

64 As for Blisters I cannot approve of them in this Case, and for this Reason, that that Remedy will quicken and stimulate the Blood and Animal Spirits, expand their Structure, and accelerate their Motion; and therefore in a Lethargick Paralytick or Apoplectick State, and in other Distempers where the Blood is sluggish, and the Spirits are loaded with a Collection of crude Humours, they are very beneficial, and the Reason is manifest: But in the Case before us the Spirits are already too much expanded, even to Fury; and therefore cannot be relieved by Remedies, that will stretch them farther, and spur them on the swifter Motion: They do not now want a Spur to quicken, but a Bridle to restrain them; not Medicines to widen and enlarge, but to reduce and contract them; and I have seen the Event answer this Reasoning, for when Blisters have been applied in obstinate wakefulness, when the Heat of the Blood was excessive, and the Pulse swift, they have not produced a Minute’s Sleep; on the contrary, the next Day the Wakefulness was improv'd to a downright Delirium, approaching to a Frenzy: This, I say, I have observed in inflammatory and likewise in malignant Fevers, when attended with a great Abundance of miliary Eruptions.

In this State short and difficult Breathing many Times afflicts the Patient, as well as at the latter End of the Distemper, and always presages