Page:A dissertation on the puerperal fever (1789).djvu/13

 membrane of the throat, intestines, bladder or uterus are inflamed, which the skilful practitioner knows to be very different from the symptoms that arise when a thick, muscular part is inflamed. I cannot express my meaning better than by saying, that it is that kind of inflammation in which blood-letting is contra-indicated, and in which tonics are chiefly to be relied on.

The puerperal fever may be distinguished from the miliary, by the rigour being more violent, and without interruption: and the eruptions, which are critical in the miliary fever, procure no mitigation in the puerperal.

Physicians have differed nearly as much in their judgement respecting the method of cure, as in the nature of the disease. Dr. Denman supposes it to arise from a redundancy or preternatural acrimony of the bile, the secretion of which is irregular during pregnancy. Dr. Mannlng is of the same opinion, only he lays much stress on unwholesome air and bad diet.

Dr. Hulme differs from both these respectable physicians, says it is owing to an inflammation of the omentum and intestines, and maintains his argument by a variety of dissections; and the celebrated Dr. John Hunter is so far of this opinion, that he thinks it is possible even for men to have a disorder like it, and says that he has known similar appearances in the omentum and intestines of men, whose abdomens have been distended by dropsy.

Dr. Hulme readily admits, that unwholesome air, and bad diet, may powerfully operate in causing the disease. With this idea, Dr. Hulme proceeds to the cure by