Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/712

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tefTary that every part be drawn out of them before it appear naked to the open air. As foon as all this is effected, and the animal is at full liberty, it cither continues fome time upon the remains of its covering, or creeps a little way diftant from it, and there refts. The wings are what we principally admire in this creature. Thefe are at this time fo extremely folded up, and piaced in fo narrow a compafs, that the creatun feems to have none at all; but they by degrees expand and un fold themfelves, and, finally, in a quarter of an hour, or half an hour at the utmoft, they appear at their full fize, and in all their beauty. The manner of this fudden unfolding of tl: wings is this: the fmall figure they make when the creature firft, comes out of its membranes, does not prevent the ob- ferving that they are at that time conliderably thick. This is owing to its being a large wing folded up in the niceft man- ner, and with folds fo arranged, as to be by no means lenfible to the eye, for the wing is never feen to unfold ; but when obferved in the moft accurate manner, feems to grow under the eye to this extent. When the creature is firft produced from the fhell, it is every-where moid: and tender, even its wings have no ftrength or ftiffnefs till they extend themfelves; but they then dry by degrees, and with the other parts be- come rigid and firm. But if any accident prevents the wings from expanding at their proper time, that is, as foon as the creature is out of its fhell, they never afterwards are able to extend themfelves, but the creature continues to wear them in their contracted and wholly ufelefs ftate; and very often when the wings are in part extended before fuch an accident happens, it flops them in a partial extenfion, and the creature mull be contented to pafs its whole life with them in that manner. FEVER (Cycl.) — Riverius reckons above thirty different kinds of fevers, and Sydenham has increafed them to double that number; but certainly phyficians have obferved (bmething common to all thefe difeafes, which made them denominate them fevers. A late author thinks, that the confideration of what conftitutes a fever, which he thinks very fimple and obvious, with its true caufes and genuine effects, wiil give a more juft and clear notion of the difeafe, and lead to a more rational practice, than all that has been faid by authors at fo great length on ihefe fubtile and unneceflary diftinct t on;>. He thinks the moft natural and ufeful diviiion of fevers is into continued and interrupted ; and he conceives they may all

- when confidered fimply, and not as the effect of another dif- eafe, be reduced to one or other of thefe two forts. Medic. EfT. Edinb. vol. i. p. 264, 265.

In every fever from an internal caufe, the three chief obfer- vables are thefe. Firft, an univerfal trembling, and then an encreafed heat, and quick 'pulfe ; a fever almoit aiways begins with a cold or Ihivering, and foon after the pulfe growing quicker, affords the primary diagnoftic of a fever. The health of the patient feems to be the primary aim of nature in fevers, tbo* they often terminate in death. The general cure of fevers is comprehended in confulting the ftrength of nature, in correcting and difcharging the acrimo- ny of the blood, in diflblving grofs humours, and expelling them, and in mitigating the fymptoms. If the fymptoms run too high, and nature grows exorbitant, abftinence, fmall li-

1 quors, bleeding and cooling clyfters are to be ufed ; and if na- ture be too fluggifl], flic muff be excited by cordials and aro- matics. Allen's Synopfi", p. 6. By Dr. Brown Langrifh's ftatical experiments made on the

1 blood of people in acute continual fevers, compared with what he fays of the blood of three young men in perfect health ; it appears that in f\ich fevers, the ferum is in lefs pro- portion, and the craffamentum is more vifcid and tenacious, than in health. The indications of cure from which are plain. See his Modern theory and Pracl. of ' Phyf p. 68. and 74. By the chemical analyfis, it is proved, that in acute fevers the faline and fulphureous parts abound more than in health ;

- and that the urine is impregnated more and more with thefe faline and fulphureous principles, as the fymptoms abate upon a crifis by urine. Ibid p. Bo, 94.

Signs of Fevers. Thefe are an accelerated progreffive motion • of the blood, diftinguifhed by the quicknefs of the pulfe ; this is fucceeded by an increafed heat in the body, and immedi- ately after this, the tonic motion of the parts is either conftring- ed or relaxed. This is feen in the face; in the firit cafe it becomes red and bloated, in the latter thin and pale: thefe . fymptoms are fucceeded by an immoderate thirft, and a loath- ing of food of all kinds, an abfence of fleep, and a pecvifhnefs or uneafinefs in the temper, with an extreme fcnfibility of every thing, and a neglect of the common bufmefs of life ; af- ter this there is a great lofs of ftrength, and an inaptitude to any motion; a fenfation of pain in fome part; a very unea- fyand difficult refpiration, a fweating more than ufual, and fi- nally there is a change in the urine, its colour being ufuallv very high, and its confidence thicker, than that of pcrfons in

- health.

Caufes o/Tevers. Thefe are an overheating the blood by exer- cife, and thus throwing it into violent commotions; violent and fudden cooling of the body when very hot ; the abufc of

. ipirituous liquors, and the eating large quantities of foods hard

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of digeftion ; a watchfulnefs beyond the ufual cuflom fuel long fitting up by the hck, or the like; and a fui „refii,„;' ", any accuftomed evacuation, particularly of habitual t rhages by the nofe or other parts. Befide thefe ths j^Stf the mind very frequently throw people into fivers' an j ; '-. obferved alfo, that perfons often accuffomed to ha' ve / ' '* are much more eafily thrown into them on flight accident tl"'' any others. To all thefe caufes, is to be added that of tagion. Vrognojlies in Fevers. All fevers are in their nature falutar - being the means nature ufes to rid herfelf of fometh'ino th' t oppreffes her, yet they are often fatal in the event; but t r. is rather to be attributed to the fault of theconftitution th of the fiver. The caufe of the dileafe being impeded, and other difeafes coming on, the patient often dies under t'hem • fo that the moft judicious phyficians obferve, that people la- ther die with a fever, than of a fever in thefe cafes. It is to be obferved in general, that of the great number of perfons who have fivers, very few proponionably die of them.

Fevers very often are cured by nature alone, and so off very happily only by the patient's abftinence, a quiet" ftate, and keeping up the natural evacuations. In this manner great numbers recover without the help of medicines, a number almoft as great is deftroyed by medicines, which when ad- miniftred by perfons who have not fufEcient judgment, inter- rupt nature, and prevent the necefiary excretion. Fevers go off according to the language of phyficians, either by a crilis or lyfis ; in the firft cafe they leave the patient at once after the critical days; in the other, they only wear off gradually growing (lowly lefs and lefs violent. The acute fever ufuai'iy goes off in the firft way ; the intermittcnts in the other. Cri- tical evacuations of whatever kind, when they happen in f'uf- ficient quantity, bring with them a fort of inftantaneous cure ; the patient becoming well and eafy from them, though immediately before, he was in the utmoft anxiety and uneafi- nefs. No fiver ever goes off without fweating, and a change in the urine. But in fevers in general, the fweats do not come on at firft, but afterwards ; and in general, the fweats never come on during the violence of the burning heat, but when that remits a little, the fweat breaks out. ff it appears during the exccfhve heat, the prefage is bad, at leaf! it is of no ufe or good to the patient. Sweats coming on at a proper time, and flowing to a proper degree, bring on recovery; but when they are fupprefled, the difeafe becomes woife, there is a pain and laffitude in the limbs, and the difeafe is protracted in length, and from an acute, becomes a flow fiver. If alio there be no change perceived in the urine, and the heat do not exceed the ordinary ftandard, it is a fatal prognoftic for the patient ; and the old phyfical axiom is ufually verified that while the pulfe and the urine are well in fivers, the patient dies. *

A dejeaion of fpirits in a fever, and a melancholy ftate com- ing upon a perfon ufually chearful when well, is always a bad omen.

The feveral different kinds of fivers have their ftated times in which each attacks the patient. Tertians ufually feize people about dinner-time, and are particularly common about the period of the vernal equinox. Quartans ufually make their firft attack about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and are more common in autumn than at any other feafon of the year. The fynocha or continent fever, expreflv fo called, ufu- ally attacks perfons in the morning before day break Bilious fevers ufually make their firft attack about the time of fun rile, and are moft common in the midft of fummer The catarrhal fivers finally, moft commonly attack perfons in the evening, and they are moft frequent about the equinoxes The more any fever departs from its ufual courfe, the worfe is the prognoftic; any fiver when it has been improperly treated by medicines becomes much more ftubborn and diffi- cult of cure, than when it has been Jeft to itfelf. The par- ticular medicines which difturb the courfe of nature in fiver- and by that means render them more difficult of" cure, are ai- tringents, too powerful abforbents, opiates, &c. And it is obferved that when fevers go off happily and eafily, efpeciallv when they go off of themfelves without medicines, the patient always enjoys a better ftate of health after, than he had before. Junker's Confp. Med. p. 257. Method of rartra Fevers. The phylician in all fevers is to endeavour to make himfelf the fervant and afiiftant of nature ■ what nature endeavours in the beginning and increafe of the difeafe is to prepare, difpofe and fearch the noxious matter - and in the ftate and decline of it, to eliminate and evacuate the matter fo prepared by the proper paffages. The whole bufmefs of art is therefore to afiift nature in thefe two efforts of fecretion and excretion of the matter. The method of doing this in every particular fpecies of fever is to be feen under their feveral panicular heads ; but as we are here treating of fevers in general, it mar be purer to give the method of treating them as fiver/, without running into the feveral fub-diftindions. The remedies which wo are to give to affift the fecretion and