Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/715

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ef rhubarb. To quell the febrile heat and emotion of the blood, the miftura firaplex may be given with great fuccefs ; and there is often a fenfible good effect from the application of rags wetted in camphorated fpirit of wine, to the pit of the ftomach. After the morbific matter is evacuated, the Teach- ings to vomit may be allayed by gentle opiates. All hot me- dicines change the bilious fevers into inflammatory ones, and the common fudorifics drive the morbific matter into the blood, and ufually bring on almoft immediate difcolourings of the skin, like thofe of the jaundice. Bleeding, though performed •ever fo early in the difeafe, feldom does any good, except on- ly in remarkable plethoric habits.

Inflammatory Fevers. SccInflammamory.

Heclic Fever. See Hectic.

Intermittent Fever. In intermitting fevers, it feems from Dr. Langrifli's experiments, that the craiTamentum of the blood is not fo vifcid and tenacious, neither is the ferum fo bilious, faline and acrid, as in acute continual fevers. The red glo- bules abound more, and the cruor is more vifcid and tough in quotidians than in tertians, and in tertians, than in quartans. Mod. Theor. & Praa. of Phyf. p. 229. The cold bath has been prefcribed with fuccefs,^ as a ftrength- rer to thofe who were recovering from obftinate intermitting fevers, to prevent a return of the difeafe. See Dr. Huxham's Obf. de Aere & Morb. Epid.

Miliary or purple Fever, purpurea febris. See Purpurea febris.

Petechial Fever. See malignant catarrhal Fever.

Scarlatina Febris. See Scarlatina febris.

Quotidian Fever. See the article Quotidian.

Slow Fever, lenta febris, in medicine, a term ufed to exprefs an increafed motion in the blood, by which nature is endea- vouring to retrieve herfelf from the congeftion or ftafis of the blood in fome of the principal vifcera, and preferve the part from the danger that threatens it from fuch a ftafis. The febris lenta properly and diftinctly fo called, differs from the hectic fever in its origin ; for it is generally produ- ced by the degeneration of diary fevers, fynoclige, or quotidi- ans improperly treated, and by the common intermittent^ vio- lently and injudicioufly fupprefled by aftringents; but the hectic fever is connected with the terrible accidents of vomica?, em- pyemas and apoftematous inflammations of the vifcera. Nor do they differ lefs in the continent caufe j for in thzjhw fever there is not yet any actual hurt in the vifcera, but only a ten- dency toward it, and fuch a difpoficion as may naturally bring it on ; but in the hectic there is always either an obftinate fchirrus or an apoftem, or a fimple or fillulous ulcer. Junker's Confp. Med.

The fymptoms of thefe difeafes differ alio as much as their caufes; for in the febris lenta they are all mild, and in the hectic, all terrible and violent. The febris lenta never is fo violent a difeafe, as to confine the patient long to his bed, and ufually grows milder in the continuance, than at firit ; but on the contrary, the hectic ever grows worfe by duration ; and finally, the febris lenta, in all cafes except where it arifes from the improper ufe of aftringents in intermittent cafes, is attended with profufe fweats; whereas the hectic unlefs when urged by medicines of a wrong kind, is a dry heat, and never throws out any fweats till in the laft ftages. In flow fevers of this kind, the ftools are thin and not frequent, and ufually have a mucous matter mixed with them. In the hectic when compleat, there ufually come on violent diarrhaeas, which carry off the patient. The lenta febris is fubject to degenerate into other difeafes, and frequently returns into the diftemper from which it firft arofe; but the hectic is fubject to no tranf- mutations. And finally, the lenta febris often goes ofF happi- ly of itfelf, nature making her way through the obftruction, and compleating the cure. The hectic is ufually fatal. Signs of the febris lenta. Thefe are a preternatural heat often fcare fenfible to others, but very troublefome to the patient j a drynefs of the mouth, and continual thirft ; a lofs of appe- tite, and waiting the ftrength ; a general dulnefs of the face, except for a flushing of the cheeks; a wafting of the flefh ; violent fweats in the night ; and a rednefs and foulnefs of the urine when firft made, but afterwards a precipitation of a pale red fediment, and the remainder then is clear above. Perfons fubjecl to it. Thefe are principally young men who are of a plethoric habit, and who have had an ephemera or fyno- cha, or fome other fever of that kind, improperly treated with too hot medicines j and fuch as in fevers of other kinds where nature produced copious fweats, have fuppreffed them either by medicines, or by an improper regimen ; and finally people worn down and exhaufted by violent hsemorrhages. Prognojlics in it. This kind of fever when it arifes from an intermittent, and in fine returns into its old ftate again, is at- tended with very little danger, but there is much more dan- ger where it continues long in its own appearance, or where it degenerates as it too frequently does in an acute one. The degeneracy of this fever into a hectic, is of all other condi- tions of it, the moft dangerous, and this is not always readily diftinguifhed : this is to be fufpected for the cafe, when the patients appetite returns, and yet all the fymptoms continue ;

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and efpeclally if thefe be added to them a fhort cough, and A difficulty of refpiration ; and when there is a fenfation of a weight in the abdomen, and it is painful to lie otherwife than, on one fide or in fome particular pofture. Method of ewe. The firft thing to be done is to attempt the re- folving the ftafis, as by pimpernel and elecampane roots, by the gentle alexipharmics, and by the neutral falts, as the tar- tarum vitriolatum, and the like. The vifcid roulnefies left by intermittent fevers, are to be carried off by firft attenuating and inciding them by the gums, as ammoniacum, and the reft ; and the tone of the vifcera is to be finally re-eftablrthed by the gentler chalybates and ftomacbics. When the cafe arifes from an acute fever, powders of tartar of vitriol, crabs-eyes, and diaphoretic antimony, with gentle cathartics in the intermediate days, will often complete a cure: when it arifes from an intermittent, no happier means can be devifed for the cure, than the bringing it back to its old ftate of the intermittent again. Etmuller fays, that the volatile alkali's, fuch as fpirit of fal armoniac, have a great power this way; and Stahl propofes to effea it by a habitual drinking an infufion of elecampane, pimpernel, centaury, orange-peel and fenna, with a (mail quantity of rhubarb and black hellebore in wine.

Finally, when this cafe has been brought on by violent hae- morrhages, the analeptics alone are to be depended upon, with the teftaceous powders to abate the fweats, and the lighter tinaures of fteel to reftore the loft tone of the folids. Jun- ker's Confp. Med. p. 384.

It is obferved in the periodical eflays of Edinburgh, that in the (low fevers which prevailed in and near that place, No- vember 1731, attended with a violent pain in the head, a, fmall quick pulfe, deliriums and watchfulnefs ; feveral of the elder fort died ; but of the younger, many voided worms and recovered. See Med. EfT. Abridg. vol. 1. p. 66.

FEVERFEW, in botany. See Matricaria.

FEV1LLEA, in botany, the name of a genus O'F plants, call- ed by Plumier nbandiroba; the charaflers of which are thefe. It produces male and female flowers diftina on the fame plant ; in the male flower the perianthium is campanu- lated, it is compofed of one leaf, and is round at the bottom, but expanded at the mouth, where it is divided into five feg- ments. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the rotated kind. It is lightly divided into five fegments at the idee; thefe are convex and rounded, and the umbilicus is covered with a double ftar. The ftamina are three filaments. In the femafe flowers the cup is the fame as in the male, the flower itfelf is alio the fame, but that the ftar which clofes the bafe is com- pofed of five cordated leaves. The fruit is a very large fkfhy berry with a hard bark, and is of an oval obtuic figure, and furrounded with the calyx. The feeds are flatted and of an orbicular form. Lhmai Gen. Plant, p. 439. Plumier 27.

FIARSING, in ichthyology, a name given by the Swedes and Danes to the fifh generally called the draco marinas, and ara- neus marinus ; the fea dragon, and the fea-fpider. It is a fpecies of the trachinus according to Artedi, and is diftinguifh- ed from the others, by its lower jaw being longer than the upper, and without beards.

FIAT, in law, is ufed for a fhort order or warrant of fome judge, for making out and allowing certain precedes. Thus if a cer- tiorari be taken out in vacation, and tefted of the precedent term, the fiat for it muft be figned by a judge of the court, fome time before the eflbin day of the fubfequent term, other- wife it will be irregular. There is no need for the judge to fign the certiorari itfelf, but only where it is required by fta- tute. I Sail 150. 2 Hawk. P. C. 289.

FIATOLA, in zoology, a name given by the Italian fifhermen to the ftromateus. Wilkugbby's Hift. Fife. p. 156. See the article Stromateus.

FIBER, the beaver, a very remarkable creature of which many ftrange things are recorded by authors. It is ufually about three foot long in body, fometimes confiderably more, and its weight from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds. Its head is broad and flatted, its eyes fmall and black ; its ears are fmall, fhort and round, and hairy on their outfide ; and it has two dentes in- cifores, which are very broad and prominent, and have their ends oblique, as if made for cutting ; thefe are of a fine yel- lowifh red on their outer furface, but of a fine ivory white within ; the neck is fhort and thick ; the fore feet are divided each into five toes armed with obtufe claws ; thefe ferve the creature in the place of hands, and it ufes them in the man- ner of the fquirrel for lifting up its food to its mouth ; the or- der and difpofition of the fingers, and the fhape of the palm in thefe much relembles that of the human hand j the hinder feet are extremely different from thefe, and have the toes con- nefled by a ftrong tough membrane, in the manner of the feet of geefe, &c. thefe have broad and flat claws like thofe of the monkey kind.

The hairs which cover the body are of two very different kinds, but are mingled regularly and intimately with one an- other. Some of thefe hairs are long, the others Ihort and downy ; the long ones are about an inch and half in length, and of a fort of reddjjh black colour, very bright and gloffy,

and