where he vigorously continued his daily labour to the age of an hundred and thirty years but afterwards having loft his fight, he was at length brought to London; and having refided here for fome time, in the year 1635 he died, at the age of one hundred and fifty-two years and nine months. His body was opened by the immortal Harvey, who found all the parts in a found ftate, except the brain, which was extremely firm and folid to the touch *. Thus were the vessels in that part grown hard by age.

The other example is recorded in our Philofophical Tranfactions. It is an account of a worker in the mines in Swifferland, who died in 1723, aged one hundred and nine years and three months, fent to the royal fociety by Dr John James Scheuchzer of Zurich ; who upon diffection found the exteriour membrane of the spleen befet with white fpots, at firft fight refembling variolous puftules; but they were of a cartilaginous hardness, and raised fomewhat above the furface of the rest of the membrane: the articulations of the ribs with the fternum were quite offified; the tendon, by which the arteries are inserted into the heart, was either bony, or cartilaginous at leaft; the femilunar valves, efpecially of the aorta, were plainly cartilaginous; and the dura mater was about three times its ufual thicknefs, and like leather +.

But it is time to pafs to the defects of this machine, which disturb and destroy its motions.

* See the diffection of Thomas Parr, at the end of Dr Betts's book de ortu et natura fanguinis.

+ Phil. Tranf. No 376.

LL fevers, of what kind foever, are attended with a preternatural heat of the blood and humours; and this impairs the bodily ftrength, and the vital actions. Wherefore nature raifes all her powers, and engages the difeafe, as a mortal enemy: and if flie gets the better, fhe drives out the caufe of the diforder by fuch outlets as fhe is able. This action is by phyficians called the crifis of the disease. Now, what I would have here understood by the word nature, as alfo fome things relating to the different forts of fevers, I have explained in another place*, and at the fame time fhewn, in what fenfe phyficians, and particularly Sydenham faid, that a difeafe is nothing elfe, but a ftruggle of nature, endeavouring by all means to exterminate the morbific matter, for the recovery of the patient t. Wherefore I will premife fome few thoughts on the crifes or folutions of fevers.

W

Hereas there is no fever cured without fome

confiderable evacuation, raised either by nature

*See difcourfe on the fmall-pox, chap 2.

† Obfervat. medicæ circa morborum acutorum historiam, at the beginning.

or

Ja.

:

or by art; the phyfician ought carefully to obferve, which way nature feems to intend the expulfion of the morbid matter, and affift her by all poffible means. Now, this expulfion is very frequently made through feveral outlets of the body at a time, and an evacuation by one outlet more or lefs checks that by another thus a loofenefs checks fweat, and vice verWherefore it is the phyfician's business to dif cern, what evacuation is moft likely to be of fervice, and fo to promote this, as to give the least interruption poffible to any other for any one evacuation is not equally fuitable to all perfons, both on account of the difference of conftitutions, and of difeafes; although evacuations through every emunctory are fometimes neceffary, as we find by experience in malignant fevers.

But of all folutions of the difeafe the most defirable is by fweat, next to that by ftool and urine; the worft is by a hæmorrhage, whether it proceed from the nofe, or from any other part: becaufe it indicates, that the blood is fo far vitiated, that no proper feparation of the humour can be made.

Laftly, fome fevers terminate in abfceffes formed in the glands, which, if they happen in the decline of the difeafe, and fuppurate kindly, are falutary. Wherefore the fuppuration is to be forwarded by cataplafmns or plafters, and fometimes by cupping on the tumour, and then, if the abfcefs does not break fpontaneously, it ought to be opened either with the knife or a cauftic.

At this time this rule of practice is generally right, not to exhaust the patient's ftrength by evacuations of any kind. kind. And yet in fome cafes there is a necef

1

fity for drawing a little blood; as when the humours are in great commotion, and the heat exceffive: for this remedy prudently administered makes the tumour ripen kindly, because nature has always a great abhorrence of a turbulent ftate.

TH

Here is no difeafe, to which the useful precept, Principiis obfta, is more applicable than to fevers; because in the beginning it is generally easy to do good; but when the distemper has gained ground, the cure is often attended with difficulty. For the opportunity is fleeting *; and a medicine, which early administered, might have prevented the impending danger, frequently fails, when the bodily ftrength is exhausted by the violence of the disease. However, a patient, who applies late for affiftance, is not to be abandoned to his fate; fince it is certain, that those difeafes which in old times were afcribed to the divine wrath †, are frequently cured by natural means, even when they appear moft defperate. Wherefore the phyfician ought to lay it down as an abfolute rule, never to be wanting to his duty.

And firft, as blood-letting is a moft excellent remedy in the beginning of all fevers; if it has happened to be neglected for fome days, let us confider, whether it is still proper to be ordered.

In cafe of intolerable pain in any part of the body,

* O margós öğüs. Hippocr. aphor. 1. fect. 1. + See Celfus in his preface.

of

of difficulty of breathing, or a delirium, blood is to be taken away, according to the patient's ftrength; with the lancet, if he is able to bear it; if too weak, by cupping; but if exceffively fo, by leeches. And if this may be done, when the difeafe is got to the height; it ought for ftronger reafons to take place in the beginning, And let me obferve by the by, that leeches are often of vaft fervice in a delirium. I have alfo fometimes found by experience, that pieces of lamb's lungs, applied warm to the head, have carried off the frenzy, by the exfudation of the noxious or fuperfluous humour.

But in order to a clearer comprehenfion of what I have to offer on this diftemper, I will enumerate and briefly explain its principal kinds; leaving the reader at liberty to confult the medical writers, efpecially Celfus and his imitator Lommius, who have treated this fubject profeffedly, concerning the management of the fick, his diet, &c.

F

SECTION IV.

Of fevers attended with eruptions.

Evers attended with eruptions require particular attention. As for the fmall-pox, meafles, and plague, I have already published my thoughts on them in feparate treatifes. Of the reft the chief is

The miliary fever.

THere is no fever that puts on more various appearances than this. Puftules, rough to the touch,

break