BOOK V.

OF

PROFLUVIA, OR FLUXES,

WITH PYREXIA.

MXLV.

FORMER nofologifts have eftablished

a clafs of diseases under the title of

Fluxes, or Profluvia; but, as in this class they have brought together a great number of diseases, which have nothing in

com

common, excepting the single circumstance of an increased discharge of fluids, and which also are, in other respects, very different from one another; I have avoided fo improper an arrangement, and have diftributed most of the diseases comprehended in fuch a class by the nofologifts, into places more natural and proper for them. I have, indeed, ftill employed here the general title; but I confine it to fuch fluxes only, as are conftantly attended with pyrexia, and which therefore neceffarily belong to the class of diseases of which I am now treating.

Of the fluxes which may be confidered as being very conftantly febrile diseases, there are only two, the catarrh and dysentery; and of these therefore I now proceed

to treat.

CHA P.

CHAP. I.

OF THE CATARRH.

MXLVI.

HE catarrh is an increased excretion of

THE

mucus from the mucous membrane of the nose, fauces, and bronchie, attended with pyrexia.

Practical writers and nofologifts have diftinguished the disease by different appellations, according as it happens to affect those different parts of the mucous mem

brane;

brane, the one part more or less than the other: But I am of opinion, that the discafe, although affecting different parts, is always of the fame nature, and proceeds from the fame caufe. Very commonly indeed those different parts are affected at the fame time; and therefore there can be little room for the distinction mentioned.

The disease has been frequently treated of under the title of Tuffis, or Cough; and a cough, indeed, always attends the chief form of catarrh, that is, the increased excretion from the bronchiæ: but a cough is fo often a symptom of many other affections, which are very different from one another, that it is improperly employed as a generic title.

MXLVII.

The remote caufe of catarrh is, moft commonly, cold applied to the body.

This application of cold producing catarrh, can in many cases be diftinctly observed; and I believe it would always be so, were men acquainted with, and attentive to, the circumstances which determine cold to act upon the body. See XCIV.-XCVI. From the fame paragraphs we may learn what in fome perfons gives a predispofition to catarrh.

MXLVIII.

The disease, of which I am now to treat, generally begins with fome difficulty of breathing through the nofe, and with a fense of some fulness ftopping up that paffage. This is also often attended with fome dull pain and a sense of weight in the forehead, as well as fome stiffness in the motion of the eyes. These feelings, fometimes at their very firft beginning, and always foon after, are attended with the diftillation