Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/36

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8
Of the Small-Pox.

A Fever is an inordinate Elevation of the oyly or fiery Parts of the Blood, by which the balance of Power between the active and governing Principles being broken, a great Tumult and Disorder arises in the animal Oeconomy, attended with immoderate Heat and Thirst, too high and often too swift a Pulse, Head-ake, and sickness of Stomach, and is either original in the Blood and Humours of the Body, or secondary and derived from some other previous Distemper. Of the first sort are all Fevers call'd acute, produced by the Admission of noxious Matter into the Blood, while the solid Parts are sound and entire: The Secondary are but an Effect or Symptom of some other Disease, of which Kind are hectick, scorbutick, wandring and white Fevers, which proceed from some antecedent Distemper, and that chiefly in one of the Bowels, and these being slow and lingring, and protracted to a considerable space of Time, are therefore called Chronical.

Original or primary Fevers may be justly divided into simple, inflammatory, and malignant; simple Fevers are the Effects of a Disturbance and Breach of the natural Order of the Blood, and a deprav’d Disposition of the animal Spirits, proceeding from an immoderate and irregular Exaltation of the sulphurous or fiery Ingredients in its Composition. Inflammatory are such, as are attended ordinarily with painful Swellings or Erup-

tions