walking, riding, &c. I say attended with diversion; for a man, who only walks to comply with the prescription of his physician, will be much sooner tired than one who is upon a hunting-match.
General directions cannot be given on this subject; those who have the care of the patients, and the patients themselves, are the best judges of what is most proper in each particular case. By their prudent management, they will be astonished to see a disorder, which would have been severe, if the patient had been nursed and kept in bed, turn out a mere trifle.
Some of the inoculators, who have succeeded so wonderfully in various parts of England, make their patients walk out in the fields, as soon as the fever comes on; they oblige them to go themselves and pump the water they are to drink, and constantly expose them to the open air in all weathers and at all seasons, not only during the feverish, but throughout the eruptive, state.
The two rules here laid down, contain all that is material in the management of the first period. Fresh air and amusement will greatly alleviate the illness, and prevent all bad symptoms.
But to be still more explicit in an affair of such importance, I shall specify some farther directions, included in, and flowing from, the two foregoing rules.
