[p. 46] through empty space, as if
gathering bits of straw, picking the nap from the coverlet, or tearing
chaff from the wall- all such symptoms are bad and deadly.
PART 5
Respiration, when frequent, indicates pain or inflanunation in the
parts above the diaphragm: a large respiration performed at a great
interval announces delirium; but a cold respiration at nose or mouth
is a very fatal symptom. Free respiration is to be looked upon as
contributing much to the safety of the patient in all acute diseases,
such as fevers, and those complaints which come to a crisis in forty
days.
PART 6
Those sweats are the best in all acute diseases which occur on the
critical days, and completely carry off the fever. Those are favorable,
too, which taking place over the whole body, show that the man is
bearing the disease better. But those that do not produce this effect
are not beneficial. The worst are cold sweats, confined to the head,
face, and neck; these in an acute fever prognosticate death, or in
a milder one, a prolongation of the disease; and sweats which occur
over the whole body, with the characters of those confined to the
neck, are in like manner bad. Sweats attended with a miliary eruption,
and taking place about the neck, are bad; sweats in the form of drops
and of vapour are good. One ought to know the entire character of
sweats, for some are connected with prostration of strength in the
body, and some with intensity of the inflammation.
PART 7
That state of the hypochondrium is best when it is free from pain,
soft, and of equal size on the right side and the left. But if inflamed,
or painful, or distended; or when the right and left sides are of
disproportionate sizes;- all these appearances are to be dreaded.
And if there be also pulsation in the hypochondrium, it indicates
perturbation or delirium; and the physician should examine the eyes
of such persons; for if their pupils be in rapid motion, such persons
may be expected to go mad. A swelling in the hypochondrium, that is
hard and painful, is very bad, provided it occupy the whole hypochondrium;
but if it be on either side, it is less dangerous when on the left.
Such swellings at the commencement of the disease prognosticate speedy
death; but if the fever has passed twenty days, and the
