[p. 12]way having the same
clothing on, takes up his abode again in the place he was in when
he became congealed, he will appear much colder, and more disposed
to chills than before. And if a person fan himself on account of a
suffocating heat, and having procured refrigeration for himself in
this manner, cease doing so, the heat and suffocation will be ten
times greater in his case than in that of a person who does nothing
of the kind. And, to give a more striking example, persons travelling
in the snow, or otherwise in rigorous weather, and contracting great
cold in their feet, their hands, or their head, what do they not suffer
from inflammation and tingling when they put on warm clothing and
get into a hot place? In some instances, blisters arise as if from
burning with fire, and they do not suffer from any of those unpleasant
symptoms until they become heated. So readily does either of these
pass into the other; and I could mention many other examples. And
with regard to the sick, is it not in those who experience a rigor
that the most acute fever is apt to break out? And yet not so strongly
neither, but that it ceases in a short time, and, for the most part,
without having occasioned much mischief; and while it remains, it
is hot, and passing over the whole body, ends for the most part in
the feet, where the chills and cold were most intense and lasted longest;
and, when sweat supervenes, and the fever passes off, the patient
is much colder than if he had not taken the fever at all. Why then
should that which so quickly passes into the opposite extreme, and
loses its own powers spontaneously, be reckoned a mighty and serious
affair? And what necessity is there for any great remedy for it?
PART 17
One might here say- but persons in ardent fevers, pneumonia, and other
formidable diseases, do not quickly get rid of the heat, nor experience
these rapid alterations of heat and cold. And I reckon this very circumstance
the strongest proof that it is not from heat simply that men get into
the febrile state, neither is it the sole cause of the mischief, but
that this species of heat is bitter, and that acid, and the other
saltish, and many other varieties; and again there is cold combined
with other qualities. These are what proves injurious; heat, it is
true, is present also, possessed of strength as being that which conducts,
is exacerbated and
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