[371] Idem. p. 113.
[372] Staphorst, Part II. vol. I. p. 83.
[373] “Immunes erant pueri et senes ab hoc malo.” Ditmar, p. 473. “Pueri infra decem annos rarissime hac febre corripiuntur.” Newenar, fol. 72. a. “Senibus solis quandoque pepercit,—præternavigavit etiam magna ex parte atrabilarios et emaciatos corpore, quoniam et horum corpora putris succi expertia erant.” Schiller, fol. 4. a.
[374] Schmidt, p. 307.
[375] As for instance, Schiller, to name but one among thousands. “Juvit etiam auxitque malum frequens multaque crapula, et in potationibus otiosa vita nostra,” fol. 3. b.
[376] Let it be observed under similar circumstances. It ought not to be affirmed that they are free from rheumatic diseases, but only that they are less disposed to be affected by them.
[377] That a rheumatic state makes the body an isolator, A. von Humboldt discovered as early as 1793, and he found that the observation was confirmed by subsequent experiments. “I have observed in myself that, when labouring under a severe attack of catarrhal fever, I was unable, by the most powerful metals, to excite the galvanic flash before my eyes; that I interrupted every connecting link between the muscular and nervous apparatus. As the rheumatic malady lessens the irritability of organs, so also it seems to diminish their conducting power. How is this? As yet nothing is known about it. I have every now and then met with isolating persons who were in perfect health, but can we not yet, amidst such an ocean of uncertainty, discover a condition by which we may determine every case?” Versuche in Vol. I. p. 159. Pfaff believes that, during the existence of rheumatic diseases, the proper electricity of the body sinks down to nothing. See his Essay on the peculiar Electricity of the Human Body in Mechel’s Archiv. Vol. III. No. 2. p. 161.
[378] The author has at times made extraordinary experiments of this kind upon himself.
[379] This phenomenon may justly be compared with the very similar but more enduring morbid sequelæ of cholera. Paralysis and a repletion of the returning vessels must be regarded in the same light in both.
[380] After Henry VIIIth’s death in 1547, Edward VI., who was only nine years old, came to the throne. He died in 1553.