Dispute, I have often observed Persons immediately to fall sick from a State of perfect Health after eating, and to throw up their Food, in other Respects good and wholsome, as somewhat corrupted and poisonous.
VOMITING also may be promoted by Scents, as well those which are fetid, as such as are contrary, by some particular Antipathy to the Nature and Constitution of the Patient; and this I conjecture happens from the Harmony and Consent of the Organs of Smelling with the Coats of the Stomach, insomuch that the Stomach immediately perceives any Thing that ungratefully strikes the Nose, and rises up against it. In the mean Time I would however transiently make this one Remark, that as in many Cases the Administration of Emeticks was pernicious, whether or no Evacuation of the first Putrefaction at Stomach, might not be much better encouraged upwards by Scents; as, on the contrary, the Reachings at Stomach are sometimes allayed by like Means, as by the Smell of Vinegar, &c. I do confess, that this is a Practice I cannot attest the Success of by
Experience, yet it is not unworthy a rational Physician to attempt it.
ALL the Sick likewise quickly after Seizure grew delirious, running wildly about the Streets, if they were not confined by Force; when some tired with Rambling, on Increase of the Distemper, would fall down, ignorant of their Condition, or where they were; and lastly, to repeat what hath been already remarked, that sad Calamity seemed to have complicated in its Production every Thing of a poisonous and a destroying Nature.
MANY were seized with a Vertigo, which, without any Motion of external Objects, made them believe their Heads to turn round: Without doubt the Brain grievously suffered from the pestilential Taint, not only because the Spirits used to be clouded, but that all Things were done as if in Sleep, which might arise from the inflammatory, caustick, and narcotick Nature of the Venom, and the Texture and Consent of the Vessels with the various Dispositions of the Fluids. This vertiginous Disposition also in my Opinion
might sometimes arise from the inordinate and anomolous Motions of the Spirits.
A great many likewise much complained of the Head-ach, which was so vehement, as if the Parts would have flown asunder; a Complaint the most intolerable of all, because it continued without any Remission or Intervals; the Enemy never retreating of it self, and only to be vanquished by the Efforts of the Constitution, and apposite Medicines. Indeed nothing was more plain, than that the Meninges were stimulated by the saline Spicula of the Contagion; and from the Inflammation of the Brain, and its Sphacelation in those who died, there is a strong Suspicion that this cruel, shooting Pain continued to the last.
IN this Class of Symptoms, Stupefaction is also to be ranked; because from the Moment of Seizure many were taken with a Coma, and slept as if they were dozed with an Opiate; many in the middle of their Employ, with their Friends in Conversation, or other Engagements, (as was before taken notice of) would suddenly,
without any Reluctance, fall into profound, and often deadly Sleeps.
BUT by what Means this Venom does exert its narcotick Qualities, is not with me so ready to be accounted for; that is to say, whether it be from its original Seminium? Or from Its affinity and Complication with the Scurvy? Or from its predominant Malignity, and Antipathy? Or from an Obstruction of Circulation, or Coagulation, or Extravasation of Blood? Or lastly, from some particular Impression made upon the Origin of the Nerves? For this is a Difficulty reserved for another Hippocrates. In the mean while it is by all confessed, that by such Stupefaction or Sleeping, the pestilential Venom becomes not only more deeply rooted, but also more cruelly affects the nervous System, and greatly weakens it.