Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/41

This, like all other Fevers, is introduced into the Body by a cold Fit and Shiverings, or Rigours, which after an Hour or more disappear, and are succeeded by an inordinate Heat, and a disturb’d Pulse, both which are soon accompanied with great Pains, sometimes in the Head, sometimes in the Side, sometimes in the Limbs, but much more frequently in the Back, where often they are very acute and scarce sufferable; attended with great Sickness and violent Vomitings, which so nearly resemble a Fit of the Stone, that sometimes the Physician, imposed upon by the Similitude of Symptoms, has pronounced it to be that grievous Distemper. When the enormous Pain in the Back happens at the beginning, it always presages a mortal or very doubtful Event; for the dangerous Nature of the Small-Pox may be foreseen by the Violence of the Symptoms. By this Account of the first Assault of the Small-Pox, before any Eruption appears upon the Skin, it is evident, that the animal Spirits bear the first Onset, and receive the first Impression of the Enemy’s Force; which is still more manifest, by observing that Lightness of Head, or Suspension of Reason and Reflection, often goes before the breaking out of the Distemper in Spots.

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