Page:A Treatise upon the Small-Pox.pdf/55

ent Small-Pox it is a great deal worse, for in this Case many Parts of the Blood undergo such a Solution and Division, that the natural Structure is not only impair'd but in a great Measure broken, and many of the integral Parts are so far separated and putrefied, as to be cast out of the Animal Government, and are so corrupt and lifeless that they cannot be restored to their former Station and Union with the Blood, but must be digested and expelled into the Skin by the sound and active Principles, or Nature must be overcome and fall in the Combat; and this I call a State of Mortification in the Blood. And it is to be observed, that in the worst Kind of Small-Pox, as in the Plague and high malignant Fevers, the Patients feel little Pain or Sickness, and are insensible of their Danger, and wonder when they are told they have so short a time to live; which is the Case of those that die of Gangreens or Mortifications in the solid Parts, either external or internal; for when the Mortification begins, the Pain ceases, and the Patient is actually dying, when on a Sudden he is at Ease, and looks upon himself as in a better Way of Recovery. It is remarkable, that when a Toe or Finger, especially of Persons advanc'd in Years, mortifies from an inward Cause; tho' the Surgeon takes them off, yet the Parts next above, from which they are severed, will soon undergo the same Fate, and so on; the Reason is because the cutting off the Member