system, for the passage or circulation of this nerve fluid. As
the nervous influence escapes from the system, the functions,
over which it has control, become enfeebled and deranged.
28. The first symptoms in disease prove a weakened con
dition of vital activity. As the constitution reacts, a new train
of symptoms ensues. The pulse becomes quicker and stronger;
the surface becomes hot and dry, and the system is in a state
of feverish excitement; in other words, the patient has a fever—
the battle between the destructive and constructive agents is on.
The constitution with all its constructive agents struggles against
disease and occasions the fever, and it is by this power of
reaction that disease is overcome.
Intermittent fever, as it is termed, commences with a chill. As the system reacts, fever comes on; and the recuperative efforts which occasion the temperature, restore the heat, bringing
THE MEDICINES OF NATURE 37
on perspiration and frequently other critical evacuations, more especially from the kidneys, by which the disease is partly or wholly removed, until the return of the succeeding chill, when the constitution institutes the same preservative, recuperative activity. In the eruptive diseases which are always of zymotic (inner filth) origin, as smallpox, measles, chickenpox and scarlet fever, there is always in the commencement a general debility, chilliness and a disordered stomach. These are the direct effects of the morbific agents that produce the disease, and but for a counteracting influence, vital action would be quickly overcome. The constitution (stored vital force) establishes a reaction or fever, by which the disease is thrown to the surface, producing an eruption on the skin.
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