Zoonomia, Vol. I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 655 pages of information about Zoonomia, Vol. I.

Zoonomia, Vol. I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 655 pages of information about Zoonomia, Vol. I.

The business of generation depends so much on agreeable sensation, that, where the object is disgustful, neither voluntary exertion nor irritation can effect the purpose; which is also liable to be interrupted by the pain of fear or bashfulness.

Besides the pleasure, which attends the irritations produced by the objects of lust and hunger, there seems to be a sum of pleasurable affection accompanying the various secretions of the numerous glands, which constitute the pleasure of life, in contradistinction to the tedium vitae.  This quantity or sum of pleasurable affection, seems to contribute to the due or energetic performance of the whole moveable system, as well that of the heart and arteries, as of digestion and of absorption; since without the due quantity of pleasurable sensation, flatulency and hypochondriacism affect the intestines, and a languor seizes the arterial pulsations and secretions; as occurs in great and continued anxiety of the mind.

2.  Besides the febrile motions occasioned by irritation, described in Sect.  XXXII. and termed irritative fever, it frequently happens that pain is excited by the violence of the fibrous contractions; and other new motions are then superadded, in consequence of sensation, which we shall term febris sensitiva, or sensitive fever.  It must be observed, that most irritative fevers begin with a decreased exertion of irritation, owing to defect of stimulus; but that on the contrary the sensitive fevers, or inflammations, generally begin with the increased exertion of sensation, as mentioned in Sect.  XXXI. on temperaments:  for though the cold fit, which introduces inflammation, commences with decreased irritation, yet the inflammation itself commences in the hot fit during the increase of sensation.  Thus a common pustule, or phlegmon, in a part of little sensibility does not excite an inflammatory fever; but if the stomach, intestines, or the tender substance beneath the nails, be injured, great sensation is produced, and the whole system is thrown into that kind of exertion, which constitutes inflammation.

These sensitive fevers, like the irritative ones, resolve themselves into those with arterial strength, and those with arterial debility, that is with excess or defect of sensorial power; these may be termed the febris sensitiva pulsu forti, sensitive fever with strong pulse, which is the synocha, or inflammatory fever; and the febris sensitiva pulsu debili, sensitive fever with weak pulse, which is the typhus gravior, or putrid fever of some writers.

3.  The inflammatory fevers, which are here termed sensitive fevers with strong pulse, are generally attended with some topical inflammation, as pleurisy, peripneumony, or rheumatism, which distinguishes them from irritative fevers with strong pulse.  The pulse is strong, quick, and full; for in this fever there is great irritation, as well as great sensation, employed in moving the arterial system.  The size, or coagulable lymph, which appears on the blood, is probably an increased secretion from the inflamed internal lining of the whole arterial system, the thinner part being taken away by the increased absorption of the inflamed lymphatics.

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Zoonomia, Vol. I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.