An inaugural dissertation, on the rheumatic state of fever : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost : the trustees and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania ; on the 12th May, 1797 ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Edward North, of South Carolina, member of the Philadelphia Medical Society.
- Edward W. North
- Date:
- 1797
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An inaugural dissertation, on the rheumatic state of fever : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost : the trustees and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania ; on the 12th May, 1797 ; for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Edward North, of South Carolina, member of the Philadelphia Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![[ *9 ] difpofingdebility, and this, when once induced, occafionspredifpofition, which is attended with an increafed excitability, orfufceptibilityin the fyftem toreceive impreffion, and as it is uni verfal- Jy acknowledged that cold produces diminifhed action or direct debility, fo, I think, we may the more readily explain the greater frequency of this dileafe in the fpring feafon, after the exci- tability of the fyftem has been much accumu- lated throughout the preceding winter, as what- ever has a tendency to debilitate the body, leaves it much more liable to be acted upon by ftimuli. We may here infer the great necelfity of proportioning ftimulus to excitability, for it is a law of the animal ceconomy, that diipropor- tioned ftimulus fhould occafion convulfive ac- tion, which oftentimes terminates ia death. Dr. Stedman relates a cafe juft in point, where he obferves, that thirty drops of Laudanum produced death in a young man, who had been previously debilitated by the exceffive evacua- tion caufed by taking a vomit. Probably the exhibition of this at any other period, might have been an ordinary dofe, and attended with no ill confequences, but on account of its being injudicioufly adminiftered, proved the caufe of ib unexpected and melancholy a cataftrophe — There came, not Jong fince, a cafe under my own obfervation, of a fimilar nature, where blood-letting was adminiftered to the amount](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2114400x_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
