and the anhelation, and
coldness of the breath, shew the terminations of the pulmonary artery to be
likewise affected with torpor.

After these vessels of the whole surface of the body both absorbent and
secretory have been for a time torpid by the application of cold water; and
all the internal secerning and absorbent ones have been made torpid from
their association with the external; as soon as their usual stimulus of
warmth is renewed, they are thrown into more than their usual energy of
action; as the hands become hot and painful on approaching the fire after
having been immersed some time in snow. Hence the face becomes of a red
colour in a cold day on turning from the wind, and the insensible
perspiration increased by repeatedly going into frosty air, but not
continuing in it too long at a time.

2. When by the too great warmth of a room or of clothes, the secretion of
perspirable matter is much increased, the strength of the patient is much
exhausted by this unnecessary exertion of the capillary system, and thence
of the whole secerning and arterial system by association. The diminution
of external heat immediately induces a torpor or quiescence of these
unnecessary exertions, and the patient instantly feels himself
strengthened, and exhilarated; the animal power, which was thus wasted in
vain, being now applied to more useful purposes. Thus when the limbs on one
side are disabled by a stroke of the palsy, those of the other side are
perpetually in motion. And hence all people bear riding and other exercises
best in cold weather.

Patients in fevers, where the skin is hot, are immediately strengthened by
cold air; which is therefore of great use in fevers attended with debility
and heat; but may perhaps be of temporary disservice, if too hastily
applied in some situations of fevers attended with internal topical
inflammation, as in peripneumony or pleurisy, where the arterial strength
is too great already, and the increased action of the external capillaries
being destroyed by the cold, the action of the internal inflamed part may
be suddenly increased, unless venesection and other evacuations are applied
at the same time. Yet in most cases the application of cold is nevertheless
salutary, as by decreasing the heat of the particles of blood in the
cutaneous vessels, the stimulus of them, and the distention of the vessels
becomes considerably lessened. In external inflammations, as the small-pox,
and perhaps th