g or mitigating the hectic paroxysm; and
secondly, that in the florid consumption, as Dr. Beddoes terms it, an
elevated and inland air is in certain circumstances peculiarly
salutary; while an atmosphere loaded with the spray of the sea is
irritating and noxious. The benefit derived in this case from exercise
on horseback, may lead us to doubt whether Sydenham's praise of this
remedy be as much exaggerated as it has of late been supposed. Since
the publication of Dr. C. Smyth on the effects of swinging in lowering
the pulse in the hectic paroxysm, the subject of this narrative has
repeated his experiments in a great variety of cases, and has confirmed
them. He has also repeatedly seen the hectic paroxysm prevented, or cut
short, by external ablution of the naked body with tepid water.

So much was his power of digestion impaired or vitiated by the immense
evacuations, and the long continued debility he underwent, that after
the cough was removed, and indeed for several years after the period
mentioned, he never could eat animal food without heat and flushing,
with frequent pulse and extreme drowsiness. If this drowsiness was
encouraged, the fever ran high, and he awoke from disturbed sleep,
wearied and depressed. If it was resolutely resisted by gentle
exercise, it went off in about an hour, as well as the increased
frequency of the pulse. This agitation was however such as to
incapacitate him during the afternoon for study of any kind. The same
effects did not follow a meal of milk and vegetables, but under this
diet his strength did not recruit; whereas after the use of animal food
it recovered rapidly, notwithstanding the inconvenience already
mentioned. For this inconvenience he at last found a remedy in the use
of coffee immediately after dinner, recommended to him by his friend
Dr. Percival. At first this remedy operated like a charm, but by
frequent use, and indeed by abuse, it no longer possesses its original
efficacy.

Dr. Falconer, in his Dissertation on the Influence of the Passions and
Affections of the Mind on Health and Disease, supposes that the
cheerfulness which attends hectic fever, the ever-springing hope, which
brightens the gloom of the consumptive patient, increases the diseased
actions, and hastens his doom. And hence he is led to enquire, whether
the influenc