Medical reports, on the effects of water, cold and warm, as a remedy in fever, and febrile diseases; whether applied to the surface of the body, or used as a drink: with observations on the nature of fever; and on the effects of opium, alcohol, and inanition / by James Currie.

Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical reports, on the effects of water, cold and warm, as a remedy in fever, and febrile diseases; whether applied to the surface of the body, or used as a drink: with observations on the nature of fever; and on the effects of opium, alcohol, and inanition / by James Currie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the doubts which fome have exprefled in regard to its ufe in intermittents, and the interdiction which in fuch cafes, others have pronounced againft it. We may explain alfo from the fame confiderations, why in the accounts that have been handed down to us of injurious effeCts from the ufe of cold drink in fevers, the greater part of the cafes have been i intermittents. The inftances however that are recorded of the fatal effeCh of large draughts of cold liquids, have more frequently occurred after fevere exercife and fatigue, than even in intermittent fever. The caufe of this is obvious*—the heat praeternaturally accu- mulated by exercife, is held with lefs tenacity than even the heat in intermittents. It is diffipated by the perfpirations that exercife occafions, and is fpee- diiy loft, when to profufe perfpiration is added a ftate of reft. It is then that a large draught of cold liquid is efpecially dangerous. But while the pre- ternatural heat is fuftained by continued exertion, cold liquids may be taken in moderate quantities without producing any injurious effeCts. They may even 1 apprehend be drank copioufly without producing fuddenly the fatal effeCts already defcrib- ed—but in copious draughts they are found op- prefhve to the ftomach during exercife, and they excite languor, naufea, and fometimes vomiting, as I have