itability. For want
of a knowledge of this law, these disagreeable, and often dangerous
complaints are brought on; when they might be avoided with the
greatest ease.

When you take a ride into the country on a cold day, you find
yourselves very cold; as soon as you go into a house, you are
invited to come to the fire, and warm yourselves; and what is still
worse, to drink something warm and comfortable, to keep out the
cold, as the saying is. The inevitable consequence of this, is, to
bring on the complaints which I have just described, which might
with more propriety be called, heats than colds. But how easily
might these complaints have been avoided! When you come out of a
very cold atmosphere, you should not at first go into a room that
has a fire in it, or if you cannot avoid that, you should keep for a
considerable time at as great a distance from the fire as possible,
that the accumulated excitability may be gradually exhausted, by the
moderate and gentle action of heat; and then you may bear the heat
of the fire without any danger: but, above all, refrain from taking
warm or strong liquors while you are cold. If a person have his
hands or feet exposed to a very severe cold, the excitability of
those parts will be so much accumulated, that if they should be
brought suddenly near the fire, a violent inflammation, and even a
mortification will take place, which has often happened; or, at any
rate, that inflammation called Chilblains will be produced, from the
violent action of the heat upon the accumulated excitability of
those parts; but, if a person so circumstanced, was to put his hands
or feet into cold water, very little warmer than the atmosphere to
which he had been exposed, or rub them with snow, which is not often
colder than 32 or 30 degrees, the morbid excitability will be
gradually exhausted, and no bad consequences will ensue.

When a part of the body only has been exposed to the action of cold,
and the rest kept heated; if, for instance, a person in a warm room
sits so that a current of air coming through a broken pane, should
fall upon any part of the body, that part will be soon affected with
an inflammation, which is usually called a rheumatic inflammation.
From what has been said, it will be easy to account for this
circumstance. The excitability of the part is accumulated by the
diminution of its heat; but at the same time, the rest of the body
and blood is warm; and this warm blood acting upon