the countenance,--and it fades off
gradually at the edges into the clear whiteness or brownness of the
healthy skin, it is probably both healthy and genuine. If the work of
either fever or of art, it will generally reveal itself as a base
imitation. In eight cases out of ten of fever, the flush, instead of
being confined to this definite area, extends all over the face, even up
to the roots of the hair. The eyes, instead of being clear and bright,
are congested and heavy-lidded; and if with these you have an increased
rapidity of respiration, and a general air of discomfort and unrest, you
are fairly safe in making a diagnosis of fever. If the first touch of
the tips of the fingers on the wrist shows a hot skin and a rapid pulse,
the diagnosis is almost as certain as with the thermometer.

Now for two of the instances in which it most commonly puzzles us. The
first of these is consumption; for here the flush, both in position and
in delicacy and gentle fading away at the proper margins, is an almost
perfect imitation of health. It, however, usually appears, not as the
normal flush of health does, upon a plump and rounded cheek, but upon a
hollow and wasted one. It rises somewhat higher upon the cheekbones,
throwing the latter out into ghastly prominence. The lips and the eyes
will give us no clew, for the former are red from fever, and the latter
are bright from the gentle, half-dreamy state produced by the toxins of
the disease, the so-called "_spes phthisica_"--the everlasting and
pathetic hopefulness of the consumptive. But here we call for help upon
another of the features of disease--the hand. If, instead of being cool,
and elastic, this is either dry and hot, or clammy and damp, and feels
as if you were grasping a handful of bones and nerves, and the
finger-tips are clubbed and the nails curved like claws, then you have a
strong _prima facie_ case.

The other color condition which is apt to puzzle us is that of the plump
and comfortable middle-aged gentleman with a fine rosy color, but a
watery eye and loose and puffy mouth, a wheezy respiration and apparent
excess of adipose. Here the high color is often due to a paralytic
distention of the blood-vessels of the face and neck, and an examination
of his heart and blood-vessels shows that his prospects are anything but
as rosy as his countenance.

The varying expressions of the face of disease are by no means confined
to the countenance. In fact, they extend to ev