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Mercurials—Sulphur.

C. By Medicines which act on the surface sympathetically, through the medium of the Stomach.

Cold Drinks, &c.

II. By Increasing the General Action of the Vascular System.

Violent Exercise—Ammonia—Guaiacum—Alcohol—Warm Bath.

III. By relaxing the morbidly constricted mouths of the Perspiratory Vessels.

Antimonials—Cold Affusion—Venesection—Saline Diaphoretics.

The action of the cutaneous vessels may be augmented by heat, without necessarily increasing, at the same time, that of the heart and arteries; hence it is that heat is, of itself, often sufficient to produce sweating, while it generally accelerates the operation of a sudorific medicine. To this general proposition, however, there are some very important exceptions; and, indeed, in certain conditions of the cutaneous surface, the stimulus of heat will be even found to impede, rather than to promote, diaphoresis; thus in the hot stage of a continued fever, there would seem to exist a peculiar constriction of the perspiratory vessels, accompanied with extreme heat and dryness. In such a state, remedies of the third class must be applied, or conjoined with those of the former. The warm bath may be said to partake of all the qualities upon which our classification is founded; it will stimulate the cutaneous capillaries,—increase vascular action, generally, and, by its emollient powers, relax the morbidly constricted mouths of the perspiratory vessels. During the ardent heat of fever, the external application of cold is the most efficient sudorific, as the valuable reports of Dr. Currie have very satisfactorily established.