Now as this second cold fit commences with a greater deficiency of
sensorial power, it is also attended with a greater deficiency of stimulus
than in the preceding cold fit, that is, with less momentum of blood, less
distention of the heart. On this account the second cold fit becomes more
violent and of longer duration than the first; and as a greater
accumulation of sensorial power must be produced before the system of
vessels will again obey the diminished stimulus, it follows, that the
second hot fit of fever will be more violent than the former one. And that
unless some other causes counteract either the violent exertions in the hot
fit, or the great torpor in the cold fit, life will at length be
extinguished by the expenditure of the whole of the sensorial power. And
from hence it appears, that the true means of curing fevers must be such as
decrease the action of the system in the hot fit, and increase it in the
cold fit; that is, such as prevent the too great diminution of sensorial
power in the hot fit, and the too great accumulation of it in the cold one.

2. Where the exertion of the sensorial powers is much increased, as in the
hot fits of fever or inflammation, the following are the usual means of
relieving it. Decrease the irritations by blood-letting, and other
evacuations; by cold water taken into the stomach, or injected as an enema,
or used externally; by cold air breathed into the lungs, and diffused over
the skin; with food of less stimulus than the patient has been accustomed
to.

3. As a cold fit, or paroxysm of inactivity of some parts of the system,
generally precedes the hot fit, or paroxysm of exertion, by which the
sensorial power becomes accumulated, this cold paroxysm should be prevented
by stimulant medicines and diet, as wine, opium, bark, warmth,
cheerfulness, anger, surprise.