106 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. strong constitution, who had been seized with a violent fever two days before, with giddy pains of the head, violent vomitings, and such like symp- toms, and finding, upon inquiry, that he had no sign of a swelling, I immediately ordered that a large quantity of blood should be taken away, which had the appearance of blood drawn in a plurisy, and I prescribed also a ptisan, with cooling- juleps and broths. In the afternoon he was bled again, and on the following morning lost the same quantity. Towards the evening of this day I visited my patient, and found him much better ; but his friends, notwithstanding this improvement, were violently opposed to further bleeding. But I earnestly contended that it should be repeated again, saying, that he needed only undergo the operation once more, and he would be safe ; on the contrary, if they continued obstinate, it would have been better that no blood had been taken away at all, and that the cure had been attempted by per- spiration ; in short, I predicted that the patient would thus die. The event confirmed the pro- gnosis, and while we were disputing the matter, the purple spots broke out, and he died in a few hours." Sydenham concludes his chapter on the plague in the following remarkable words. " If the reader shall find that I have anywhere erred in theory, I beg his pardon ; but as to practice I de- clare I have faithfully related every thing, and that I never proposed any plan of cure before I had thoroughly tried it. Indeed, when I come to die, I trust I shall have a cheerful witness in my breast, that 1 have not only, with the greatest diligence
