5. The blood was in some instances covered above with blue pellicle of sizy lymph, while the part which lay in the bottom of the bowl was dissolved. The lymph was in two cases mixed with green streaks.
6. It was in a few instances of a dark colour, and as fluid as molasses. I saw this kind of blood in a man who walked about his house during the whole of his sickness, and who finally recovered. Both this, and the fifth kind of blood which has been mentioned, occurred chiefly where bleeding had been omitted altogether, or used too sparingly in the beginning of the disease.
7. In some patients the blood, in the course of the disease, exhibited nearly _all_ the appearances which have been mentioned. They were varied by the time in which the blood was drawn, and by the nature and force of the remedies which had been used in the disease.
The effects of blood-letting upon the system were as follow:
1. It raised the pulse when depressed, and quickened it, when it was preternaturally slow, or subject to intermissions.
3. It checked in many cases the vomiting which occurred in the beginning of the disease, and thereby enabled the stomach to retain the purging medicine. It likewise assisted the purge in preventing the dangerous or fatal vomiting which came on about the fifth day.
4. It lessened the difficulty of opening the bowels. Upon this account, in one of my addresses to the citizens of Philadelphia, I advised bleeding to be used _before_, as well as after taking the mercurial purge. Dr. Woodhouse informed me that he had several times seen patients call for the close-stool while the blood was flowing from the vein.
5. It removed delirium, coma, and obstinate wakefulness. It also prevented or checked hæmorrhages; hence perhaps another reason why not a single instance of abortion occurred in such of my female patients as were pregnant.
6. It disposed, in some cases, to a gentle perspiration.
7. It lessened the sensible debility of the system; hence patients frequently rose from their beds, and walked across their rooms, in a few hours after the operation had been performed.
8. The redness of the eyes frequently disappeared in a few hours after bleeding. Mr. Coxe observed a dilated pupil to contract to its natural size within a few minutes after he had bound up the arm of his patient. I remarked, in the former part of this work, that blindness in many instances attended or followed this fever. But two such cases occurred among my patients. In one of them it was of short continuance, and in the other it was probably occasioned by the want of sufficient bleeding. In every case of blindness that came to my knowledge bleeding had been omitted, or used only in a very moderate degree.