One-day fever from hardening of the skin due to cold

It sometimes happens that from cold or from bathing in cold, constricting water, the external pores are compressed, smoky vapors are retained, as was said about fever from hardening of the skin, and a fever arises, which often leads to putrefaction. This phenomenon causes fever only if the lingering fumes are pungent and not insipid; fresh vapors do not give rise to fever.

A sign of it is the presence of a corresponding cause and also the fact that the body does not seem to be very hot at the first touch, but if the hand lingers on it, a rising heat is felt. The pulse is not as small as in fever from grief, care or hunger, since there is no dispersion of pneuma, but it is fast due to the need to extinguish heat; however, if the cold is severe, the pulse sometimes becomes hard. The eyes are not sunken, but they often become swollen from trapped vapors. Urine is sometimes white because the heat is locked up, and sometimes it is colored because the heat dissipated through the pores rushes into the urinary tract.

Treatment. During fever, patients are wrapped up so that they sweat, and when the fever subsides, they are taken to the bathhouse and bathed in slightly hot water, also warmed with hot air. They are watered with water in which, for example, marjoram, dill or thyme were boiled, and rubbed with the already mentioned substances that cleanse and relax the pores. Rubbing in the oil is postponed until they sweat, rub themselves and bathe in very hot water, and bathing in the water should precede warming with air, and then oils that dilate the pores are rubbed in, and the head is also watered, for example, with dill oil, wallflower or chamomile. They are fed light dishes, anointed with incense and given water to drink with white wine, liquid or diluted; wine is better for them than water, because it causes perspiration and drives away urine. Rubbing the oil is more beneficial for those with a fever due to fatigue than for those with a fever due to skin thickening.