Sweating it out!

M walked in with a bowl of mulligatawny soup from the neighbor.

"It is derived from a Tamil word," I began.  No flu will shut this professor up!

"Milagu rasam is the origin.  Milagu is black pepper." 

I was now on a high temperature rant, and no medicine could stop me at that point.

"In fact, this flu condition is a good time for me to have milagu rasam." 

Was I now delirious about milagu rasam?

"There is no dal, no vegetables, no nothing.  It is just watery.  milagu thanni, which literally means pepper water."

By now, I wasn't even looking to see if the friend was paying attention.  Heck, I didn't even know if M was even around!

"Some British guy heard that milagu thanni and his tongue pronounced that as mulligatawny."  I pronounced "mulligatawny" with a gruff, baritone, British impression and promptly broke into a coughing fit.

M re-appeared.

"Hot milagu rasam promotes sweating, which the old culture thought was a way to control the fever and cool down the high temperature."

Thankfully, those flu days are behind me. I hope.

I now read that there is a word that is applicable to both black pepper and me: Diaphoretic.  Google gives two meanings:

(chiefly of a drug) inducing perspiration
(of a person) sweating heavily.

As in, say:

Diaphoretics like pepper and ginger warm the person from inside and make them perspire.
No wonder sriram is diaphoretic!

Can somebody please prescribe me an anti-diaphoretic!