the objects of these irritative motions to be present, and
feels himself vertiginous. I have observed in this situation, so long as my
eyes and mind were intent upon a book, the sickness and vertigo ceased, and
were renewed again the moment I discontinued this attention; as was
explained in the preceding account of sea-sickness. Some drunken people
have been known to become sober instantly from some accident, that has
strongly excited their attention, as the pain of a broken bone, or the news
of their house being on fire.

9. Sometimes the vertigo from internal causes, as from intoxication, or at
the beginning of some fevers, becomes so universal, that the irritative
motions which belong to other organs of sense are succeeded by sensation or
attention, as well as those of the eye. The vertiginous noise in the ears
has been explained in Section XX. on Vertigo. The taste of the saliva,
which in general is not attended to, becomes perceptible, and the patients
complain of a bad taste in their mouth.

The common smells of the surrounding air sometimes excite the attention of
these patients, and bad smells are complained of, which to other people are
imperceptible. The irritative motions that belong to the sense of pressure,
or of touch, are attended to, and the patient conceives the bed to librate,
and is fearful of falling out of it. The irritative motions belonging to
the senses of distention, and of heat, like those above mentioned, become
attended to at this time: hence we feel the pulsation of our arteries all
over us, and complain of heat, or of cold, in parts of the body where there
is no accumulation or diminution of actual heat. All which are to be
explained, as in the last paragraph, by the irritative ideas belonging to
the various senses being now excited by internal stimuli, or by their
associations with other irritative motions. And that the inebriate, like
one in a dream, believes the external objects, which usually caused these
irritative ideas, to be now present.

10. The diseases in consequence of frequent inebriety, or of daily taking
much vinous spirit without inebriety, consist in the paralysis, which is
liable to succeed violent stimulation. Organs, whose actions are associated
with others, are frequently more affected than the organ, which is
stimulated into too violent action. See Sect. XXIV. 2. 8. Hence in drunken
people it generally happens, that the secretory vessels of the liver become
first para