t every pulsation of it, represented by darker branches on
the white wall; which is evidently owing to its compressing the retina
during the diastole of the artery. Savage Nosolog.
7. The organs of sense and the moving muscles are alike liable to be
affected with palsy, as in the gutta serena, and in some cases of deafness;
and one side of the face has sometimes lost its power of sensation, but
retained its power of motion; other parts of the body have lost their
motions but retained their sensation, as in the common hemiplagia; and in
other instances both these powers have perished together.
8. In some convulsive diseases a delirium or insanity supervenes, and the
convulsions cease; and conversely the convulsions shall supervene, and the
delirium cease. Of this I have been a witness many times in a day in the
paroxysms of violent epilepsies; which evinces that one kind of delirium is
a convulsion of the organs of sense, and that our ideas are the motions of
these organs: the subsequent cases will illustrate this observation.
Miss G----, a fair young lady, with light eyes and hair, was seized with
most violent convulsions of her limbs, with outrageous hiccough, and most
vehement efforts to vomit: after near an hour was elapsed this tragedy
ceased, and a calm talkative delirium supervened for about another hour;
and these relieved each other at intervals during the greatest part of
three or four days. After having carefully considered this disease, I
thought the convulsions of her ideas less dangerous than those of her
muscles; and having in vain attempted to make any opiate continue in her
stomach, an ounce of laudanum was rubbed along the spine of her back, and a
dram of it was used as an enema; by this medicine a kind of drunken
delirium was continued many hours; and when it ceased the convulsions did
not return; and the lady continued well many years, except some lighter
relapses, which were relieved in the same manner.
Miss H----, an accomplished young lady, with light eyes and hair, was
seized with convulsions of her limbs, with hiccough, and efforts to vomit,
more violent than words can express; these continued near an hour, and were
succeeded with a cataleptic spasm of one arm, with the hand applied to her
head; and after about twenty minutes these spasms ceased, and a talkative
reverie supervened for near an other hour, from which no violence, which it
was proper to use, could awaken her. These periods of c
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