ymptoms. Causes.
Affections of the stomach. Cure. Use of electricity. Diet.

LECTURE XIV, ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.

Predisposition. Classes. Sthenic kinds. Case of the author. Bad
effects of wine. Asthenic kinds. Passions. Direct debility.
Treatment. Torpor. Remedies. Exercise and temperance. Conclusion.

AN ACCOUNT
OF
THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

DR. GARNETT was born at Casterton, near Kirkby Lonsdale,
Westmoreland, on the 21st of April, 1766. During the first fifteen
years of his life, he remained with his parents, and was instructed
by them in the precepts of the established church of England, from
which he drew that scheme of virtue, by which every action of his
future life was to be governed. The only school education he received
during these early years, was at Barbon, a small village near his
native place, to which his father had removed the year after he was
born. The school was of so little consequence, that its master
changed not less than three times during the space of seven or eight
years, and the whole instruction he received, was comprehended in the
rudiments of the English grammar, a small portion of Latin, and a
little French, together with the general principles of arithmetic.
His bodily constitution was from the beginning weak and susceptible;
he was unequal to joining in the boisterous amusements of his
companions, while from the liveliness of his disposition he could not
remain a moment idle. To these circumstances we are, perhaps, to
attribute the uncommon progress he made in every branch of knowledge
to which he afterwards applied himself.

Whilst a schoolboy, the susceptibility of his mind, and a diffidence
of character connected with it, caused him to associate very little
with his schoolfellows: he dreaded the displeasure of his preceptor,
as the greatest misfortune which could befal him The moment he
arrived at home, he set about preparing his lesson for the next day;
and as soon as this was accomplished, he amused himself by contriving
small pieces of mechanism, which he exhibited with conscious
satisfaction to his friends. His temper was warm and enthusiastic;
whatever came within the narrow circle of his early knowledge he
would attempt to imitate. He saw no difficulties before hand, nor was
he discouraged when he met with them. At the early age of eleven
years, he had somewhere seen a dial and a quadrant, and was able to
imitate these instruments, nay, with the assistance of the latter,