i3o DISEASES Class III. 1. 1. a 



ed emproflhotonoi ; when they bend if. backward, they are term- 

 ed opifthotonoi. They frequently fucceed each other, but the 

 epifthotonoi are generally more violent ; as the mufcles, which 

 erect the body, and keep it erect, are naturally in more conftant 

 and more forcible action than their antagonifts. 



The caufes of convulllon are very numerous, as from tooth- ' 

 ing in children, from worms or acidity in their bowels, from 

 eruption of the diltinct fmall-pox, and laftly, from breathing 

 too long the air of an unventilated bed-room. Sir G. Baker, 

 in the Tranfactions of the College, defcribed this difeafe, and 

 detected its caufe j where many children in an orphan-houfe 

 were crowded together in one chamber without a chimney, and 

 were almofl all of them affected with convulfion ; in the hof- 

 pital at Dublin, many died of convulfions before the real caufe 

 was understood. See Dr. Beddoes's Guide to Self-prefervation. 

 In a large family, which I attended, where many female fervants 

 flept in one room, which they had contrived to render inacceffi- 

 ble to every blaft of air \ I faw four who were thus feized with 

 convulfions, and who were believed to have been affected by 

 fympathy from the firft who fell ill. They were removed into 

 more airy apartments, but were fome weeks before they all re- 

 gained their perfect health. 



Convulfion is diftinguifhed from epilepfy, as the patient does 

 not intirely lofe all perception during the paroxyfm. Which 

 only ftiews, that a lefis exhauftion of lenforial power renders tol- 

 erable the pains which caufe convulfion, than thofe which caufe 

 epilepfy. The hyfteriq convulfions are diftinguifhed from thofe, 

 owing to other caufes, by the prefence of the expectation of 

 death, which precedes and fucceeds them, and generally by a 

 flow of pale urine ; thefe convulfions do not conftantly attend 

 the hylteric difeafe, but are occafionally fuperinduced by the 

 difagreeable fenfation arifmg from the torpor or inverfion of a 

 part of the alimentary canal. Whence the convulfion of laugh- 

 ter is frequently fumcient to reftrain thefe hyfteric pains, which 

 accounts for the fits of laughter frequently attendant on this 

 difeafe. 



M. M. To remove the peculiar pain which excites the con- 

 vulfions. Venefection. An emetic. A cathartic with calo- 

 mel. Warm-bath. Opium in large quantities, beginning with 

 f mailer ones. Mercurial frictions. Electricity. Cold-bath in 

 the paroxyfm ; or cold afperfion. See Memoirs of Med. Soci- 

 ety, Lon. Vol. III. p. 147. a paper by Dr. Currie. 



5. Convulfio debilh. The convulfions of dying animals, as of 

 thofe which are bleeding to death in the flaughter-houfe, are an 

 effort to relieve painful fenfation, either of the wound which 



occafioris 



