Class III. 1.1.9. OF VOLITION. 289 



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ed ftimulus is fo much greater after previous defect of ftimulus 5 

 and this is (till of greater advantage, where the caufe of the dif- 

 eafe happens to confift in a material, which can be abforbed. 

 See Art. IV. 2. 8. 



M. M. Venefect ion. An emetic. A cathartic. Warm 

 bath. Opium a grain every half hour. Wine. Spirit of wine* 

 If the patient becomes intoxicated by the above means, the fit 

 ceafes, and violent vomitings and debility fucceed on the fubfe- 

 quent day, and prevent a return. Blifters or finapifms on the 

 fmall of the leg, taken off when they give much pain, are of ufe 

 in flighter convulsions. Acupuncture. Electricity. Afper- 

 fion with cold water on the painful part. A bag of fnow or ice 

 applied on the pained part. 



9. Somnambulifmus. Sleep-walking is a part of reverie, or 

 ftudium inane, defcribed in Sect. XIX. In this malady the pa- 

 tients have only the general appearance of being afleep in re- 

 fpect to their inattention to the ftimulus of external objects, but, 

 like the epilepfies above defcribed, it conlifts in voluntary exer- 

 tions to relieve pain. The mufcles are fubfervient to the will, 

 as appears by the patient's walking about, and fometimes doing 

 the common offices of life. The ideas of the mind alfo are obe- 

 dient to the will, becaufe the patient's difcourfe is confident, 

 though he anfwers imaginary queftions. The irritative ideas of 

 external objects continue in this malady, becaufe the patients do 

 not run againft the furniture of the room 5 and when they ap- 

 ply their volition to their organs of fenfe, they become ienfible 

 of the objects they attend to, but not otherwise, as general fen- 

 fation is deftroyed by the violence of their voluntary exertions. 

 At the fame time the fenfations of pleafure in confequence of 

 ideas excited by volition are vividly experienced, and other ideas 

 feem to be excited by thefe pleafurable fenfations, as appears in 

 the cafe of Mailer A. Seel. XXXIV. 3.1. where a hiftory of a 

 hunting fcene was voluntarily recalled, with all the pleafurable 

 ideas which attended it. In melancholy madnefs the patient is 

 employed in voluntarily exciting one idea, with thofe which are 

 connected with it by voluntary aflbciation6 only, but not fo vio- 

 lently as to exclude the ftimuli of external objects. In reverie 

 variety of ideas are occasionally excited by volition, and thofe 

 which are connected with them either by fenfitive or voluntary 

 affociations, and that fo violently as to exclude the ftimuli of ex- 

 ternal objects. Thefe two fituations of cur fenfual motions, or 

 ideas, refemble convulfion and epilepiy ; as in the former the 

 ftimulus of external objects is ftill perceived, but not in the lat- 

 ter. Whence this diieafe, fo far from being connected with 

 fleep, though it has bv univerfal miftake acquired its name from 



Vol. II. O b it, 



