Sect. XXXIV. i. 5. OF VOLITION. 333 



5. If the pains, or difagreeable fenfations, above defcribed do 

 not obtain a temporary relief from thefe convulfive exertions of 

 the mufcles, tbofe convulfive exertions continue without remif- 

 fion, and one kind of catalepfy is produced. Thus when a nerve 

 qr tendon produces great pain by its being inflamed or wounded, 

 the patient fets his teeth firmly together, and grins violently, to 

 diminiih the pain ; and if the pain is not relieved by this exer- 

 tion, no relaxation of the maxillary mufcles takes place, as in 

 the convulsions above defcribed, but the jaws remain firmly 

 fixed together. This locked jaw is the mofl frequent inftance 

 of cataleptic fpafm, becaufe we are more inclined to exert the 

 mufcles fubfervient to maftication from their early obedience to 

 violent efforts of volition. 



But in the cafe related in Seel:. XIX. on Reverie, the catalep- 

 tic lady had pain in her upper teeth ; and preiiing one of her 

 hands vehemently againfl her cheek bone to diminim this pain, 

 ir remained in that attitude for about half an hour twice a day, 

 till the painfui paroxyfm was over. 



I have this very day feen a young lady m this difeafe, (with 

 which fne has frequently been afflicted ;) fhe began to-day with 

 violent pain mooting from one (ide of the forehead to the occi- 

 put, and after various ftruggles lay on the bed with her fingers 

 and wrifts bent and itiff for about two hours ; in other refpects 

 fhe feemed in a fyncope with a natural pulfe. She then had in- 

 tervals of pain and of fpafm, and took three grains of opium 

 every hour till fhe had taken nine grains, before the pains and 

 fpafm ceafed. 



There is, however, another fpecies of fixed fpafm, which dif- 

 fers from the former, as the pain exifts in the contracted mufcle, 

 and would feem rather to be the confequence than the caufe of 

 the contraction, as in the cramp in the calf of the leg, and in 

 many other parts of the body. 



In thefe fpafms it fhould feem, that the mufcle itfelf is firll 

 thrown into contraction by fome difagreeable fenfation, as of 

 cold ; and that then the violent pain is produced by the great 

 contraction of the mufcular fibres extending its own tendons, 

 which are faid to be fenfible to extenfion only ; and is further 

 explained in Sect. XVIII. 15. 



6. Many inftances have been given in this work, where after 

 violent motions excited by irritation, the organ has become qui- 

 efcent to lefs, and even to the great irritation, which induced it 

 into violent motion ; as after looking long at the fun or any 

 bright colour, they ceafe to be feen ; and after removing from 

 bright day-light into a gloomy room, the eye cannot at firll per- 

 ceive the objects, which Simulate it lefs. Similar to this is the 



fyncope, 



