BOTANIC PHYSICIAN. 
_, the spirits, but prevents the person from taking proper exercise, by 
- which means the digestion is impaired, the nourishment prevented, 
the solids relaxed, and the whole mass of humors vitiated. Grief 
and disappointment likewise produce the same effects. Many 
nervous people date their disorders from the loss of a husband, a 
fayorite child, or from some disappointment in life. Ina word, 
_ whatever weakens the body, or depresses the spirits, may occasion 
nervous disorders; as unwholesome air, want of sleep, great fa- 
tigue, disagreeable apprehensions, anxiety, vexation, &c. Many 
young men, particularly in cities, by dissipating and living too fast, 
bring on a premature old age, attended with a long train of nervous 
complaints. . 
Symptoms.—It would be impracticable to enumerate the whole. 
They generally begin, however, with windy inflations or distentions 
of the stomach and intestines ; the appetite and digestion are usually 
yet sometimes there is an uncommon craving for food anda 
digestion. The food often turns sour on the stomach, and 
@ patient is troubled with vomiting of clear water, tough phlegm, — 
or a blackish coloured liquor resembling the grounds of coffee. Ex- 
cruciating pains are often felt about the navel, attended with a rum- 
bling or murmuring noise in the bowels. The body is sometimes 
loose, but more commonly bound, which occasions a retention of — 
_wind and great uneasiness. | 
__ The urine is very irregular, sometimes being small in quantity, — 
and at other times very copious and quite clear. There is a great — 
tightness of the breast, with difficulty of breathing; violent palpita- 
tions of the heart; sudden flushings of heat in various parts of the — 
body ; and at other times a sense of cold as if water were poured on _ 
ss 
flying pains in the back and limbs; pains in the baék and — 
belly, resembling those of gravel ; the pulse yery variable; yawning, — 
hiceup, frequent sighing, and a sense of suffocation as if froma — 
~~ 
ball or lump in the throat ; alternate fits of crying and convulsive 
Taughing > the sleep unsound, and seldom refreshing ; nightmare. 
a As disease increases, the patient is molested with dizainess, — 
_ fainting, head-achs, cramps, and fixed pains in the various parts of — 
_ the body; the eyes are clouded, and often affected with pain and — 
dryness; there is a noise in the ears, and often a dulness of hearing; — 
short the whole animal functions are impaired, the mind is dis- — 
the most trivial oceasions, and is hurried into the most — 
ommotions, inquietudes, terror, sadness, anger, diffidence, — 
the patient is apt to entertain wild imaginations and extra- Z 
at fancies ; the memory becomes weak, and the judgment fails. _ 
~ Nothing is more characteristic of this disease than a constant — 
dread of death. This renders those unhappy persons who labor — 
under it peevish, fickle, impatient, and apt to run from one physt 
cian to another ; which is the reason why they seldom reap any be- 
nefit from medicine, as they have not sufficient resolution, to per 
sist in any one course till it has come to produce its proper effects 
They are likewise apt to imagine that they labor under disea! 
from which they are quite free; and are very angry if any one 
tempts to set them right, or laugh them out of their ridiculous n 
