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GENERALLY with one or more of thefe fymptoms preceding, 
but /ometimes without any warning whatever, the infants are feized 
with violent irregular contractions and relaxations of their muf- 
cular frame, but particularly of thofe of the extremities and face. 
Thefe convulfive motions recur at uncertain intervals, and pro- 
duce various efie@s. In fome the agitation is very great; the 
mouth foams; the thumbs are rivetted into the palms of the 
hands; the jaws are locked from the commencement, fo as to 
prevent the actions of fucking and fwallowing ; and any attempts 
to wet the mouth or fauces, or to adminifter medicines, feem to 
aggravate the fpafms very much; the face becomes turgid, and of 
a livid hue, as do moft other parts of the body. From this cir-. 
cumftance, and from the fhorter duration of the difeafe, when it 
occurs in this form, the nurfes reckon this a different fpecies, and 
call it the d/ack fits. The confli@ in fuch cafes lafts from about 
eight to thirty hours, and in fome very rare cafes to about forty 
hours, when the powers of nature fink exhaufted and over- 
powered, as it were, with their own exertions. 
Iv much more frequently happens, however, that the fpafmodic 
contractions are not fo ftrong as above defcribed; that the extre- 
mities are rather twifted than convulfed ; that the power of fuck- 
ing, but more certainly of deglutition, is not loft ’till near death ; 
that the mouth foams lefs; and that the paroxyfms, recurring at 
more diftant intervals, continue to harafs the patient from three 
to five days, and in fome rare inftances to feven and even nine. 
During all this period the face remains pale ; and the body, from 
being perhaps very plump, is reduced to a moft miferable fpectre 
by 
