1 06 On a Case of nervous Affection cured 



(lent ; for the saliitarv eflect was exactly proportioned to 

 the actual pressure of the carotid itself, and did not take 

 place at all, if, in consequence of a wrong direc:rion either 

 to the right or left, the carotid escaped the eflects of the 

 operation. 



Tliis view of the order of phsenonicna was, in reality, 

 verv conformai)!e to the known laws of tlie animal oeco- 

 noniv. It is admitted, thai a certain momentum of the 

 circulating; blood in the brain is necessary to the due per- 

 formance of i!ic functions of that organ. Reduce the nio- 

 niontuni, and yon not only impair those functions, but, if 

 the reduction go to a certain degree, you bring on syncope, 

 in which they sire for a time suspended. On the other 

 hand, in nervous affections, the sensibility and olher func- 

 * tions of the brain are unduly increased ; and what can be 

 more natural than to attribute this effect to the contrary 

 cause, or excessive nK)mentum in the vessels of the brain? 

 If, however, this analogical reasoning has any force in as- 

 certaining the principle, I must acknowledge that it did not 

 occur to me till ts\enty years afterwards, when a great 

 number of direct experiments had appeared to me clearly 

 to demonstrate the fact. 



From various cases of this kind, I beg leave to select one 

 vhich occurred to me in the month of January 1803. 



Mrs. T. aged 51, two years and a half beyond a certain 

 critical period of female life, a widow, mother of two chil- 

 dren, thin, and of a middle size, had been habitually free 

 from eout, rheumatism, h£emorrhf)ids, eruptions, and all 

 other disorders, except those usually called nervous, and 

 occasional colds, one of which, about two years and a half 

 before, had been accompanied with considerable cough, 

 and had still left some shortness of breathing, affecting her 

 only \'\hen she used strong muscular exertion, as in walking 

 up stairs, or up hill. 



In February 1S03, after sitting for a considerable time 

 in a room without a fire, in very severe weather, she was so 

 much chilled as to feel, according to her own expression, 

 '' as if her blood within was cold." In order to warm 

 herself, she walked briskly for a considerable time about 

 the house, but ineffectually. The coldness continued for 

 several hours, during which she was seized with a numb- 

 ness or sleepiness of her left side, together with a mo- 

 mentary deafness, but no privation or hebetude of the other 

 senses, or pain or giddines- of the head. Alter the deafness 

 bad subsided, she becan)e preternalurally sensible to sound 



ill 



