ON GENERATION. 431 



therefore do not depend on the brain, still do not occur en- 

 tirely without causing sensation, but proclaim themselves sub- 

 ject to sense, inasmuch as they are aroused, called forth, and 

 changed thereby. When the heart, for example, is affected 

 with palpitation, tremor, lipothymia, syncope, and with great 

 variety in the extent, rapidity, and order or rhythm of its pul- 

 sations, we do not hesitate to ascribe these to morbific causes im- 

 plicating, deranging its sensation. For whatever by its divers 

 movements strives against irritations and troubles must neces- 

 sarily be endowed with sensation. 



The stomach and bowels, disturbed by the presence of viti- 

 ated humours, are affected with ructus, flatus, vomiting, and 

 diarrhoea ; and as it lies not in our power either to provoke or 

 to restrain their motions, neither are we aware of any sensation 

 dependent on the brain which should arouse the parts in ques- 

 tion to motions of the kind. 



It is truly wonderful to observe the effect of taking a solu- 

 tion of antimony, which we neither distinguish by the taste, 

 nor find any inconvenience from, whether in the swallowing or 

 the rejection. Nevertheless there is a certain discriminating 

 sense in the stomach which distinguishes what is hurtful from 

 what is useful, and by which vomiting is induced. 



Nay, the flesh itself readily distinguishes a poisoned wound 

 from one that is not poisoned, and on receipt of the former 

 contracts and condenses itself, whereby phlegmonous tumours 

 are produced, as we find in connexion with the stings of bees, 

 gnats, and spiders. 



I have myself, for experiment's sake, occasionally pricked 

 my hand with a clean needle, and then having rubbed the 

 same needle on the teeth of a spider, I have pricked my hand 

 in another place. I could not by my simple sensation per- 

 ceive any difference between the two punctures ; nevertheless 

 there was a capacity in the skin to distinguish the one from 

 the other; for the part pricked with the envenomed needle 

 immediately contracted into a tubercle, and by and by became 

 red, and hot, and inflamed, as if it collected and girded itself 

 up for a contest with the poison for its overthrow. 



The sensations which accompany affections of the uterus, 

 such as twisting, decubitus, prolapse, ascent, suffocation, &c., 

 and other inconveniences and irritations, do not depend on 



