310 STAGGERS. 



perience and observation may undoubtedly 

 do much in a collection of similitudes and 

 probabilities, but never enough to ascertain 

 the distinct invariable causes and effects of 

 diseases, where the most trifling difference 

 is hardly acknowledged ; more particularly 

 when it is reconsidered that the cause of 

 nearly all these disorders is in the original 

 seat of nervous irritability, the brain ; or in 

 those parts connected with, or dependent 

 upon, its structure and purposes; except 

 when they are understood to be sympto- 

 matic, or dependiiig upon some original re- 

 mote cause ; as the effect of bots preying 

 upon the stomach or intestines ; internal 

 ulcerations, or complaints not immediately 

 discoverable ; these may sometimes happen, 

 but very rarely to aftect the frame with 

 symptoms so truly alarming. 



To avoid entering into new descriptions 

 and unentertaining definitions, that must be 

 technical to be accurate, and consequently 

 extended to a lenoth that can neither sfra- 

 tify the expectation or improve the judg- 

 ment of the general reader, I shall, in as 

 concise a way as the subject will permit, in- 

 troduce an abridgment from the opinions of 



