62 PHYSIOLOGY. 



bility ; but this is not easily demonstrated ; and the most evi- 

 dent cause of anxiety here is a flatulent distention, which may 

 indeed be common to, the whole alimentary canal, to the sto- 

 mach and intestines ; but certain portions of the intestines, such 

 as the two great flexures of the colon, and more especially 

 that in the left side, are more particularly liable to it ; and, 

 therefore, this uneasiness is most commonly seated in the left 

 flexure of the colon. That it depends upon flatulent distention 

 appears from this, that it is attended with Borborygmi, that it 

 precedes the expulsion of the wind upwards and downwards, 

 and is commonly relieved by this evacuation. 



" I have now enumerated the chief species of uneasiness or 

 anxiety : the consideration might be prosecuted to others with 

 curiosity and perhaps with use ; but where we cannot speak 

 distinctly, we may rather be silent. 



"I proceed to observe, that, in many instances, this uneasi- 

 ness proves an excitement to action, or acts as an indirect sti- 

 mulus ; examples of which are readily found with regard to the 

 heart, lungs, and stomach. With regard to the heart, Gau- 

 bius says (Pathol. 688.), ' imminens hinc circulationis suflbca- 

 tio Naturam urget, ut motibus duplicatis non sine summa anxie- 

 tate contra insurgat.' You understand that I consider this as a 

 blind impulse, without any foresight of danger ; the lungs are 

 excited to a more full or frequent respiration, simply by the dif- 

 ference in their state, without our consciousness. In the stom- 

 ach an exertion of the muscular fibres is still more frequently 

 the consequence of a sense of uneasiness. The chief applica- 

 tion which I would make here is this : as some circumstances 

 of anxiety were not explained, so the circumstances of anxiety, 

 debility, and resistance, may operate in cases to which we do 

 not attend, and upon that is founded LXXX. I apply this 

 particularly to the theory of hoemorrhagy and inflammation, 

 where merely a certain resistance to the passage of the blood, 

 attended with a distention of the vessels of the part, produces 

 the increased impetus attending haemorrhagy and inflamma- 



