ADYNAMIA. 



389 



ther remarkable for their constant attachment to one object, to 

 one research: they are persons who have produced some of the 

 greatest improvements in science; they have, particularly, fur- 

 nished us with some of the best facts and experiments, which 

 have been conducted with the utmost accuracy. They are slow 

 in any change of sentiments, in their resolutions and passions. 

 These are clear proofs that there is something peculiar here in 

 the constitution of the nervous power, the organs and motions of 

 which are intimately connected with the soul in all its operations, 

 as is readily allowed. The above circumstances shew, that their 

 nervous power is in some way less moveable, I do not pretend 

 to explain how ; but this state, going to excess in the body, will 

 affect that part of the body which is first acted upon in all af- 

 fections of the nervous system, that is the alimentary canal. 

 I shall give an illustration. The melancholic temperament is 

 universally attended with a costive habit, which is inseparable 

 from it, and which I have pointed out as founded on a slow and 

 torpid motion in the whole alimentary canal. If the whole canal 

 is thus affected, it may be readily perceived, how all the several 

 circumstances of dyspepsia take place in the stomach. 



" I might shew, that in this temperament, there is a disposition 

 to venous plethora; there is a different balance between the 

 veins and arteries in the different periods of life ; in those of the 

 melancholic temperament, the balance on the side of the veins 

 seems to prevail : they are, therefore, as we know from experi- 

 ence, very liable to all the effects of a venous plethora, particu- 

 larly in the system of the vena portarum. Physicians, there- 

 fore, have long ago observed, that the melancholic temperament 

 consisted in various affections of the hypochondriac system, and 

 from this the term hypochondriasis has arisen." 



MCCXXII. In certain persons there is a state of mind dis- 

 tinguished by a concurrence of the following circumstances : A 

 i languor, listlessness, or want of resolution and activity with re- 

 ispect to all undertakings ; a disposition to seriousness, sadness, 

 and timidity; as to all future events, an apprehension of the 

 ' worst or most unhappy state of them ; and, therefore, often up- 

 jon slight grounds, an apprehension of great evil. Such persons 

 I are particularly attentive to the state of their own health, to 



