SPASMODIC AFFECTIONS. 465 



utmost precision in this matter will be difficult. In my essay 

 towards a methodical Nosology, I have, however, attempted it. 

 For those pains that are either acute or pungent, or accompanied 

 with a sense of distention, or with a sense of constriction, if they are 

 at the same time not attended with any sense of acrimony or heat, I 

 employ the appellation of Gastrodynia. To express those painful or 

 uneasy sensations which seem to arise from a sense of acrimony ir- 

 ritating the part, or from such a sense of heat as the application of 

 acrids, whether externally or internally applied, often gives, I 

 employ the term of Cardialgia ; and by this I particularly mean 

 to denote those feelings which are expressed by the term Heart- 

 burn in the English language. I think the term Soda has been 

 commonly employed by practical writers, to express an affection 

 attended with feelings of the latter kind. 



MCCCCXXVIII. Beside the pains denoted by the terms 

 Gastrodynia, Periadynia, Cardialgia, and Soda, there is, I 

 think, another painful sensation different from all of these, which 

 is named by Mr. Sauvages Pyrosis Suecica ; and his account of 

 it is taken from Linnasus, who names it Cardialgia sputatoria. 

 Under the title of Pyrosis, Mr. Sauvages has formed a genus, 

 of which the whole of the species, except the eighth, which he 

 gives under the title of Pyrosis Suecica, are all of them species 

 of the Gastrodynia, or of the Cardialgia ; and if there is a genus 

 to be formed under the title of Pyrosis, it can, in my opinion, 

 comprehend only the species I have mentioned. In this case, 

 indeed, I own that the term is not very proper ; but my aver- 

 sion to introduce new names has made me continue to employ 

 the term of Mr. Sauvages. 



MCCCCXXIX. The Gastrodynia and Cardialgia I judge 

 to be for the most part symptomatic affections, and therefore 

 have given them no place in this work ; but the Pyrosis, as an 

 idiopathic disease, and never before treated of in any system, I 

 propose to treat of here. 



MCCCCXXX. It is a disease frequent among people in 

 lower life; but occurs also, though more rarely, in people of 

 better condition. Though frequent in Scotland, it is by no 

 means so frequent as Linnaeus reports it to be in Lapland. It 

 appears most commonly in persons under middle age, but sel- 



VOL. ii. 2 a 



