506 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



Switzerland, or England ; and, as I am inclined to think, more 

 so in England than with us. It is, I believe, common for a wo- 

 man to threaten her husband with a fit in England, which I 

 never knew or heard of here." 



" In hysteria, as generally affecting plethoric habits, and de- 

 pending upon an occasional turgescence of the genital system, I 

 hold opium to be an improper, and commonly a hurtful remedy. 



" But, on the other hand, in all those cases of unusual feeling 

 and irregular motions, not depending upon a plethoric state, 

 but manifestly upon a mobility of the system, opium is a very 

 certain remedy. Whenever, therefore, these symptoms are in 

 excess, it may be employed, though it be difficult to set the 

 proper limits to its use. There are cases in which its tonic and 

 antispasmodic powers must be frequently repeated ; but it is to 

 be remarked, that wherever that necessity does not manifestly 

 occur, the frequent use of it increases the mobility of the sys- 

 tem, and creates a seeming necessity that readily induces a ha- 

 bit, which again, constantly indulged, has a tendency to destroy 

 the system altogether. M.M. 



CHAP. IX. OF CANINE MADNESS, AND HYDRO- 

 PHOBIA. 



MDXXV. This disease has been so exactly and fully de- 

 scribed in books that are in every body's hands, that it is on 

 no account necessary for me to give any history of it here ; and 

 with respect to the pathology of it, I find that I can say nothing 

 satisfying to myself, or that I can expect to prove so to others. 

 I find also, with respect to the cure of this disease, that there 

 is no subject in which the fallacy of experience appears more 

 strongly than in this. From the most ancient to the present times, 

 many remedies for preventing and curing this disease have been 

 recommended under the sanction of pretended experience, and 

 have perhaps also kept their credit for some time ; but succeed- 

 ing times have generally, upon the same ground of experience, 

 destroyed that credit entirely ; and most of the remedies former- 

 ly employed are now fallen into absolute neglect. In the pre- 



