HEADACH. 543 



casion to a considerable compression of the third pair of nerves, 

 so often as an inclination of the head produces any degree of 

 stagnation in the motion of the blood. 



" There is no very distinct indication for the cure : all we can 

 do is to diminish the fulness of the system, and obviate the in- 

 crease and irritation of the disease by avoiding every cause of 

 turgescence. To this purpose we began with bleeding, and 

 particularly topical bleeding. We joined to that purging, and 

 proceeded to a blister ; we repeated the bleeding, and put in a 

 seton." 



" At present we shall suppose a species of headach properly 

 idiopathic, and give its history. We shall be liable here to 

 the same inaccuracy which most physicians are guilty of in 

 describing genera rather than species ; and it is very difficult 

 to avoid this. 



" We shall begin with observing the particular tempera- 

 ment it is apt to affect : this is the sanguine, or rather the 

 sanguineo-melancholic temperament. This may be distinguish- 

 ed by the following marks ; as black hair ; a more lean and firm 

 habit; a ruddy, but withal a brown complexion, with large 

 veins, and, abstracting from the ruddiness of the cheeks, with 

 a skin pale, but smooth and soft. This is distinct both from 

 the sanguineous and melancholic temperament. The dis- 

 order frequently attacks the purely sanguineous, and no less 

 frequently the purely melancholic temperament. It affects young 

 persons more than old, but oftener about the acme than any 

 other time of life. It often continues a long time after, but 

 seldom arises in elderly persons : it is more frequent in women 

 than men, in the proportion, perhaps, of ten to one- As to 

 the time of its attack, it is a disorder of all seasons : if it is 

 more general in any one season than the other, it is in the 

 spring. 



Such are the predisposing causes of this disorder. As to its 

 occasional causes, it arises in many persons without any observable 

 ones ; and where it is exactly periodical, we can scarcely suppose 

 any occasion alcause constantly recurring ; though, in the Jfemi- 

 crania lunatica, the state of the moon seems to be such a cause. 



