546 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



temporary headachs only, or the proper idiopathic ones, is not 

 certain ; but we should imagine that the last is the case. 



" We are next to speak of the proper form, in the series 

 and combination of symptoms. Headach sometimes seizes 

 suddenly and with great violence, but more commonly comes 

 on in a more gradual manner. In this last case, it often 

 begins with a sense of weight, as if there was a leaden cap on 

 the patient's head ; oftentimes with a sense of turgescence and 

 fulness ; often, too, with a stiffness and constriction about the 

 head ; frequently there is a sense of cold about the head, or 

 perhaps an affection of the skin and hairs, which become more 

 or less bristly. The disorder beginning generally with one or 

 other of these symptoms, changes to a more formal and fixed 

 pain : this, again, is of various kinds ; frequently a kind of sore- 

 ness is felt over the skin of the head, such as is usual after any 

 great fatigue, and what by some authors is called lassitudo 

 ulcerosa ; sometimes there is a sense of fulness, as if something 

 was constringing the head, or violently distending it. These 

 two are often confounded together, as they somewhat resemble 

 each other. Oftentimes there is a more piercing pain, or tere- 

 brus, as if a nail was thrust into some particular part. All these 

 are attended with a strong pulsation in the temporal arteries 

 and in the other parts, and which is even perceptible by the eye. 



" These different feelings of pain are again distinguished 

 as they are more diffused or definite ; generally they are limit- 

 ed so as to affect one side more than the other ; they are often 

 situated over one eyelid, as also upon the summit of the head, 

 but more towards its anterior part ; frequently they are con- 

 fined to the temples, or perhaps to the temporal muscles ; where- 

 ever they fix, they are more gentle at first, but gradually be- 

 come very violent. This is commonly attended with a sense 

 of heat ; often the face becomes turgid and ruddy, but not with 

 an uniform redness, though discoloured with red spots ; some- 

 times, however, it is without any of this turgescence, redness, 

 or bloatedness, and the whole countenance is pale and cold. 

 When these pains are very severe, and continue for a long 

 time, the eyelids fall, tears flow involuntarily, the eye is suffused, 

 and the albuginea more or less inflamed, and vision becomes 

 obscure, or is entirely destroyed. Commonly, there is more or 



