THE POPULAR TERM "SICKNESS" 27 



in various cerebral troubles, and in many definite and 

 indefinite, febrile, and other systemic conditions, where 

 they are reflexly felt by the epigastric neuro-muscular 

 structures, with the result that more or less grave and 

 continued functional disturbance is the result. Sympto- 

 matically this occurrence is often of value in drawing 

 attention to the presence of, it may be, hitherto unsus- 

 pected disease, and of the consequent necessity of special 

 treatment being adopted as soon as its nature becomes 

 unmasked and its true character apprehended. 



In this last variety of the sensations of sickness, with, 

 it may be, acute anti-peristalsis, the phenomena may occur 

 so suddenly and unexpectedly * ' like a bolt from the 

 blue" that a revelation, sometimes of a startling and 

 grave character, is in store for its unfortunate subject, 

 which may then be read as the second chapter in the 

 history of some dangerous disease, which will, thereafter, 

 prolong itself to the third and even fourth chapters, and 

 then leave the patient invalid for life. 



"Sick unto death" is a phrase in which it might at 

 first sight seem that its framer was using the poetic license 

 beyond the limits warranted by strict adherence to truth. 

 This, however, we are convinced, is not so, as in these 

 exceptional cases which prove the rule, the sensation of 

 sickness is so persistent and overpowering, and so unat- 

 tended by other disease, as literally to necessitate the use 

 of the phrase. What is embraced in the symptoms of 

 sickness and the disease "sick unto death" constitutes 

 the largest proportion of physical human misery, the 

 principal raison d'etre of the medical profession, and a 

 fulcrum by which the compassionate instincts of humanity 

 are raised into helpful activity for the benefit of the race, 

 as well as that of all the lower races of animated existence 

 liable to such infirmities. The sensation of sickness, 

 when physiologically analysed, is found to consist of the 

 more or less violent excitation and dynamic disturbance 

 and exhaustion of the gastric, and the associated sympa- 

 thetic and systemic nervatures embraced within what 

 might be called the sympathetico-systemic "head centre," 

 where the functions of digestion begin and radiate from, 

 and, consequently, where shock acts on lines more or less 



