CiAss I. 2. 4. 12. OF IRRITATION. 1 1 g 



stance, that during sleep in the cephalaea somniosa a temporary 

 congestion of fluid may occur in some part of the brain, as a 

 permanent one occurs in the hydrocephalus internus; in the 

 same manner as I believe in the asthma humorale, a temporary 

 congestion of fluid occurs in some part within the chest, and a 

 permanent one in the anasarca of the lungs. 



M. M. The patient should sleep with his head raised high 

 on many pillows, and wear drawers to prevent his slipping down 

 in the bed. 2. He should sleep on a harclish bed, or mattress, to 

 prevent his sleeping too profoundly, or too long together. 3. 

 Or he may be wakened, after having slept a certain number of 

 hours by an alarm clock. 4. Any carious teeth should be ex- 

 tracted, as the matter from putrid bones, swallowed with the 

 saliva, weakens the system by its effect on the stomach. 5. 

 Twenty drops of saturated tincture of digitalis may be taken 

 twice or thrice a day for three or four weeks. 6. Half a grain 

 of opium and six grains of rhubarb should be taken every night 

 for many weeks or months. 7. Oxygen gas may be respired 

 daily for a time, till its effect can be known. 



12. Hemicrania idiopathica. This disease is described by Sau- 

 vages, under the name of trismus dolorificus, or tic douloureux, 

 in Class IV. ord. 1. gen. 2. spec. 14. of his elaborate work. But 

 the word trismus is an improper name, as no fixed spasm like the 

 locked jaw exists in this malady, nor any stridor dentium, or con- 

 vulsion of the muscles of the face, or trick, attends these patients 

 in the few cases which I have witnessed, though this may possi- 

 bly occur occasionally as the consequence of disagreeable sensa- 

 tion, or to relieve it. I suppose the word tic douloureux is a 

 Vulgar French expression, like megrim in English. 



The cause of this afflicting disease is yet unknown. As it 

 does not appear to sympathize with a diseased tooth, like the he- 

 micrania sympathetica, described in Class IV. 2. 2. 8. I sus- 

 pect the cause to consist in a diseased state of the nerve itself, or 

 of its covering or theca, and to resemble the sciatica frigida, 

 mentioned below; or to resemble some of those pains, which are 

 succeeded or relieved by epileptic convulsions, described in Class 

 HI. 1. 1.8. and that it thus differs from the hemicrania sym- 

 pathetica; as in this the cause of the disease, and the seat of the 

 pain, exist in the same place. 



One case, which occurred to me long ago, of this disease, was 

 of an elderly gentleman, Mr. W. of Litchfield, who had long 

 lost all his teeth; the pain began chiefly about the cheek-bone, 

 and extended sometimes to the ala of the nose, and to other parts 

 of the face on the same side; on examining the gums of the up- 

 per jaw, there was no suspicion of any stump of a decayed tooth 



