278 DISEASES CLASS III. 1. 1. 1. 



twofold meanings, or by the inaccuracy of the ideas which they 



suggest. 



SPECIES. 



1. Jaclitatio. Restlessness. There is one kind of restlessness 

 attending fevers, which consists in a frequent change of posture 

 to relieve the uneasiness of the pressure of one part of the body 

 upon another, when the sensibility of the system, or of some 

 parts of it, is increased by inflammation, as in the lumbago; 

 which may sometimes be distinguished in its early stage by the 

 incessant desire of the patient to turn himself in bed. But there 

 is another restlessness, which approaches towards writhing or 

 contortions of the body, which is a voluntary effort to relieve 

 pain; and may be esteemed a slighter kind of convulsion, not 

 totally unrestrainable by opposite or counteracting volitions. 



Thus when a squirrel is confined in a cage, he feels uneasi- 

 ness from the accumulation of sensorial power, in his muscles, 

 \vhich were before in continual violent exertion in his habits 

 of life; and in this situation finds relief by perpetually jump- 

 ing about his cage to expend a part of this accumulated senso- 

 rial power. 



For the same reason those children who are constrained to sit 

 in some schools for hours together, are liable to acquire habits of 

 moving some muscles of their faces, or hands, 4 or feet, which are 

 called tricks, to exhaust a part of the accumulated sensorial 

 power. Hence restlessness is occasioned by increase of stimulus, 

 or by accumulation of sensorial power. 



M. M. A blister. Opium. Warm bath. Bandage on the 

 moving muscles. See Convulsio debilis, Class III. 1. 1. 5. 

 exercise, 



2. Tremor febrilis. Reciprocal convulsions of the subcu-' 

 taneous muscles, originating from the pain of the sense of 

 heat, owing to defect of its usual stimulus, and consequent 

 accumulation of sensoriai power in it. The actual deficiency 

 of heat may exist in one part of the body, and the pain of 

 cold be felt most vividly in some other part associated with 

 it by sensitive sympathy. So a chilness down the back is first 

 attended to in ague fits, though the disease perhaps commences 

 with the torpor and consequent coldness of some internal vis- 

 cus. But in whatever part of the system the defect of heat 

 exists, or the sensation of it, the convulsions of the subcu- 

 taneous muscles exerted to relieve it are very general; and, if 

 the pain is still greater, a chattering of the teeth is added, the 



