CLASS III. 1. 1. 7. OP VOLITION. 



as in the hysteric disease, and the urine is of a straw colour. 

 However it must be noted, that the disagreeable sensations in 

 hysteric diseases sometimes are the cause of true epileptic con- 

 vulsions, of syncope, and of madness. 



The pain, which occasions some fits of epilepsy, is felt for a 

 time in a distant part of the system, as in a toe or heel; and is 

 said by the patient gradually to ascend to the head, before the 

 general convulsions commence. This ascending sensation has 

 been called aura epileptica, and is said to have been prevented 

 from affecting the head by a tight bandage round the limb. In 

 this malady the pain, probably of some torpid membrane, or dis- 

 eased tendon, is at first only so great as to induce slight spasms 

 of the muscular fibres in its vicinity; which slight spasms cease 

 on the numbness introduced by a tight bandage; when no band- 

 age is applied, the pain gradually increases, till general convul- 

 sions are exerted to relieve it. The course of a lymphatic, as 

 when poisonous matter is absorbed; or of a nerve, as in the 

 sciatica, may, by the sympathy existing between their extre- 

 mities and origins, give an idea of the ascent of an aura or va- 

 pour. 



In difficult parturition it sometimes happens, that general con- 

 vulsions are excited to relieve the pain of labour, instead of the 

 exertions of those muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm, which 

 ought to forward the exclusion of the child. See Class III. 1.1. 

 That is, instead of the particular muscular actions, which ought 

 to be excited by sensation to remove the offending cause, general 

 convulsions are produced by the power of volition, which still the 

 pain, as in common epilepsy, without removing the cause; and 

 as the parturition is not thus promoted, the convulsions continue, 

 till the sensorial power is totally exhausted, that is, till death. In 

 patients afflicted with epilepsy from other causes, I have seen 

 the most violent convulsions recur frequently during pregnancy 

 without miscarriage; as they did not tend to forward the exclusion 

 of the fetus. 



Pains of this kind have been called false pains by some writers 

 on midwifery, and are directed to be relieved by an opiate, and 

 then they say the true pains will commence. M. Daventer di- 

 rects the accoucheur to attend to the os tincae, to distinguish them 

 from each other, which dilates with every true pain, but contracts 

 with every false one, that is, the voluntary actions of other mus- 

 cles to relieve pain are attended with those of the os uteri, as* 

 mentioned in Genus I. of this Class and Order preceding the 

 descriptions of the Species. 



M. M. Venesection. A large dose of opium. Delivery. 



The later in life epileptic fits are first experienced, the more 



