DISEASES CLASS III. 1. 1. 8. 



Another young lady, whom I lately saw, began to start some- 

 what like a violent hiccough many times in an hour, after using 

 a very cold shower-bath repeatedly. This had continued daily 

 at uncertain times for many months, and received temporary 

 advantage from one drop of oil of cinnamon, three or four 

 times a day, on powdered sugar; this case belongs to convulsion 

 rather than epilepsy, but was attended like the former, with 

 great defect of appetite. In both these cases I suspect, that the 

 great torpor of the stomach was caused by too violent or too 

 long continued coldness applied to the skin; whence the senso* 

 rial power of association, which ought to have been excited by 

 the action of the cutaneous vessels, and to have then contributed 

 to the action of the stomach, did not exist; and that the stomach 

 in consequence became torpid. See Suppl. I. 14. 3. and Art. 

 IV. 2. 6.8. and Class III. 2. 1. 17. 



Dr. Wilson, of Spalding, has lately much recommended the 

 argentum nitratum in epilepsy; he gives two grains and a half 

 three times a day, mixed with bread crumbs into pills, as he as- 

 serts, with the happiest success. Annals of Medicine, 1797. 



8. Epilepsia dolorifica. Painful epilepsy. In the common 

 epilepsy the convulsions are immediately induced, as soon as the 

 disagreeable sensation which causes them, commences; but in 

 this the pain continues long with cold extremities, gradually in- 

 creasing for two or three hours, till at length convulsions or mad- 

 ness come on; which terminate the daily paroxysm, and cease 

 themselves in a little time afterwards. 



This disease sometimes originates from a pain about the lower 

 edge of the liver, sometimes in the temple, and sometimes in the 

 pudendum; it recurs daily for five or six weeks, and then ceases 

 for several months. The pain is owing to defect of action, that 

 is, to the accumulation of sensorial power in the part, which pro- 

 bably sympathizes with some other part, as explained in Sect. 

 XXXV. 2. XII. 5. 3. and Class II. 1. 1. 11. and IV. 2. 2. 3. 



It is the most painful malady that human nature is liable to! r 

 See Sect. XXXIV. 1. 4. 



Mrs. C was seized every day about the same hour with 



violent pain on the right side of her bowels about the situation 

 of the lower edge of the liver, without fever, which increased 

 for an hour or two, till it became totally intolerable. After 

 violent screaming she fell into convulsions, which terminated 

 sometimes in fainting, with or without stertor, as in common 

 epilepsy; at other times a temporary insanity supervened; 

 which continued about half an hour, and the fit ceased. These 

 paroxysms had returned daily for two or three weeks, and were 

 at length removed by large doses of opium, like the fits of re- 



