328 DISEASES CLASS 111. 1. 2. 23. 



changed suddenly by ocular sensation, or reason. Yet great per- 

 severance in the frequently presenting contrary ideas will some- 

 times slowly remove this hallucination, or in great length of time 

 oblivion, or forgetfulness, performs a cure, by other means in vain 

 attempted. 



23. Tabes imaginaria. This imaginary disease, or hallucina* 

 tion, is caused by the supposed too great frequency of parting 

 with the semen, and had long imposed upon the physician as> 

 well as the patient, till Mr. John Flunter first endeavoured to 

 shew, that in general the morbid effects of this pollution were in 

 the imagination; and that those were only liable to those effects 

 in general, who had been terrified by the villanous books, which 

 pretend to prevent or to cure it, but which were purposely writ- 

 ten to vend some quack medicine. Most of those unhappy pa- 

 tients, w r horn I have seen, had evidently great impression of fear 

 and self-condemnation on their minds, and might be led to make 

 contradictory complaints in almost any part of the body, and if 

 their confessions could be depended on, had not used this pollu- 

 tion to any great excess. 



M. M. 1 . Assure them if the loss of the semen happens but 

 twice a week, it will not injure them. 2. Marry them. The 

 last is a certain cure; whether the disease be real or imaginary. 

 Cold partial bath, and astringent medicines frequently taken, only 

 recall the mind to the disease, or to the delinquency; and thence 

 increase the imaginary effects and the real cause, if such exists. 



Mr. destroyed himself to get free from the pain of fear of 



the supposed ill consequences of self-pollution, without any other 

 apparent disease; whose parents I had in vain advised to marry 

 him, if possible. 



24. Sympathia aliena. Pity. Our sympathy with the plea- 

 sures and pains of others, distinguishes men from other animals; 

 and is probably the foundation of what is termed our moral sense; 

 and the source of all our virtues. See Sect. XXII. 3. 3. When 

 our sympathy with those miseries of mankind, which we cannot 

 alleviate, rises to excess, the mind becomes its own tormentor; 

 and we add to the aggregate sum of human misery, which we 

 ought to labour to diminish; as in the following eloquent lamen- 

 tation from Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, Book II. 1. 200. 



-Dark, 



As midnight storms, the scene of human things 

 Appear'd before me ; deserts, burning sands, 

 Where the parch'd adder dies; the frozen south ; 

 And desolation blasting all the west 

 With rapine and with murder. Tyrant power 

 Here sits enthroned in blood ; the baleful charms 



