376 DISEASES CLASS IV. 1. 2. 8. 



In men the throat becomes so thickened at the time of pu- 

 berty, that a measure of this is used to ascertain the payment of a 

 poll-tax on males in some of the islands of the Mediterranean, 

 which commences at puberty; a string is wrapped twice round 

 the thinnest part of the neck, the ends of it are then put into 

 each corner of the mouth; and if, when thus held in the teeth, it 

 passes readily over the head, the subject is taxable. 



It is difficult to point out by what circumstance the sensitive 

 motions of the penis and of the throat and nose become associ- 

 ated; I can only observe, that these parts are subjected to greater 

 pleasurable sensations than any other parts of the body; one 

 being designed to preserve ourselves by the pleasure attending 

 the smell arid deglutition of food, and the other to ensure the 

 propagation of our species: and may thus gain an association of 

 their sensitive motions by their being eminently sensible to plea- 

 sure. See Class I. 3. 1. 11. and III. 1. 1. 15. and Sect. XVI. 5. 

 See Gonorrhoea venerea, II. 1. 5. 1. 



In the female sex this association between the face, throat, 

 nose, and pubis, does not exist: whence no hair grows on their 

 chins at the time of puberty, nor do their voices change, or their 

 necks thicken. This happens probably from there being in them 

 a more exquisite sensitive sympathy between the pubis and the 

 breasts. Hence their breasts swell at the time of puberty, and 

 secrete milk at the time of parturition. And in the parotitis, or 

 mumps, the breasts of women swell, when the tumour of the paro- 

 titis subsides. See Class I. 1. 2. 15. Whence it would appear, 

 that their breasts possess an intermediate sympathy between the 

 pubis and the throat; as they are the seat of a passion, which 

 men do not possess, that of suckling children. 



8. Tenesmus calculosus. The sphincter of the rectum becomes 

 painful or inflamed from the association of its sensitive motions 

 with those of the sphincter of the bladder, when the latter is 

 stimulated into violent pain or inflammation by a stone. 



9. Polypus narium ex ascaridibus? The stimulation of asca- 

 rides in the rectum produces, by sensitive sympathy, an itching of 

 the nose, as explained in IV. 2. 2. 6; and in three children I 

 have seen a polypus in the nose, who were all affected with asca- 

 rides; to the perpetual stimulation of which, and the consequent 

 sensitive association, I was led to ascribe the inflammation and 

 thickening of the membrane of the nostrils. 



10. Grampus surarum in cholera. A cramp of the muscles of 

 the legs occurs in violent diarrhoea, or cholera, and from the 

 use of too much acid diet in gouty habits. This seems to sym- 

 pathize with uneasy sensation in the bowels. See Class III. 1. 

 1. 14. This association is not easily accounted for, but is analo- 



