*9* REPETITION. SECT. XXII. i,r> 



SECT- XXII. 



OF PROPENSITY TO MOTION, REPETITION AND IMITATION. 



I. Accumulation of fenforial power in hemiplegia, injleep, in cold Jit 

 of fever i in the locomotive mufcles , in the organs of fenfe. Produ- 

 ces propenftty to aclion. II. Repetition by three fenforial powers. 

 In rhymes and alliterations ^ in mufic> dancing, architecture^ land- 

 fcape-painting) beauty* III. I. Perception confijls in imitation. 

 Four kinds of imitation. 2. Voluntary. Dogs taught to dance. 3. 

 Senfttive. Hence fympathy^ and all our virtues. Contagious matter 

 ef venereal ulcers > of hydrophobia, of jail -fever > of fmall-pox y produ- 

 ced by imitation, and the f ex of the embryon. 4, Irritative imita- 

 tion. 5. Imitations refolvable into ajjbciations. 



L i. IN the hemiplegia, when the limbs on one fide have 

 loft their power of voluntary motion, the patient is for many 

 days perpetually employed in moving thofe of the other. 2. 

 When the voluntary power is fufpended during fleep, there com- 

 mences a ceafelefs flow of fenfitive motions, or ideas of imagin- 

 ation, which compofe our dreams. 3. When in the cold fit of 

 an intermittent fever fome parts of the fyftem have for a time 

 coutinued torpid, and have thus expended lefs than their ufual 

 expenditure of fenforial power^; a hot fit fucceeds, with violent 

 action of thofe vefiels, which had previoufly been quiefcent. All 

 thefe are explained from an accumulation of fenforial power 

 during the inactivity of fome part of the fyftem. 



Befidesthe very great quantity of fenforial power perpetually 

 produced and expended in moving the arterial, venous, and glan- 

 dular fyftems, with the various organs of digeftion, as defcribed 

 in SeHon XXXII. 3. 2. there is alfo a conftant expenditure of 

 it by the aftion of our locomotive mufcles and organs of fenfe. 

 Thus the thicknefs of the optic nerves, where they enter the eye, 

 and the great expanfion of the nerves of touch beneath the whole 

 of the cuticle, evince the great confumption of fenforial power by 

 thefe fenfes. And our perpetual mufcular actions in the com- 

 mon offices of life, and in conftantly preferving the perpendic- 

 ularity of our bodies during the day, evince a confiderable ex- 

 penditure of the fpirit of animation by our locomotive mufcles. 

 It follows that if the exertion of thefe organs of fenfe and muf- 

 cles be for a while intermitted, that fome quantity of fenforial 

 power muft be accumulated, and a propenfity to activity of fome 

 kind enfue from increafed excitability of the fyftem. Whence 



proceeds 



