SECT. XXXIV. i. 5. OF VOLITION. 333 



5, If the pains, or difagreeable fenfations, above defcribeddo 

 not obtain a temporary relief from thefe convulfive exertions of 

 the mufcles, thole convulfive exertions continue without remif- 

 fion, and one kind of catalepfy is produced. Thus when a nerve 

 or tendon produces great pain by its being inflamed or wounded, 

 the patient fets his teeth firmly together, and grins violently, to 

 diminifh the pain ; and if the pain is not relieved by this exer- 

 tion, no relaxation of the maxillary mufcles takes place, as in 

 the convuifions above defcribed, but the jaws remain firmly 

 fixed together. This locked jaw is the moft frequent inftanct 

 of cataleptic fpafm, becaufe we are more inclined to exert the 

 mufcles fubfervient to maftication from their early obedience to 

 violent efforts of volition. 



But in the cafe related in Seh XIX. on Reverie, the catalep- 

 tic lady had pain in her upper teeth , and pre fling one of her 

 hands vehemently againfl her cheek bone to diminifh this pain 5 

 it remained in that attitude for about half an hour twice a day, 

 till the painful paroxyfm was over. 



I have this very day feen a young lady in this difeafe, (with 

 which (he has frequently been .jffllrled ;) (he began to-day with 

 violent pain (hooting from one fide of the forehead to the occi- 

 put, and after various druggies lay on the bed with her fingers 

 and wrifts bent and ftifffor about two hours; in other refpccls 

 {he Teemed in a fyncope with a natural pulfe. She then had in- 

 tervals of pain and of fpafm, and took three grains of opium 

 every hoar till (he had taken nine grains, before the pains and 

 fpafm ceafed. 



There is, however, another fpecies of fixed fpafm, which dif- 

 fers from the former, as the pain exifts in the contracted mufcle, 

 and would feem rather to be the confequence than the caufe of 

 the contraction, as in the cramp in the calf of the leg, and ia 

 many other parts of the body. 



In thefe fpafms it (hould feem, that the mufcle itfelf is firft 

 thrown into contraction by fome difagreeable fenfation, as of 

 cold ; and that then the violent pain is produced by the great 

 contraction of the mufcular fibres extending its own tendons, 

 which are faid to be fenfible to extenfion only j and is further 

 explained in Seel. XVIII. 15. 



6. Many inftances have been given in this work, where after 

 violent motions excited by irritation, the organ has become qui~ 

 efcent to Icfs, and even to the great irritation, whidi induced it 

 into violent motion ; as after looking long at the fun or any 

 bright colour, they ceafe to be feen ; and after removing from 

 bright day- light into a gloomy room, the eye cannot at firft per- 

 ceive the objects, which ftirnulate it lefs. Similar to this is the 



fyncope, 



