DISEASES SECT. XXXIV. 2. i, 



dently had difeafed livers from the too frequent potation of 

 fpirituous liquors ; fome of them have had the gutta rofea ort 

 their faces and breads ; which has in fome degree receded either 

 fpontaneoufly, or by the ufe of external remedies, and the para- 

 lytic ftroke has fucceeded ; and as in feveral perfons, who have 

 drunk much vinous fpirits, I haveobferved epileptic fits to com- 

 mence at about forty or fifty years of age, without any heredita- 

 ry taint, from the flimulus, as I believed, of a difeafed liver ; I 

 was induced to afcribe many paralytic cafes to the fame fource ; 

 which were riot evidently the effect of age, or of unacquired de- 

 bility. And the account given before of dropfies, which very 

 frequently are owing to a paralyfis of the abforbent fyltem, and 

 are generally attendant on free drinkers of fpirituous liquors, 

 confirmed me in this opinion. 



The difagreeable irritation of a difeafed liver produces exer- 

 tions and confequent quiefcence ; thefe by the accidental con- 

 currence of other caufes of quiefcence, as cold, folar or lunar 

 periods, inanition, the want of their ufual portion of fpirit of 

 wine, at length produce paralyfis. 



This is further confirmed by obferving, that the mufcles, we 

 mod frequently, or mod powerfully exert, are mod liable to 

 pally ; as thofe of the voice and of articulation, and of thofe 

 paralytics which I have feen, a much greater proportion have 

 loll the ufe of their right arm ; which is fo much more gener- 

 ally exerted than the left. 



I cannot difmifs this fubjeft without obferving, that after a 

 paralytic ftroke, if the vital powers are not much injured, the 

 patient has all the movements of the affe&ed limb to learn over 

 again, juft as in early infancy ; the limb is firft moved by the 

 irritation of its mufcles, as in ftretching, (of which a cafe was 

 related in Section VII. i. 3.) or by the electric concuflion ; 

 afterwards it becomes obedient to fenfation, as in violent danger 

 or fear ; and laftly, the mufcles become again affociated with 

 volition, and gradually acquire their ufual habits of acting to- 

 gether. 



Another phenomenon in palfies is, that when the limbs of one 

 fide are difabled, thofe of the other are in perpetual motion, 

 This can only be explained from conceiving that the power of 

 motion, whatever it is, or wherever it refides, and which is capa- 

 ble of being exhaufted by fatigue, and accumulated in reft, is 

 now lefs expended, whilft one half of the body is incapable of 

 receiving its ufual proportion of it, and is hence derived with 

 greater eafe or in greater abundance into the limbs, which re- 

 main unaffected 



H. i. The excefs or defect of voluntary exertion produces 



fimilar 



