MARSHALL HALL. 339 



tendency to sink towards the bottom of the bed ; the 

 hands and arms are moved with effort and tremor, 

 and at length there is constant subsultus tendinum. 

 To this state, picking of the bed-clothes, or of flocci 

 volitantes, delirium, or coma, is superadded." 



" 135. As this position is occasioned by extreme 

 debility, any change of posture is of favourable 

 omen, as denoting a return of strength. The 

 patient, perhaps, raises the knees, or puts the arms 

 out of bed, or places them above his head. These 

 movements are among the first symptoms of re- 

 covery. At length the patient is capable of sup- 

 porting the position on the side a certain mark 

 of returning muscular strength, and an indication 

 of a favourable change in the disease." 



" 140. The form of tremor which I have de- 

 scribed seems to depend on muscular debility, and 

 perhaps on a morbid condition of the brain and 

 nervous system. There is a kind of tremor of a 

 more spasmodic character, which occurs from 

 various causes, and which I shall notice towards 

 the conclusion of the present chapter." 



Marshall Hall studied the general appearance of 

 his patients and their various modes of expression : 

 the condition of nutrition, the attitude, postures 

 and movements of the body, the movements of the 

 head and hand. He described the position of 

 the body in sleep, in typhus fever, and in conditions 

 of debility, especially noting that in the latter 

 condition tremor was often a symptom. 



Tyndall * says in his lectures : " The matter of 



* " Heat a Mode of Motion," p. 501, par. 722. 



