40 IRRITATIVE MOTIONS, SECT. VII. I. 



ftruggles of the foetus in the uterus muft be owing 

 to this internal irritation : for the foetus can have 

 no other inducement to move its limbs but the tse- 

 dium or irkfomenefs of a continued pofture. 



The following cafe evinces, that the motions of 

 ftretching the limbs after a continued attitude are 

 not always owing to the power of the will. Mr. 

 Dean, a mafon, of Auftry in Leicefterfliire, had 

 the fpine of the third vertebra of the back enlarg- 

 ed ; in fome weeks his lower extremities became 

 feeble, and at length quite paralytic : neither the 

 pain of blifters, the heat of fomentations, nor the 

 utmoft efforts of the will could produce the lead 

 motion in thefe limbs ; yet twice or thrice a day 

 for many months his feet, legs, and thighs, were 

 affected for many minutes with forcible ftretch- 

 Ings, attended with the fenfation of fatigue ; and 

 he at length recovered the ufe of his limbs, though 

 the fpine continued protuberant. The fame cir- 

 cum fiance is frequently feen in a lefs degree in the 

 common hemiplagia ; and when this happens, I 

 have believed repeated and flrong mocks of electri- 

 city to have been of great advantage. 



4. In like manner the various organs of fenfe are 

 originally excited into motion by various external 

 ftimuli adapted to this purpofe, which motions are 

 termed perceptions or ideas ; and many of thefe 

 motions during our waking hours are excited by 

 perpetual irritation, as thofe of the organs of hear- 

 ing and of touch. The former by the conftant low 

 indiftinct noifes that murmur around us, and the 

 latter by the weight of our bodies on the parts 

 which fupport them ; and by the unceafing varia- 

 tions of the heat, moifture, and preflure of the at- 

 mofphere ; and thefe fenfual motions, precifely as 

 the mufcular ones above mentioned, obey their cor- 

 refpondent irritations without our attention or con- 

 fcioumefs. 



5. Other 



