34 6 PARALYSIS OF ABSORBENTS. SECT. XXVIII. ;* 

 SECT. XXVIII. 



OF THE PARALYSIS OF THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM. 



I. Paralyfis of the latteals^ atrophy. DiJIafte to animal 

 food. II. Caufeofdropfy. Caufe of herpes. Scro- 

 phuia. Mefentetic confumption. Pulimnary con- 

 JumptioK* Why ulcers in the lungs are fo difficult to 

 heal. 



THE term paralyfis has generally been ufed to 

 cxprefs the lofs of voluntary motion, as in the hemi- 

 plagia, but may with equal propriety be applied to 

 exprefs the difobediency of the mufcular fibres to 

 the other kinds of ilimulus ; as to thofe of irritation 

 or fenfation. 



1. There is a fpecies of atrophy, which has not 

 been well underftood ; when the abforbent vefTels 

 of the ftomach and inteftines have been long inured 

 to the ftimulus of too much fpirituous liquor, they 

 at length, either by the too fudden omiflion of fer- 

 mented or fpirituous potation, or from the gradual 

 decay of nature, become in a certain degree para- 

 lytic ; now it is obfefved in the larger mufcles of 

 the body, when one fide is paralytic, the other is 

 more frequently in motion, owing to the lefs ex- 

 penditure of fenforial power in the paralytic limbs ; 

 fo in this cafe the other part of the abforbent fyflem 

 acls with greater force, or with greater perfeve- 

 rance, in confequence of the paralyfis of the lac- 

 fleais ^ and the body becomes greatly emaciated in 

 a fmall time. 



I have feen feveral . patients in this difeafe, of 

 which the following are the circumflances. i . They 

 were men of about fifty years of age, and had 

 lived freely in refped to fermented liquors. 2. They 



loft 



