4 83 DISEASES OF VOLITION. SECT. XXXIV. r . 



one fide of the forehead to the occiput, and after 

 various fkuggles lay on the bed with her fingers and 

 wrifts bent and fliif for about two hours ; in other 

 refpedts fhe feemed in a fyncope with a natural pulfe. 

 She then had intervals of pain and of fpafm, and 

 took three grains of opium every hour till fhe had 

 taken nine grains, before the pains and fpafm ceafed. 



There is, however, another fpecies of fixed fpafm, 

 which differs from the former, as the pain exifts in 

 the contra&ed mufcle, and would feem rather to 

 be the confequence than the caufe of the contrac- 

 tion, as in the cramp in the calf of the leg, and in 

 many other parts of the body. 



In thefe fpafms it fhould feetn, that the mufcle 

 itfelf is firft thrown into contraction by fome.difa- 

 greeable 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 Sect. XVIII. 15. 



6. Many inftances have been given in this work, 

 where after violent motions excited by irritation, 

 the organ has become quiefcent to lefs, and even to 

 the great irritation, which induced it into violent 

 motion ; as after looking long at the fun or any 

 bright colour, they ceafe to be feen ; and after re- 

 moving from bright day-light into a gloomy room, 

 the eye cannot at firft perceive the objects, which 

 ftirnulate it lefs. Similar to this is the fyncope, 

 which fucceeds after the violent exertions of our, 

 voluntary motions, as after epileptic fits, for the 

 power of volition acts in this cafe as the ftimulus in 

 the other. , This fyncope is a temporary palfy, or 

 apoplexy, which ceafes after a time, the mufcles re- 

 covering their power of being excited into action 

 by the efforts of volition ; as the eye in the circum- 

 ftance above mentioned recovers in a little time its 

 power of feeing objects in a gloomy room, which 



were 



