SECT. XXXIV. i: DISEASES OF ^VOLITION. 491 



the fame name, knowing the other could not fwim, 

 plunged into the water after him, caught him by 

 his clothes, and approaching the bank by a vehe- 

 ment exertion propelled him fafe to the land, but 

 that iuftant, feized, as was fuppofed, by the cramp, 

 or paralyfis, funk to rife no more. The reafon why 

 the cramp of the mufcles, which compofe the calf 

 of the leg, is fo liable to afte fwimmers, is, be- 

 caufe thefe mufcles have very weak antagonifls, and 

 are in walking generally elongated again after their 

 contraction by the weight of the body on the ball 

 of the toe, which is very much greater than the re- 

 fiftance of the water in fwimming. See Section 

 XVIII. 15. 



It does not follow that every apoplectic or para- 

 lytic attack is immediately preceded by vehement 

 exertion ; the quiefcence, which fucceeds exertion, 

 and which is not fo great as to be termed paralyfis, 

 frequently recurs afterwards at certain periods ; and 

 by other caufes of quiefcence, occurring with thofe 

 periods, as was explained in treating of the pa- 

 roxyfms of intermitting fevers ; the quiefcence at 

 length becomes fo great as to be incapable of again 

 being removed by the efforts of volition, and com- 

 plete paralyfis is formed. See Section XXXII. 3. 2. 



Many of the paralytic patients, whom I have feen, 

 have evidently had difeafed livers from the too fre- 

 quent potation of fpirituous liquors ; fome of them 

 have had the gutta rofea on their faces and breads ; 

 which has in fome degree receded either fpontane- 

 oufly, or by the ufe of external remedies, and the 

 paralytic ftroke has fucceeded ; and as in feveral 

 perfons, who have drank much vinous fpirits, I have 

 obferved epileptic fits to commence at about forty 

 or fifty years of age, without any hereditary taint, 

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

 I was induced to afcribe many paralytic cafes to the 

 famefource; which were not evidently the effect: 



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