54 DISEASES CLASS!. 2. i. 4." 



the pulfe In n few minutes becomes irregular, and the patient 

 awakes in great diforder, and fear of* dying, refufing to ileep again 

 from the terror of this uneafy fenfation. In this extreme debil- 

 ity there is reafon to believe, that fome voluntary power during 

 our waking hours is employed to aid the irritative ftimuli in 

 carrying on the circulation of the blood through the lungs ; in 

 the lame manner as we ufe voluntary exertions, when we liften 

 to weak foimds, or wifh to view an object by a fmall light ; in 

 ileep volition is fufpended, and the deficient irritation alone is 

 not fufficient to carry on the pulmonary circulation. This ex- 

 planation feems the moft probable one, becaufe in cafes of apo- 

 plexy the irritative motions of the arterial fyflem do not feem to 

 be impaired, nor in common fleep. See Incubus III. 2. i. 13. 

 M. M. Opium in very fmall dofes, as three drops of lauda- 

 num, A perfon (hould watch the patient, and awaken him fre- 

 quently j or he mould meafure the time between 11 umber and 

 fiumber by a ftop- watch, and awaken the patient a little before he 

 would otherwife awake ; or he mould keep his finger on the 

 pulfe, and fhould forcibly awaken him, as foon as it becomes ir- 

 regular, before the diforder of the circulation becomes fo great 

 as to diflurb him. See Clafs I. 2. i. 9. and Sect. XXVII. 2. 



4. Syncope. Fainting confifts in the decreafed action of the 

 arterial fyitem \ which is fometimes occafioned by defecl: of the 

 ftimulus of detention, as after venefeclion, or tapping for the 

 clropfy. At other times it arifes from great emotions of the 

 mind, as in fudden joy or grief. In thefe cafes the whole fenfo-' 

 rial power is exerted on thefe interefting ideas, and becomes ex- 

 haufted. Thus during great furprife or fear the heart flops for 

 a time, and then proceeds with throbbing and agitation ; and 

 fometimes the vital motions become fo deranged, as never to re- 

 cover their natural fucceffive action ; as when children have been 

 frightened into convulfions. See Seel:. XII. 7. i. 



Mifs , a young lady of Stafford, in travelling in a chaife 



was fo affe6ted by feeing the fall of a horfe and poftillion, in go- 

 ing down a hill, though the carriage was not overturned, that 

 {he fainted away, and then became convulfed, and never fpoke 

 afterwards ; though me lived about three days in fucceffive con- 

 vulfions and ftupor. 



5. Hamorrhagia vcncfa. A bleeding from the capillaries ari- 

 ng from defect of venous abforption, as in fome of thofe fevers 

 commonly termed putrid. When the blood ftagnates in the cel- 

 3-jlnr membrane, it produces petechice from this torpor or paraly- 



i : rhe abforbent mouths of the veins. It muft be obferved, 

 that thofe people who have difeafed livers, are more liable to this 

 kind of hsemorrhagesj as well as to the hiemorrhagia arteriofa ; 



the 



