CLASS II. 1. 1. 8. OF SENSATION. 147 



Mtially differ from each other, contrary to the opinion ex- 

 \\ without fufficient confideration in Seel:. XVIII. 15. 



The patients in the paroxyfms both of humoral and convullive 

 afthma find relief from cold air, as they generally rife out of 

 bed, and open the window, and put out their heads ; for the 

 lungs are not fenfible to cold, and the fenfe of fuffocation is fome- 

 \vhat relieved by there being more oxygen contained in a given 

 quantity of cold freih air, than in the warm confined air of a 

 ciofe bed-chamber. 



I have feen humoral afthma terminate in confirmed anafarca 

 and deftroy the patient, who had been an exceflive drinker of 

 fpirituous potation. And M. Savage aliens, that this difeafe 

 frequently terminates in diabetes ; which feems to (hew, that it is 

 a temporary dropfy relieved by a great flow of urine. Add to 

 this, that thefe paroxyfms of the afthma are themfelves relieved 

 by profufe fweats of the upper parts of the body, as explained in 

 Clafs I. 3. 2. 8. which would countenance the idea of their be- 

 ing occasioned by ccngeftions of lymph in the lungs. 



The congeftion of lymph in the lungs from the defective abr 

 forption of it is probably the remote caufe of humoral afthma ; 

 but the pain of fuffocation is the immediate caufe of the violent 

 exertions in the paroxyfms. And whether this congeftion of 

 lymph in the air-cells of the lungs increafes during our ileep, as. 

 above fuggefted, or not ; the pain of fuffocation will be more 

 and more diftremng after fome hours of fleep, as the fenfibility 

 to internal ftimuli increafes during that time, as defcribed in 

 Sect. XVIII. 15. For the fame reafon many epileptic fits, and 

 paroxyfms of the gout, occur during ileep. 



In two gouty cafes, complicated with jaundice, and pain, and 

 ficknefs, the patients had each of them a (hivering fit, like the 

 commencement of an ague, to the great alarm of their friends ; 

 both which commenced in the night, I fuppofe during their 

 fleep ; and the confequence was a (reflation of the jaundice, and 

 pain about the ftomach, and ficknefs; and inftead of that the 

 gout appeared in their extremities. In thefe cafes I conjecture, 

 that there was a metaftafis not only of the difeafed action from 

 the membranes of the liver to thofe of the foot ; but that fome 

 of the new veflels, or new fluids, which were previoufly produ- 

 ced in the inflamed liver, were tranil.ited to the feet during the 

 cold fit, by the increafed abforption of the hepatic lymphatics, 

 and by the retrograde motions of thofe of the affected limbs. 



This I think refembles in fome refpecls a fit of humoral afth- 

 ma, where ftronger motions of the ablbrbent veflels of the lungs 

 are excited, and retrograde ones of the correfpondent cutaneous 

 lymphatics ; whence the violent fweats of the upper parts of the 



body 



