CLASS III. i. i. & OF VOLITION. 281 



occafions their death, or of faintnefs from want of due diften- 

 tion of the blood velTels. Similar to this in a lefs degree is the 

 fubfultus tendinum, or ftarting of the tendons, in fevers with de- 

 bility j thefe actions of the mufcles are too weak to move the 

 limb, but the belly of the acting mufcles is feen to fwell, and 

 the tendon to be ftretched. Thefe weak convulfions, as they 

 are occafioned by the difagreeable fenfation of faintnefs from 

 inanition, are fymptoms of great general debility, and thence 

 frequently precede the general convulfions of the act of dying. 

 See a cafe of convulfion of a mufcle of the arm, and of the fore- 

 arm, without moving the bones to v/hich they were attached* 

 Sea. XVII. i. 8. See twitchingsof the face, Clafs IV. i. 3. 2. 



6. Convulfio dolorifica. Raphania. Painful convulfion. In 

 this difeafe the mufcles of the arms and legs are exerted to re- 

 lieve the pains left after the rheumatifm in young and delicate 

 people ; it recurs once or twice a day, and has been miftaken for 

 the chorea, or St. Vitus's dance ; but differs from it, as the un- 

 due motions in that difeafe only occur, when the patient endeav- 

 ours to exert the natural ones ; are not attended with pain ; and 

 ceafe, when he lies down without trying to move : the chorea, 

 or dance of St. Vitus, is often introduced by the itch, this by the- 

 rheumatifm. 



It has alfo been improperly called nervous rheumatifm ; but 

 is diftinguifhed from rheumatifm, as the pains recur by peri- 

 ods once or twice a day ; whereas in the chronic rheumatifm 

 they only occur on moving the affected mufcles. And by the 

 warmth of a bed the pains of the chronic rheumatifm are in- 

 creafed, as the mufcles or membranes then become more fenfi- 

 ble to the ftimulus of the extraneous mucaginous material de- 

 pofited under them. Whereas the pains of the raphania, or 

 painful convulfion, commence with coidnefs of the part, or 

 of flie extremities. See Rheumatifmus chronicus. Clafs I. 

 i. 3. 12. 



The pains which accompany the contractions of the mufcles 

 in this difeafe, feem to arife from the too great violence of thofe 

 contractions, as happens in the cramp of the calf of the leg 5 

 from which they differ iu thofe being fixed, and thefe being re- 

 iterated contractions. Thus thefe convulfions are generally of 

 the lower limbs, and recur at periodical times from fome unea- 

 fy ienfation from defect of action, like other periodic difeafesj 

 and the convulfions of the limbs relieve the original uneafy pain- 

 ful fenfation, and then produce a greater pain irom their own 

 too vehement contractions. There is however another way of 

 accounting for thefe pains, wheq they fucceeci the acute rheu- 

 matifm ; and that is by the coagulable lymph, which may be 



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