292 DISEASES CLASS III. i. i, io< 



lepfies, may be occafioned by pain in almoft any remote part of 

 the fyftem. But in fome of the adult patients in this difeafe, as 

 in many epilepfies, I have fufpecled the remote caufe to be a 

 pain of the liver, or of the biliary dufts. 



The afthmas, which have been induced in confequence of the 



recefs of eruptions, efpeeially of the leprous kind, countenance 



this opinion. One lady I knew, who for many years laboured 



under an ailhma, which ceafed on her being afflicled with pain, 



fwelling, and diftortion of fome of her large joints, which were 



eReemed gouty, but perhaps erroneously. And a young man, 



i I faw yefterday, was feized with afthma on the retrocef- 



or ceafmg of eruptions on his face. 



The convulfive all<vr,a, as well as the hydropic, is more lia- 

 ble to re r; weather ; which may be occafioned by the 

 lefs quantity oi ox -gen exifting in a given quantity of warm air> 

 of cold, which can be taken mto the lungs at one infpira- 

 tion. They are bora p oh liable to occur after the firfl ileep, 

 which is therefore a general criterion of afthma. The caufe of 

 this is explained in Sett. XVIH- 15. and applies to both of 

 them, as our feniibility to internal uneafy fenfation increaies 

 during fleep. 



When children are gaining teeth, long before they appear, 

 the pain of the gums often induces convulfions. This pain is 

 relieved in fome by fobbing and fcreaming ; but in others a la- 

 borious refpiration is exerted to relieve the pain j and this con- 

 ilitute* the true afthma convulfivum. In other children again 

 general convulfions, or epileptic paroxyfms, are induced for this 

 purpofe j which, like other epilepfies, become eftablifhed by 

 Iiabit, and recur before the irritation has time to produce the 

 painful fenfation, which originally caufed them. 



The afthma convulfivum is alfo fometimes induced by worms, 

 or by acidity in the ftomachs of children, and by other painful 

 fenfations in aduhs j in whom it is generally called nervous 

 aiihma, and is often joined with other epileptic fymptoms. 



This ailhma is diftinguifted from the peripneumony, and 

 from the croup, by the prefence of fever in the two latter. It 

 is diftinguiflied from the humoral afthma, as in that the patients 

 are more liable to run to the cold air for relief, are more fubjeft 

 to cold extremities, and experience the returns of it more fre- 

 quently after their fuft fleep. \It is diftinguiflied from the hy- 

 drops thoracis, as that has no intervals, and the patient fits con- 

 iiantly upright, and the breath is colder ; and, where the peri- 

 cardium is affected, the pulfe is quick and unequal. See Hy- 

 drops Thoracis, I. 2. 3. 14. 



M. M. Venfec~Uon once. A cathartic with calomel once.. 



Opium. 



