CLASS III. 2. 1. 14- OF VOLITION. 343 



gree of intoxication, whence difficulty of breathing may occur 

 irom the inirritability of the lungs, as in Clafs I. 2. i. 3. 



This explains an apparent paradox, why people who are fee- 

 ble, digeft their dinners beft, if they lie down and fleep, as moft 

 animals do, when their ftomachs are full. Yet many weak peo- 

 ple fleep very uneafily after a large fupper. If the debility of 

 the patient be not very great, and the dinner he has taken, be 

 moderate, the fufpenfion of voluntary aHon during fleep pre- 

 vents the expenditure of fo much fenforial power, which may 

 be' employed on the actions of the ftomach, and thus facilitate 

 the digeftive procefs. If the patient be further exhaufted as in 

 the evening, or his debility greater, and fleep enfues after a co- 

 pious or itimulating fupper, fo much fenforial power will be 

 i'd on the actions of the ftomach for digeftion, that the 

 circulation of the blood through the lungs will be impeded from 

 the diminifhed irritability to external ftimuli, and the abfence 

 of volition, as in the incubus, and fomrms interruptus. 



M. M. To fleep on a hard bed with the head raifed. Mod- 

 erate fupper. The bark. By fleeping on a harder bed the pa- 

 tient will turn himfelf more frequently, and not be liable to 

 fleep too profoundly, or lie too long in one pofture. To be 

 awakened frequently by an alarm clock. 



14. Lethargus. The lethargy is a flighter apoplexy. It is 

 fuppoied to originate from univerfal preffure on the brain, and 

 is laid to be produced by comprefling the fpinal marrow, where 

 there is a deficiency of the bone in the fpina bifida. See Seel. 

 XVIII. 20. Whereas in the hydrocephalus there is only a par- 

 tial preffure of the brain ; and probably in nervous fevers with 

 ituporthe preffure on the brain may affect only the nerves of the 

 fenfes, which lie within the Ikull, and not thofe nerves of the 

 medulla oblongata, which principally contribute to move the 

 heart and arteries ; whence in the lethargic or apoplectic ftu- 

 por the pulfe is flow as in fleep, whereas in nervous fever the 

 pulfe is very quick and feeble, and generally fo in hydrocephalus. 



In cafes of obftrudted kidneys, whether owing to the tubuli 

 uriniferi being totally obftru&ed by calculous matter, or by 

 their paralyfis, a kind of drowfinefs or lethargy comes on about 

 the eighth or ninth day, and the patient gradually finks. See 

 Clafs I. i. 3.9. 



15. Syncope epileptica, is a temporary apoplexy, the pulfe con- 

 tinuing in its natural ftate, and the voluntary power fufpended. 

 This terminates the paroxyfms of epilepfy. 



When the animal power is much exhaufted by the preced- 

 ing convulfions, fo that the motions from fenfation as well as 

 thole from volition are fufpended ; in a quarter or half an hour 



the 



