SECT. VII. PHYSIOLOGY. 45 
expansibility of the urethra and muscles is also 
restored. In stricture there is no miasma or con- 
tagion to distract the attention ; the cold simply 
reduces the vital force, the urethra contracts, 
and remains so, till it is expanded by re-action. 
Lxxxvit. On the other hand, the injudicious 
use of bougies and caustics may occasion spasm 
and ague, which follow the same course, as in the 
first instance. The spasm and the ague are the 
same in both the above cases; only, that in the 
first, the vital force is directly diminished by the 
sedative power of cold; and indirectly in the 
second, by excitement carried so far as to diminish 
for a time the function of the pudic nerves. 
Lxxxvill. In a physiological point of view, the 
spasms of stricture are of remarkable import- 
anee, as the hot stage of the ague removes the 
spasms, and restores the mobility of the muscles ; 
a circumstance rarely observable in any other 
spasmodic disease in Europe. 
LXxxIx. Spasm of Indian cholera.—This disease 
is endemial in the East Indies, from the Indus to 
Japan. In the various dialects of British India, 
it has been called Modexim, Nicobea, Sheni, Vi- 
duma, Visuchi, and Woba; in Sagar’s Nosology, 
it is named cholera Indica. Although I conceive 
that Cullen has, with great propriety, restricted 
the genus cholera, to a purging and vomiting of 
bile, yet I shall follow the nomenclature of Sagar, 
