72 - ANALYTIC SECT. VII. 
it is not very difficult to discover whether it pro- 
ceeds from sedative or stimulating agents. 
cixvit. When it occurs early in life, it is often 
removed at puberty, or by any other circumstance 
which gives increased vigour to the vital force. 
When it arises from strong emotions of the mind, 
it is sometimes removed by emotions of a different 
nature; of this, Boerhaave’s cure of the orphans 
at Haarlem is an example. 
cLxvil. Epilepsy was called the Holy Disease 
by the ancients, from a belief that those afflicted 
with it were labouring under supernatural influ- 
ence. Mahomet and Cesar having both been 
subject to epileptic fits, it appears that though 
they sometimes induce fatuity, the liability to 
them is by no means incompatible with the highest 
order of mental capacity. 
cLxrx. Convulsions of Chorea.—The disease com- 
monly called the dance of St. Vitus, from the 
mummeries of his votaries in the dark ages, con- 
sists in numerous angular motions of the extre- 
mities and head, from the brain having gradually 
lost its influence over the voluntary muscles. Be- 
sides the impossibility of keeping one position for 
any length of time, it is usually attended by an 
obstinate constipation of the bowels. 
cLxx. I have only seen three cases of chorea, 
and in all of them the affinity to paralysis was so 
