86 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1764. 



From the first of August he took no medicines; the attacks were much less 

 frequent and slighter ; only he often felt in the night-time like the stroke of an 

 electrified body. August 13, he was awaked this night by pain, as if burning 

 irons had been clapped to the insides of his legs, with anxiety and a sense of tre- 

 mor over the whole body. I found his pulse very quick, irregular and small; 

 but I could find no new cause for the return of his complaints. He had after 

 this some smaller attacks: but in the night of the 23d he was seized with a vio- 

 lent fit of the same sort, with stretchings, and as if prickling sparks were flying 

 continually out of the skin. He had palpitation of the heart, and complained 

 of the want of breath : his left side turned cold, and his right side became hotter. 

 24th, He was again attacked in the same manner in the night-time, and it also 

 went off in the same manner; but he now became feverish, and kept his bed 

 some days. 



By the word stretchings, I mean the stretching of his body and limbs by a 

 slow and gentle convulsion of the extensor muscles; for in all the attacks I never 

 observed the flexores any way affected. His feelings were frequently so odd, that 

 he said he could not describe them. He often felt as if his left side, from his 

 head to his waist, was empty; and that millions of small bodies were driven up 

 and down with great velocity : which he likened to the shaking of peas in a 

 bladder. I tried many kinds of remedies to rid him of this disorder. He often 

 found relief from them, but the complaints returned again. The remedy I found 

 the most effectual, was putting him on a milk diet, and making him drive hard 

 on a cart every day, forenoon and afternoon, which he continued to do for several 

 weeks. His complaints all decreased ; and when he was threatened with an at- 

 tack, a few drops of spirits of hartshorn and lavender, or the like, were now of 

 service to him, which formerly had no effect. In short, I gave him again animal 

 food, and he kept his health pretty well. 



The first year after this he was always fearful ; and often complaining, of what 

 appeared to me small things, but by little and little he got the better of these 

 also. Though he always continued to avoid handling metals, minerals, or things 

 painted with these bodies. When I left Russia, he was very well; and I have 

 lately heard by a letter that he continues so; and I believe he observes the same 

 circumspection about paints and metals as before. 



///. The Description of a New and Safe Crane, which has Four Different Powers; 

 invented by Mr. James Ferguson, F. R. S. p. 24. 



This paper may be more advantageously consulted in the supplement to the 

 author's book of Lectures, p. 3. 



