40 



blunting sensibility, it on the other baud drains th source of our sweetest 

 enjoyments. Pleasure and pain, these two extremes of sensation, in a 

 manner, approximate to each other, and become indifferent to him who 

 is accustomed to them*. Hence arises inconstancy, or rather that insa- 

 tiable desire of varying the objects of our inclinations, that imperious 

 want of new emotions; hence we possess with indifference what was pur- 

 sued with the utmost ardour and perseverance, and even cease to be im- 

 pressed by those charms which once held us captivated. 



A striking instance of the powerful influence of habit on the action of 

 organs, is afforded by that criminal, who, we are told by Sanctorius, was 

 taken ill on being removed from a noisome dungeon, and did not (recover 

 till he was placed in the impure air to which he had been long accus- 

 tomed. Mithridates, that formidable rival of the Roman power, dread- 

 ing to be taken alive by his enemies, tried in vain to put an end to his 

 life, by taking large doses of the most subtle poisons, because he had 

 long inured himself to their actionf. It has, therefore, been justly said 

 of habit, that it is a second nature, whose laws ought to be respected. 



The organs of generation in women, in consequence of their lively 

 sensibility, are in an especial manner submitted to the powerful influence 

 of habit. The womb, after a miscarriage, has a tendency to a renewal of 

 the same occurrence, when the same period of pregnancy recurs, so that 

 the greatest precautions ure necessary to prevent abortion in women, 

 who are subject to it, when they have reached the month in which they 

 before miscarried. 



May not death be considered as a natural consequence of the laws of 

 sensibility ? Life, depending on the continual excitement of the living 

 solids by the fluids which moisten them, ceases, because the parts endow- 

 ed with sensibility and contractility, after long habitude of the impres- 

 sions of those fluids, lose their capacity of feeling them. Their action 

 gradually extinguished, would perhaps revive, if the energy of the sti- 

 mulating power were increased. 



A knowledge of the power of habit, is a useful guide in the application 

 of remedies, the greatest part of which operate in the cure of diseases,, 

 only by modifying sensibility. A wound in which lint has kept up the 

 degree of inflammation necessary to cicatrization, becomes insensible to 

 that application, the parts become spungy and soft, and the cure is pro- 

 tracted. The lint should then be covered with an irritating powder, and 

 the pledgits soaked in an active fluid : one may safely increase the doses 

 of a medicine which has been long employed. Thus, in the treatment 

 of the venereal disease by mercurials, the dose is to be gradually in- 

 creased ; xvith the same view, Frederic Hoffman recommended in the 

 treatment of chronic diseases, that the remedies should be suspended for 



* This is so beautifully expressed by Dr. Gregory, that we cannot resist the tempta- 

 tion to introduce his words: [Godman.] 



tf Voluptas et dolor (ut pulchra Socratis fabula docet) sorores fuerunt, utcunque dis- 

 similes, diversamque sortem experts ; altera ninrirum optata et grata omnibus, altera 

 pariter invisa ; quas tamen J upiter ita sociavit et tarn indissolubili vinculo conjunxit, 

 tit quamvis natura contrarias et diverse spectantes, quicunque alterutram complectitur, 

 alteram trahat simul." 



j- In some very rare cases, habit produces a quit contrary effect. Cullen states, that 

 he knew persons so accustomed to excite vomiting 1 in themselves, that the twentieth 

 part of a grain of tartar emetic was sufficient to exhe a convulsive action of the sto-- 

 roach.- Aiithor's Note. 



