26^ On Chronic Debility 



till, on withdrawing the window curtain, and opening \ws 

 window, he found the wind had shifted to the north-west, 

 and the sky had become clear. There had been no oth- 

 er apparent cause in either case, to produce the effects 

 specified. 



I have often experienced similar changes in my own 

 feelings, from the same cause. Whenever the weather 

 is cloudy, warm, and damp, I experience some degree of 

 general debility. This is sometimes inconsiderable, at 

 other times severe. In the latter case, my joints become 

 relaxed ; tremor affects my hands ; the whole muscular, 

 and nervous systems lose their customary tone ; and a great 

 excess of acidity takes place in the stomach. This is 

 sometimes accompanied with wind, and various morbid 

 sympathies, and sometimes not ; and the ill feelings are 

 occasionally so severe, as to unfit me for reading, and for 

 any sedentary employment. They all also usually in- 

 crease, till the weather changes. A change of vv ind to 

 the north-west, vv'ill in most instances, dissipate the evil 

 in a few hours. The languor and debility, the acidity of 

 the stomach, the headache, the tremor of the hands, the 

 hot flushes, the yawnings, the general irritability of body, 

 and iiTCsolution of mind which it occasions, speedily dis- 

 appear. The weather most likely to produce these evils 

 is that, which is so warm as to occasion a continued sweat 

 from very gentle exercise, and so damp as to prevent the 

 sweat from evaporating. A south-east wind, more fre- 

 quently than any other, produces this kind of weather. 

 After it, east, south, and north-east winds. A north-east 

 wind is usually, cool and chilly, and far less unpleasant 

 than a south east. I uniformly feel better after it begins 

 to rain, than before. This kind of weather is very apt 

 to occasion teethache, in dyspeptics. How can the rise 

 and disappearance of acid in the stomach, from this cause, 

 be accounted for, unles we admit that it is a secretion ? 



XIII. Habitual Discouragement. This is an 

 almost universal consequence of Chronic Debility of tlie 

 Stomach. I do not intend, that persons labouring under 

 that disease, are at all times the subjects of such discour- 

 agement ; but that almost all persons affected with it, are 

 often, for considerable periods, in a greater or less degree^ 



