NOS 
The fevere and confuming influence of this mental affec- 
‘tion on the body, and the train of fymptoms, tending to 
fatal marafmus, which it induces, if not interrupted, as well 
as the fpeedy and not lefs remarkable corporeal amendment, 
which the removal of the mental depreflion occafions, will be 
beft illuftrated by the relation of a cafe, which occurred in 
_ oer 
n the ye 
han 
> 
melancholy hung over his countenance, and wannefs preyed 
n his cheeks. He complained of univerfal weaknefs, but 
o fixed pain; a noife in his ears, and giddinefs in his head ; 
aul rather flow than frequent, but fmall, and eafily com- 
refible. His appetite was much impai red ; his tongue was 
{ufficiently moift, and his belly regular; yet he flept ill, 
and ftarted fuddenly out of it, with uneafly dreams. He 
had little or no thir 
«As there were litle obvious ha tes of fever, I did 
not well know what to make of the cafe. I fufpeéted he 
might b e under an ficipiets eolns = fi pa what I 
judged neceflary to obviate it. Some weeks paffed with 
Titel alteration a for better or gore. excepting that he 
was evident ome more mea {carcely took an 
ho tease ny had hitherto a up out of bed fome hours 
every day. At length he became indolent, feldom fat up at 
all, was conftantly dozing, yet his fleep never fo found but 
he could anfwer when fpoken to: he fighed deeply and fre- 
quently ; nor could his attention be direGted to any external 
abjed. Something, it os feem, hung heavy on his 
ind. He never had any cough; yet, fince he came inte 
the houfe, he had waited away confiderably. Exercife was 
recommended, and ufed as far as he could be _ to take 
it, which was never without reluétance. as put on a 
courfe of ftrengthening medicines, and wine was allow 
him. All proved ieeifeeiual. His at had SS airy 
i d quick: an eviden 
ap 
= 
minent, nails incurvated, adnata 3; and he was fo 
weak in his limbs, that he could neither get in nor out of 
bed without help. Of late, alfo, he had night fweats. In 
fhort, I looked on him as loft. 
“On making my morning vifit, and ee as ufual, 
refpecting his reft of the nurfe, fhe happened to mention the 
{trong notions he had got in his head, ihe faid, of home, and 
of his friends. What he was able to fpeek was conftantly 
on thistopic. This I had never heard before. The reafon 
fhe gave for not mentioning it was, that it appeared to her to 
ommon ravings of ficknefs and delirium. He had 
talked in the fame ftyle, it feems, more or ict, ever fince 
o him, and rae the fub- 
med it, (yet 
with a deep figh, when he mentioned his aeee more ote 
able to fee his ene) IT found it a theme w muc 
feted him. ced me, he coal snus i; T would let 
im go hom 1 aa nted out to him how unfit he was, from 
his weaknefs, tu undertake fuch a joneney, (he was a We Ifh- 
man,) till once he was better; but promifed him, atuedly, 
that ae foon as he was able, he should have fix weeks to go 
NOS 
home. He revived at the very thoughts of it.”’— It feems 
he had requefted leave to vifit his native place, foon after he. 
joined ; but being enly a recruit, an ta few months 
from the ence he was refufed. This had hung on his {pirits 
ever fin and from thence I now dated the origin of his 
illnefs. I eee him to take food, to ftrengthen him for 
s journey ; and, as foon as he was able, to go out into the 
open air a little every afternoon, when the weather would 
permit, that he might be the fooner able to go home. He 
liftened eagerly to every word I faid. In fhort, his appetite 
foon mended ; and I faw, in lefs than a week, evident figns 
of recovery. He was now enh though fo weak that he 
could not get in or out o without affiftance : 
this promife, he was able to leave the hofpital and go to his 
barrack-room.”? See Edin. Med. Commentaries, vol. xi. 
Pes this ftate of debility of body, and melancholy 
brooding of the mind a aes the recolle€tions of home, it will 
readily be concejved how even defpair, and fuicide, may be 
the refult of the violent emotions excite 
tions. 
of the preceding seg that the 
Pee 
pedients to fu the ftrength, and to correé the h 
cinations o will be totally fruitlefs, until the 
See Zwin- 
| of hope and d expe ion be afforded, 
s Diff. Med. Harder Diff. de Noftalgia, in Haller’s 
Difputationes, tom. i. xi. 
in Botany, a cryptogamic eae Tremella 
¢ of Linneus and his followers, Engl. Bot. t. 461, is 
a roundifh, leafy, inflated, plaited rode&ion, ‘of an olive 
green coloie. and gelatinous fubftance, found in paftures, 
and on paths, after rainy weather, = drying and fhrivel- 
ling up to almoft nothing. The name of Noffoc is faid to 
have been given by Paracelfus, and nae is eon a by Tourne- 
fort and Geoffroy, to have attributed wonderful properties 
to this vegetable, and to have expected to obtain from it 
that univerfal folvent, which was one of the gr 
the chemifts of his {choo 
a Will-of-th 
plains, that aie 
that famous aiael or a ‘ifeiples {peak of it. Some have 
thought it a gelatinous depofition from the clouds, when 
they touch the hills; of which notion a curious inftance is 
Casi in his Lapland Tour, v. 1. 262, 
the power, as they were 
plentifully ftocked with the malice, of inquifitors, to broil 
him alive for not believing this, and other fimilar philofophy. 
Sometimes this plant, fometimes Zremella arborea, Engl. 
Bot. t. 2448, is called witches’ butter. In fhort, there have 
always been fome wonderful or hea ideas anect 
to it, which might long ago hav away, had not the 
miftakes of recent philofophers baad to ee rather 
