CONSCIOUSNESS. 255 



the mind acts instinctively, as when we are falling ; the mind, then, 

 immediately employs such muscles as are necessary for preservation ; 

 and, if this muscle [with the broken tendon] is one of them, instinct 1 

 lays hold of it ; and the will which is checked by consciousness has no 

 share in these actions, when the muscle is instinctively made to act. 



A striking instance of this happened to myself when I broke my 

 ' tendo Achillis.' While the parts were in a state of inflammation, &c, 

 I, of course, did not endeavour to act with its muscles ; but, when that 

 inflammation had subsided, I found I had no power to act with the 

 muscles of this tendon; and even when union had taken place and 

 appeared to my senses, and of course to my reasoning faculty, to be 

 pretty strong, yet I had not the least power to raise myself upon the 

 toes of that foot ; not even to make the muscles act upon that tendon. 

 I endeavoured [to make them act], but to no effect ; and the future 

 power of the will over the action of these muscles was so gradually 

 acquired, that I was convinced it arose from a consciousness of the mind 

 of the inability of the tendon to support the action of the muscles, and 

 all my voluntary powers were not able to counteract this impression. 

 But I found that, in my sleep, I often hurt the young union of the 

 tendon by the action of its muscles. And what was the worst, I fell, 

 and tried to avoid as much as possible the instinctive action of re- 

 covery, but could not wholly do so ; and the consequence was that the 

 muscle acted and strained the young union very much. 



This effect I have seen a number of times in strains in the joints ; 

 where mechanical strength was not in the least impaired, yet contrac- 

 tion of the muscles of that joint could not be caused by the will. There 

 was that kind of inability as if the muscles had been in some degree 

 paralytic, and which is expressed by the patient's weariness in the 

 joint; although the real weariness is the inability in the mind to stimu- 

 late the muscle to action, from a consciousness of the impropriety of 

 that action. The same thing takes place in fractures. The bone of 

 the leg shall, for instance, be united, so as to have its mechanical 

 strength as much as ever ; it shall give no pain, yet the person shall 

 not be able to put any stress upon it when put to the ground. Pres- 

 sure would hurt the economy of the part, and therefore there is a con- 

 sciousness of it. 



Perhaps what I have called ' universal sympathy,' such as the sym- 

 pathetic fever and the hectic fever — two constitutional affections arising 

 from local injuries — may be a species of consciousness, not of the 

 mind, but of the whole body ; it being conscious of the state of the 



1 [This term shows the double sense in which Hunter uses the word ' mind.'] 



