350 
a\iEBlCTNE. 
from mere loss of excitability 'in the intesti- 
nul lib re, without increase either of bile or 
any other excretion. It is immediately oc- 
casioned by acrid matter in the intestines ; 
by acidities, by mental passions, or by the 
sudden application of cold, more especially 
to the feet. 
M. 31 . According to tire exciting causes. 
If there is reason to suspect the lodgment 
of acrid matter, calomel, with jalap, senna, 
or rhubarb Afterwards astringents, of which 
•one of the best is good red wine. Opium. 
■Chalk, it acidity prevails. An emetic if the 
disorder continues obstinate. 
Genus V. Diabetes. 
Symptoms. Superabundant discharge of 
ri line, in some cases amounting to fifty 
•pounds in twenty-four hours, limpid and 
sweetish to thy taste, with urgent and per- 
petual thirst, dry skin, weakness, emacia- 
tion. 
This disease often, perhaps, exists to a very 
considerable extent without being detected. 
It is not an uncommon complaint among 
Che poor, especially of the north of Bri- 
tain. 
H he principal circumstances that have at- 
tracted the notice of the pathologist in re- 
ference to this complaint, are the saccharine 
tonality of the urine evacuated, and the at- 
tendant emaciation. One of the principal 
ingredients in the nutrition of the body has 
been supposed to be the saccharine principle ; 
from the inordinate discharge of this prin- 
ciple in the diabetic urine, the disorder has 
been therefore referred by some to a defi- 
ciency ot assimilating power in the stomach 
and digestive organs, while others have 
imagined it to originate entirely from alter- 
ed action in the kidneys. Perhaps both of 
these causes may operate in producing dia- 
betes. Upon dissection, the kidneys are al- 
ways found flaccid. Dr. Darwin, after Mr. 
Charles Darwin, attributes the copious flow 
ei urine to the inverted or retrograde action 
■of the urinary lymphatics ; but besides that 
this theory does not account for the super- 
abundance of sugar or of mucilage in the 
water, it has been proved that such inver- 
sion oi the absorbents is inconsistent with 
their structure and general economy. 
M. M. Animal diet. Dr. Rollo and 
others have observed that when the patient 
lives on animal food, the saccharine quality 
of diabetic urine abates. Alkaline and as- 
tringent medicines, such as nut-galls and 
lime-water. Bark, Steel. Opium. Alum- 
whey. 
N. B. A copious flow of urine is frequent- 
ly observed to attend nervous affections, and 
indeed is one of the characteristics of the 
disease we are next to notice: in these cases 
however, the water has not the superabund- 
ance of the saccharine principle as in genu- 
i-uc, diabetes, which last disorder has been er- 
roneously placed in the class Neuroses. 
Genus VI. Hysteria. The hysteric disease. 
Symptoms. A gurgling of the bowels, fol- 
lowed by globus hystericus, or a sensation 
of a ball ascending U> the throat, and mena- 
cing suffocation. Convulsive agitations, al- 
ternate laughing and crying, a general tickle 
ness and irritability of mind. A large quan- 
tity o f straw-coloured or limpid urine. Hys- 
teria, like epilepsy, is in a certain degree ex- 
tremely common; it generally first occurs in 
females about the time of puberty. It is, 
like all other convulsive affections,” a symp- 
tom ot a lax habit, and is consequent upon 
the irritability of weakness. It may be 
brought oil by mental agitation, or by irri- 
tations in the stomach, bowels, uterine or- 
gans, <3CC. 
The discharge of urine which attends or 
precedes hysteric paroxysm, is attributed by 
Dr. Darwin to the inverted motions of the 
lymphatics about the mouth of the bladder, 
as in diabetes; a temporary torpor, or spasm 
of these vessels, would appear sufficient to 
account for the superabundant excretion, 
the watery part of the urine not being taken 
up. 
M. M. Avoid every occasional and exci- 
ting cause of the disease. Bark, quassia, and 
other tonics. To remove the present symp- 
toms, camphor, assafeetida, castor, opium ; 
if tins last, from idiosyncracy, disagrees with 
the patient, the hyosevamus will generally 
be found an excellent 'substitute. "This has 
not the constipating tendency of opium ; and 
in hysteric cases it is of importance, while 
much evacuation is guarded against, to pre- 
serve a freedom both in the alvine and cu- 
taneous discharges. Emetics, N. B. The 
customary plan of -bleeding in hysteric affec- 
tions is extremely detrimental to the general 
health, and disposes to a return of the pa- 
roxysms. If it is judged necessary in some 
cases of hysteria to withdraw a small quantity 
of blood, it should be done not by vene- 
section in the ordinary mode, but by the ap- 
plication of a cupping-glass. 
Genus VII. Hydrophobia . 
A dread of water as exciting painful con- 
vulsions of the pharynx, caused for the most 
part by the bite of a mad dog, violent spasms, 
furious insanity, death. 
M. M. “ \\ hen the contagion of a putrid 
fever is taken by the saliva into the stomach 
and bowels, which is its constant road,” 
(query) “ it the patient the moment he finds 
himself attacked with a sense of chilliness, 
loss of appetite, and an unpleasant taste in 
his mouth, has recourse to two emetics at 
proper intervals, and after the operation of 
the first -emetic takes a cathartic, lie has 
certainly got rid of the infection: in the 
same manner, even after three days, or per- 
haps a week, if the part bitten by the dog be 
cut out with the knife, the danger is escaped.” 
(Townsend.) Dr. Thornton advised the ap- 
plication of hot vinegar, sharpened with vi- 
triolic acid, to the wounds of five men who 
had been bitten by a rabid animal, and this 
application was attended with seeming suc- 
cess. Mercury : this by some has been ex- 
tolled as a specific for hydrophob.a. 
Order IV. Vesaniir. 
Disorders of the intellect, independant of 
pyrexia or coma. 
“ Every nervous disease, (says an author 
whom we have before quoted) is a degree of 
insanity.” If, however, imagination carried 
to the height of sentient perception, or, as 
it has been expressed by Dr. Batty, the rais- 
ing up in the mind of images not dist inguish- 
able trom impressions on the senses, is the 
proper definition of the insane state — -“the 
cardinal point on which madness turns” — 
the above apophthegm of Dr. Reid may be 
regarded as rather bold and impressive than 
strictly accurate. It were surely 1m proper 
denominate the apoplectic, the paralytic* 
the hysteric, or the tetanic, insane; ye! an 
individual under these maladies, is as truly* 
affected with a nervous disorder as one who, 
like the lunatic astronomer in BassHas, con- 
ceiting himself to possess the mastery of the 
elements, commands rain to shed fertility on 
the barren soil. 
i hat the disorders of (he intellect are dis- 
orders of the nerves we readily admit, it is 
the converse ot the proposition we presume 
to question ; and in so doing, we justify Dr. 
Cuilen, in considering the vesaniae, or iiie;o 
tal affections, as a distinct order of nervous 
diseases. 
1 he pathology of such diseases is peculiar- 
ly perplexing. We find by experience, that 
an increase of vascular action in a tender 
organ will give rise to the feeling of pain ; 
we have ascertained by the conjunctive and 
mutually reflective aid’ of casual observation 
and direct experiment, that convulsive move- 
ments in the muscular fibre are occasioned bv 
an interruption of nervous excitement in 
whatever that may consist ; we see the brain 
pressed upon, and (he apoplectic stupor foB 
low ; but in endeavouring to trace deranged 
consciousness to disordered organization, 
temporary or permanent, an increase of in- 
tricacy appears in a manner to grow out of 
labour and research. 
Dissection does not afford that assistance 
to the pathologist in this, as in many other 
departments ot his inquiries ; for, independ- 
antly ot the great want of uniformity that has 
been observed in the brains of the unfortunate 
victims to mental derangement, it is impos- 
sible lo judge from an inspection of this or- 
gan, how far the altered structures and ap- 
peal ances have been causes, and how lar 
consequences, of the malady. 
Dr. Cullen has four genera in his order 
vesaniai, viz. amentia, melancholia, mania, 
and oneirodynia, on each of which we shall 
introduce a few remarks. 
Genus I. Amentia , ideocy. 
Ament a is defined an imbecility of judg- 
ment, preventing the perception 'or the re- 
collection of the relations of things, 
.Man is born with merely a susceptibility 
oi knowledge, a capacity of acquisition ; he 
is conducted trom observation to comparison 
and from comparison to principle. Place an 
infant in a spacious apartment, give him for 
the first time the free use of all the senses 
with which nature has furnished him, and he 
will stretch out his hand to perhaps the most 
distant object in the room, with a full per- 
suasion of being able to grasp it. Like the 
youth couched by Cbeselden on Epsom 
Downs, every thing within the scope of his 
vision appears in a manner to touch his eve, 
he lias not the smallest conception either of 
distance or magnitude, and the same to- 
tal ignorance prevails in respect to objects 
which have relation to all his other senses. 
Knowledge then is the result of experience, 
which is another word for comparison or 
observation of “ the relations of things.” 
As man, however, essentialP. differs from 
the brute, by the more extended compass of 
his intellectual grasp, the superinduction «f 
the moral sense, and the anticipation of 
future events, so different individuals have 
varied susceptibilities of acquiring informa* 
