ON MYoITIS. 
457 
may be likened to prosody : the full understanding of the latter 
can alone be learnt by practical observation ; and this will be 
greatly regulated by the amount of rudimental knowledge ; there- 
fore, the more carefully the symptoms, diseases, and their causes 
are taught, so in proportion will be the capability of the scholar to 
enter into the investigation and treatment of the higher and more 
necessary departments. 
I have been led into this digression from reflecting on the many 
points in pathological science which are totally unheeded ; and 
where we ought to look for the greatest assistance in investigation, 
we find the very reverse. Only imagine a learned (?) teacher, to 
an inquiry in a court of law, stating that the symptoms of navicular 
disease were “ conjectural It may be an abstract fact, and so 
also, upon the same view, is every disease that does not shew 
itself upon the surface ; and how few these are every one can 
answer ; nevertheless, we can and do daily, nay hourly, speak 
positively as to the nature and seat of disease from these “ conjee - 
tural ” symptoms, without in any way fearing to be found in the 
wrong : and weak indeed must be the position of our art as a 
science, if, after all our labour, we are no better off than being 
mere “ conjectors,” or “ guessers.” Now I, for one, maintain that 
we either do know or we do not know : if the first, we ought to 
be able to describe intelligibly ; if in the second position, we ought 
at once to say so : there is less disgrace in confessing ignorance 
than in attempting to display knowledge which we do not possess. 
I could cite many instances in which the strangest jumble that 
can be imagined exists between causes and effects — the one put 
for the other, and changing about like so many puppets. Now 
this arises from want of a proper groundwork of rudiments more 
than from any thing else. 
But I am wandering from my object, which is to draw attention 
to a state or condition of certain constituent parts of the body, 
which, except in an aggravated form, have not been investigated, 
the more especially at that period when easiest of removal or 
mitigation. The affection to which I allude I shall term “ myo- 
itis,” or disease of the muscles, as a general term. 
Muscular fibre has been considered so little prone to morbific 
action, that it is one of the component parts of the body considered 
as almost exempt from disease : not so, however, does it turn out 
upon investigation ; but, on the contrary, several very severe and 
often fatal forms exist. That affection of the diaphragm produced 
after severe exertion, frequently called “palpitation of the heart,” — 
and almost always fatal in its termination — is a marked instance. 
The most painfully severe and fatal case I ever witnessed was one 
in which the whole of the voluntary muscles of the body were af- 
