92 Dr. Parry on a Case of nervous Affection. 
milk was put on the blistered part. After this period, the 
muscles of the humerus began to feel as if contracted and 
stiff ; and these sensations gradually spread themselves to the 
neck and head, and all across the body, so as to make it un- 
comfortable for her to lie on either side,. though there was no 
inability of motion. 
She now began to be affected with violent occasional flush- 
ings of her face and head, which occurred even while her feet 
and legs were cold, together with a rushing noise in the back 
of the head, especially in hot weather, or from any of those 
causes which usually produce the feelings of heat. 
It is difficult to give intelligible names to sensations of a 
new and uncommon kind. That, which this lady denomi- 
nated numbness, diminished neither the motion nor the sen- 
sibility of the parts affected. It was more a perception of 
tightness and constriction, in which the susceptibility of feel- 
ing in the parts was in fact increased; and the skin of the ex- 
tremities was so tender, that the cold air produced a sense of 
uneasiness, the finest flannel or worsted felt disagreeably 
coarse, and the attempt to stick a pin with her fingers caused 
intolerable pain. 
In the month of September 1803, not long after the appli- 
cation of the blisters, she experienced in certain parts of the 
left arm and thigh, that sensation of twitching which is vul- 
garly called the “ life blood,” and which soon extended itself 
to the right side. Shortly afterwards, she began to perceive 
an actual vibration or starting up of certain portions of the 
flexor muscles of the fore-arm, and of the deltoid on the left 
side ; not so, however, as to move the arm or hand. 
This disorder had continued with little variation to the 
