264* Prof. Blutnenb&cli on the Irritability of the Tongue. 
A boy in Hamburgh, who was severely affected with epilepsy, 
bit the fore part of his tongue in a violent paroxysm, in such a 
manner that it adhered only by a thin slip. This segment, 
therefore, as being not only useless, but very inconvenient to the 
patient, it was immediately judged necessary to cut off: And 
when the physician, the illustrious Chaupefie, placed it upon 
his hand, he was surprised to see it palpitate strongly. In order, 
however, to guard against all deception, as the motion might 
have depended upon the action of the muscles of his hand, he 
placed the bit of tongue in the bottom of a window, and even 
then it continued to move for several minutes, insomuch that 
it even seemed, as all the bystanders testified with one accord, 
to change place a little, and creep forward. External stimuli, 
the prick of a needle, or the application of salt, also excited 
similar motion ; scarcely, however, differing in any way from the 
spontaneous ones. 
I am therefore much mistaken, if the muscular substance 
of the tongue is not possessed of a remarkable degree of ir- 
ritability and Ovid has described its phenomena with exquisite 
precision. 
3. The Xanthobpia of Jaundiced Persons. 
The opinion that objects are seen by people affected with 
jaundice of a yellow colour, has been so generally prevalent, for 
nearly two thousand years, that it has metaphorically passed 
into a saying. More particularly known is the passage of 
Lucretius on this subject : 
Lurida — fiunt quaecunque tuentur 
Arquati, quia luroris de corpore eorum 
Semina multa fiunt simulacris obvia rerum ; 
Multaque sunt oculis in eorum denique mixta, 
Quae contage sua palloribus omnia pingunt *. 
In the same manner his cotemporary Varro says, that jaun- 
diced and lethargic people see things, which are not in reality 
yellow, just as if they were so ; and after these Galen *f*, and his 
numberless followers, down to Boerhaave J, and his adherents. 
* Lib. iv. v. 333. et. seq. 
-j- De Causis Symptom atum, vol. i. p. 2 . and elsewhere. 
£ Praslect, in Institut. sects. 544. and 840. 
