PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
ON
NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.



PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
ON 
NERVOUS COMPLAINTS 
AND OTHER 
DISEASES INCIDENT TO THE HUMAN BODY; 
WITH AN 
HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION 
OF THEIR 
CAUSES AND CURE 
In which are interspersed 
SOME SINGULAR CASES. 
By Mr. Neale. 
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris of the University 
of Leyden, and Surgeon in London; formerly Surgeon of His 
Majesty’s Fifth Regiment of Infantry, and the Military 
Hospital at Chatham. 
THE THIRD EDITION 
“TO ENJOY GOOD HEALTH IS BETTER THAN TO COMMAND 
“THE WORLD. ST. EVREMOND. 
LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, at his House, No. 58, Greek- 
Street, corner of Soho-Square; and Sold by J. WALKER, 
No. 44, Paternoster-Row. 
1796. 



CONTENTS. 
SECT. I. 
OF the Structure, Mechanism, and Modula- 
tion of the Nerves, necessary to produce 
Sensation in Animal Bodies—Page 1 
SECT. II. 
Of the Reality of Nervous Diseases, with 
their Train of Symptoms, and the dangerous 
Consequences that attend their Neglect—17 
SECT. III. 
Of the different Species of Nervous Diseases—35 
SECT. IV. 
Of particular Symptoms, which I have often 
observed attendant on Nervous Diseases—43 
SECT. V. 
Of the Symptoms of Nervous Diseases inci- 
dent to the Female Sex—51



INTRODUCTION. 
THE kind and beneficient Author of our 
nature has implanted in every human 
individual a principal of reason; whereby he 
might discover the laws of nature, as far as 
they concern his conduct of life: and as dis- 
eases are one of the greatest evils he can guard 
against, so is it the business of the physician 
to discover truly and certainly, on what causes 
they are grounded, what matter they consist 
of, the principal organs in which they are 
A lodged,

ii INTRODUCTION. 
lodged, and how they may safely be eradicated, 
without the least detriment to the body: and 
whatever has hitherto been accounted the es- 
sential definition of a physician, I will venture 
to speak it in one word; that he is best de- 
serving of that character, that best knows 
how to cure diseases, and remove the obstruc- 
tions that embarrass and overturn the animal 
œconomy. 
To enable the professor of the healing art 
to know absolutely and properly how to cure 
diseases, he must labour hard to make himself 
master of their symptoms, causes, the principles 
on which they depend, the progress they make, 
and the alterations and changes they infer upon 
the constitutions of animal bodies. 
This is only to be acquired by practice and 
experience, which are the solid foundation 
whence we may reasonably expect to make 
any advance in the true knowledge of their 
nature.

iii INTRODUCTION. 
nature. Every attempt to diminish the num- 
ber of human afflictions, will, no doubt, be 
listened to with attention, and judged of with 
candour, and to receive so much applause as 
the author’s labours may merit. 
Such are the grounds, and such the consi- 
derations, that have encouraged me to offer 
to the public the following Treatise on the 
rational and safe method of establishing the 
health of those labouring under a disease the 
most afflicting of all others to the human 
mind. No heart, seeming sensible of the 
distress which this malady occasions, yet we 
sometimes see the patient’s friends but little 
touched with their sufferings, because the dis- 
temper is seldom attended with immediate 
danger; but it is fully sufficient to curtail 
life by slow, but sure degrees. To describe 
every symptom of nervous complaints, would 
be to paint almost all others which attend the 
A2 long

iv INTRODUCTION.
long train of sickness, so various are they in 
their appearance: yet, by having strictly ex- 
amined them all during a series of years ex- 
perience, and attending particularly to those 
symptoms which are the never-failing com- 
panions of this disorder, I flatter myself I 
have traced them to their primary causes, and 
thus settled a mode of treating them, and ef- 
fectuate a perfect cure by going directly to 
their origin. 
The ground-work of the healing art, is to 
understand the symptoms, causes, and phœ- 
nomena of diseases, the principles on which 
they depend, the progress they make, and the 
alterations and changes they infer upon the 
constitutions of animal bodies; and as all the 
alterations, changes, and phœnomena, have 
their dependance entirely on the changes that 
happen in the external, obvious, sensible qua- 
lities of heat, cold, dry, and moisture, com- 
monly

v INTRODUCTION. 
monly called the temperatures of the habit; 
and as all these are dependent on the motions 
of the solids and fluids, and alterable from 
the different degrees of impulse, hence it fol- 
lows, that a number of diseases must neces- 
sarily arise from the system of the solids and 
fluids intended, or remitted above or beneath 
the balance of nature. But when it so falls 
out, that these external, obvious, sensible 
qualities retreat inwardly upon the habit, yet 
even here (to the practical man) the pulse will 
discover that retreat. For it is impossible 
that these qualities of heat, cold, &c. can 
retreat, but that the motions will accompany 
them; or that the motions can retreat, unless 
there be obstructions formed inwardly upon 
the habit; or that obstructions can be formed 
upon any of the internal organs, but that the 
beating of the heart must be enforced, or that 
the beating of the heart can be enforced,
4 without


vi INTRODUCTION. 
without the variation of the pulse; because 
the beating of the pulse has an immediate de- 
pendance on the artery that goes to the heart; 
so that even here, in such a case, which seems 
most remote from an intuitive knowledge, 
the pulse will be our guide, and inform us of 
the retreat, as well as the degrees of motion 
that attend it. Thus it most evidently ap- 
pears, that we have the surest grounds to go 
upon, even in this perplexing case, where the 
external habit changes its temperature. 
Hence, a true, knowledge of these appearances 
in the human frame are of the same conse- 
quence to the physician that the sea chart or 
compass is to the mariner; for as the latter 
informs the sailor of the course he is to steer, 
so the former directs the physician to the 
clearest indications, not only to discover the 
most obstruse causes, but also to administer 
a cure

vii INTRODUCTION. 
a cure in the most stubborn and perplexing 
diseases. 
To apply all this reasoning to the subject
of my subsequent observations: That these 
external, sensible qualities, do not only dis- 
cover to us the different degrees of motions, 
but the difference of constitution is a certain 
fact. And though few constitutions are so 
happy as to be able to plead an entire exemp-
tion from complaints of the nerves, or their 
attendants (for it is well known that spleen, 
even vapours, and the gloomy hypochondriac 
melancholy, may justly be attributed to dis- 
eases of the nerves). Seeing all of us have, 
more or less, a tincture of it in our first make 
and original constitution; yet some persons 
are much more naturally inclined to it than 
others. People of a constitution highly 
phlegmatic, when they come to be harrassed 
with the misfortunes of life, or happen to  
meet

viii INTRODUCTION. 
meet with any sudden turn in their affairs, are 
most commonly subject to the nervous melan- 
choly: and this more especially happens, if 
they are naturally inclinable to black, gloomy, 
and dismal apprehensions; their thoughts full 
of pensive, abject ideas; for those despairing 
intercourses with self, sadden the mind, damp 
the passions, and consequently depress the 
motions of the finest nerves, on whose powers 
the action of the noblest faculties have their 
dependance: and if we descend to examine 
the state of the blood, we shall discover it 
naturally thick, heavy and very unfit for the 
secretions of the animal œconomy. 
On the contrary, biliose constitutions are 
sometimes observed to suffer under the same 
disease, from a very different origin, for being 
brisk, vegete, and airy in disposition, their 
passions naturally strong, fierce, and greatly 
inclined to the objects they contemplate; from
the

ix INTRODUCTION. 
the quicker impulses they strike upon the seat 
of the common sensorium, it must necessarily 
follow, that their minds will be unable to 
bear any sudden shock that cross upon their 
affairs, without very great emotions: and in 
all cases, where the passions are strongly re- 
bated, that is, meet with a counter buff, in 
the eager pursuit after objects, there the mo- 
tion of the fibres, upon their recoil, must
sink beneath their natural standard, upon 
which the mind itself will sink or sadden, or 
at least appear to do so, according to the per- 
ception of the patient; and we often observe, 
that persons the most chearful, gay, and vi- 
vacious in conversation, when alone, are not 
without their frequent intervals of sad and 
gloomy moments. 
To conclude: as the well or ill exercise of 
the faculties depends entirely on the well or 
ill exercise of the organs, serving these facul- 
B ties;

x INTRODUCTION. 
ties; so it naturally follows, that wherever 
these organs are disconcerted in their motions, 
the exercise of those faculties will suffer a 
change, which will be attended with different 
symptoms, according to the different consti- 
tution of the patient. And this is the reason 
of those different symptoms, that often arise, 
under the same disease in different habits, and 
why some people of a hot biliose constitution, 
when they start sometimes from their reason, 
in consequence of nervous affections, are raging, 
furious, and distracted to the last degree; 
while others of a colder temperament are in- 
cident to deep cogitations, languid thoughts, 
and to revolve long upon the most dejecting 
ideas, which, if not remedied, often terminates 
in natural gloomy melancholy, and closes the 
scene. 
PRAC-

PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
ON 
NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.
SECT. I. 
Of the Structure, Mechanism, and Modulation 
of the Nerves, necessary to produce Sensation 
in Animal Bodies. 
I THINK it appears evidently clear from 
reasoning and argument, that the intel- 
lectual faculties receive their powers of action. 
from the laws of matter and motion, while 
the soul resides in the human machine. I 
will, therefore, go on to discover, as well as 
I am able, how all our sensations are commu- 
B2 nicated

2 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
nicated to the understanding, by the media- 
tion of bodily organs; that is, how the ma- 
terials of all our knowledge are transmitted to 
our thoughts, by means of the nerves, and 
the mechanism of these curious instruments 
necessary to produce these sensations. 
That infinitely better part of us, the soul, 
would be but little, or not at all, concerned 
for the sufferings of the body, were it not 
liable to be affected with all those pleasures or 
pains that tended to its health or sickness; but 
it could not be affected with those sensations 
of pleasure and pain, were it not for those fine 
threads the nerves, that every where strike 
the mind with the idea of sensation upon the 
application of any object. 
Every fibre of the body is perceived to be 
affected with the sense of feeling, but we can- 
not conceive how this feeling faculty can ever 
be lodged in the fibre, that is, the nervous 
system, as a bundle of fine chords curiously 
interwove, can perceive nothing apart from 
the mind; if you divide a nerve, the part it 
is disposed to will immediately lose all sensa- 
tion, unless some other branch furnish it with 
a slip; however, it will be deprived of all sen- 
3 sation

3 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.  
sation it derived from the former nerve. It is 
plain then, that the body feels not, but the 
soul, and that it has pleased the Divine Au- 
thor of Nature to communicate to certain 
fibres, so and so modulated, a power or ca- 
pacity of transmitting the ideas of all objects, 
that enter by any of the senses to the under- 
standing. 
This capacity of the fibres, in the trans- 
mission of objects, we call sensation; and 
these sensations are furnished to the mind, 
from a certain modulation of fine, white, pel- 
lucid chords, we call nerves. 
In dissections, upon viewing these fine chords 
that are the instruments of sense, motion, and 
strength, in animal bodies, we perceive that 
they derive their origin from the brain, cerebel- 
lum, and medulla spinalis, though the great 
father of physic, Aristotle, believed them to 
be originated from the heart, and thus falsely 
taught his followers. Such was the ignorance 
of the structure of the human body in those 
days. 
There are ten pair that arise within the skull, 
whole fibres are displayed upon the several 
organs of the four senses, viz. vision, hearing,
B3 tasting, 

4 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
tasting, and smelling. The rest are thirty 
pair in number, which arise from the medulla 
spinalis, that, in their descent down the spine, 
come out from between the vertebræ of the 
neck, back, and loins. These vertebral nerves 
give to every point of the body, where they 
come, a most sensible idea of touch, which 
would be inexpressibly affecting, were not their 
sensations somewhat abated by a fine carnous 
covering. 
Now, these different modulations of the 
nerves, by which different sensations are pro- 
duced in the body, depend on certain motions 
of their machinulæ*, that affect each other in 
every contact of the object; by which con- 
tact the sensation is propagated to the seat of 
the common sensorium; for all sensation is 
only the different impression of objects applied 
to the nerves differently disposed to receive 
their appulse.  
The mind sits as an arbiter or judge, ca- 
pable of being affected with divers objects
from without; the admission of objects from 
without, is by means of the nerves serving 
* Machinulæ are little small corpuscles of matter, that 
vary their distance and motion, in every contraction or 
distension of a fibre, muscle, or organ. 
any


5 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
any of the senses, which immediately convey 
the ideas to the understanding, by means of 
the common sensorium*. 
The Divine Author has wisely ordered the 
brain and its fibres to be naturally relaxed, 
that they might not be susceptible of those 
inexpressibly acute sensations, to which they 
had been liable to be affected with, from the 
immediate presence of the mind, had they 
been more contracted, or screwed up to an 
equal degree of tensity with the nerves them- 
selves; for then, every the slightest passion of 
the mind, or affection of the body, must have 
endangered the animal machine with convul- 
sions; from those extremely acute sensations, 
the impulse would have struck upon the fibres 
of the brain in every contact of the object; 
* This common sensorium I take to be that point of 
the brain, where the ideas of all objects terminate, im- 
mediately before they affect the mind; that is, where all 
objects make their last impressions, immediately before the 
soul receives them from corporeal organs: so that the 
common sensorium, according to my apprehension of this 
intricate subject, seems the ending of matter and the be- 
ginning of thought; or that I may express myself in 
terms as little ambiguous as possible, that point of the brain, 
where all the nerves serving sensation, receive their 
origin. 
B4 but,

6 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
but, more especially, from the impression of 
those objects that raise the most sensible 
passions. 
While the nerves of the animal machine 
continue justly modulated, or braced accord- 
ing to the regular standard of nature, the 
mind will perceive itself perfectly at ease, and 
free from ail manner of pain and uneasiness. 
But it may be asked, how shall we know when 
this animal machine is exactly braced and mo- 
dulated, agreeable to the exact standard of 
Nature’s laws? And what are the mechanical 
powers on which that modulation depends? 
To which I would answer, that the mind 
perceiving itself perfectly at ease, will be the 
clearest indication, that the several undulating 
fibres are acceding nearest to the balance of 
nature; for it is impossible that any organ of 
the reasoning instrument can be out of tune, 
but that the mind will perceive it; so that, 
upon these grounds, we have a standard to go 
by, or a director to inform us, whenever this 
system of matter and motion is any way af- 
fected; and, not only so, but this thinking 
being is capable of pointing out the very part 
it perceives primarily affected, which still gives 
us


7 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.
us the greater assurance, that a disease subsists 
in the body. 
Indeed the Divine Author has so surpriz- 
ingly contrived the harmony of the human 
fabrick, that the mind and body shall equally 
suffer under all the different circumstances of 
life; so that, if the bodily organs be faint, 
weary, or any ways disconcerted in their 
springs, the mind perceives their affection, 
and is affected with the change. The ques- 
tion therefore is, whether the remedies made 
use of for the recovery of these disorders acts 
upon the body or mind? And from all obser- 
vations I have been able to make, they most 
certainly act upon the bodily organs; for, by 
raising the contraction of the arteries, we, at 
the same time, increase the circulation of the 
blood, raise the beating of the pulse, the mo- 
tion of the heart, and quicken the circulation 
of the animal fluids, whereby all the senses 
are revived, the faculties dilated, and the soul 
itself cheered, by those fine, soft, undulating 
motions, that the fibres, thus assisted, strike 
upon the passions. 
On the 20th of September, 1786, a gen- 
tleman, about thirty years of age, applied to 
me

8 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
me for advice, labouring under the following 
symptoms of nervous melancholy: his voice 
weak, scarcely able to articulate his words, 
frequent tremors, frightful apprehensions, sud- 
den starts, especially in the night whilst in 
bed, a weak, creeping pulse, and every now 
and then palpitations at his heart. In com- 
pany he was dull to a degree, though by na- 
ture of the most lively turn of mind, as ap- 
peared afterwards, when he recovered his pris- 
tine health. About two years previous to his 
applying to me he had lost his wife, which he 
took so much to heart, as was supposed to be 
the cause of all these maladies. 
I was happy to be the means of re-establish- 
ing the health of this gentleman, by a course 
of nervous medicines; in the space of three 
months he was made completely happy. When 
his bodily organs had acquired their natural 
tone, his mind resumed its wonted cheerful- 
ness and gaiety: But he was so well pleased 
with his surprizing change, as well as his nu- 
merous friends who had given him up for 
lost, that nothing would serve him but to 
continue the same remedies near a year, though 
there was little occasion for it. 
In


9 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
In order to produce sensation in the organs 
of animal bodies, it is not only necessary that 
the several parts be endued with nervous fibres, 
braced or strung to a certain degree of tensity;
but that these nerves be capable of a peculiar 
modulation, on which the harmony of con- 
tact may depend. Nature has furnished those 
fine fibres, ordained for the office of sensation, 
with numberless small, papillary machinulæ, 
that, in every sensation, from the application 
of any object, should vibrate on each other, 
and by that means convey the idea to the seat 
of the common sensorium. But if an object
is applied to any organ when its fibres are too 
much relaxed (like the case of the above gen- 
tleman), which they are capable of from di- 
vers causes, it often follows, that the body 
becomes deprived of its functions, the health 
of the patient declines, stupors, numbness, 
affect the several members of the frame in a 
very singular manner. 
Hence, on the other hand, if these won- 
derful little chords, called nerves, happen, 
from any causes, to be too much contracted, 
that is, drawn up nearer to each other, than 
is consistent with a regular standard, the sensa-
tion 

10 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
tion of that part, or organ, will be increased, 
and the idea of pain communicated to the seat 
of the common sensorium; pain arises from 
too great tension put upon the fibres of any 
organ, and this tension causes a contraction of 
the machinulæ that forms the fibre; these 
contractions excite the idea of pain; but if 
these contractions be greatly increased above 
the standard of nature, they then produce con- 
vulsions, or convulsive motions, which, in 
some cases, wholly destroy the ideas of both 
pain and sensation, as generally happen in the 
epilepsy, and more violent convulsions of the 
brain; and, indeed, in all cases wherever the 
nerves are either too much contracted, or re- 
laxed, there the natural sensations will be 
either too much increased or diminished. 
If any of the nerves happen to be either 
too much contracted or relaxed, that is, if the 
balance of equality, or that proper point of 
distance, whereby they excite their powers 
with perfection, happen from any causes to be 
disconcerted, then the functions of the body 
will be slowly performed; and if this be na- 
tural to the state of the body, such are called 
dull, heavy, and stupid persons; when all the 
dulness

11 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
dulness is in the incapacity of the organs, and 
by no means imputable to a defect of the 
mind. 
If we examine into the natural endowments 
and capacities of mankind, there is most cer- 
tainly a surprizing difference; from whence, 
I pray then, does it arise, but from the na- 
tural structure, mechanism, and modulation 
of the nerves, that compose the several in- 
struments of sensation, whereby the percep- 
tion of objects that come in by any of the 
senses, are more or less clear? This perception 
of objects, when it is natural, may very pro- 
perly be called, the genius, or disposition with 
which the person is naturally endowed; he is, 
therefore, more aptly disposed to learn, which 
disposition arises from his senses, being more 
open to the impressions of objects; that is, 
from the instruments of any particular sense, 
being finely strung to a just medium. 
If we descend to consider the circumstances 
of the blood, necessary to produce that inge- 
nium, promptness of expression, or facility of 
wit, which some men are so remarkable for 
above others, we perceive it to arise from the 
arteries and nerves naturally tense, from 
blood

12 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS
blood and spirits easily moveable: hence the 
juices, and especially the animal fluids, will 
be more readily disposed to secrete, and con- 
sequently the ideas of objects struck on any of 
the senses with a stronger impulse. 
I shall beg leave here to take notice of the 
different degrees of sensation incident to affect 
infants and very old people; and why both 
these states of life are least susceptible of the 
impressions of objects. Infants, or very young 
children, are not capable of retaining the 
ideas that affect any of their senses; because 
those finest fibres of the brain, on which the 
sensations depend, are yet unfolded; nor do 
they open before they have made some consi- 
derable progress in years, and consequently 
the ideas that come to the mind, through any 
of the senses are soon erased upon the disap- 
pearing of the object: hence the reason why 
children are scarce able to recall any thing to 
mind, before they are advanced into the third 
or fourth year. Old men, whose nerves, in 
regard to tone and modulation, have conti- 
nued regular in proportion to their years, we 
find retain their ideas long, because their me- 
mories being good, and what still adds greater 
force,

13 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
force, they become very tenacious of what 
they have got by experience. Hence we dis- 
cover the reason, why very-old men will dis- 
course in a very agreeable manner, upon for- 
mer transactions, even after all the avenues of 
the external senses are contracted and shrivelled 
up by age, and the diseases incident to affect 
them in the latter periods of life. This 
power depends on the wonderful strength of 
their nerves destined to excite the perception of 
thought, and decaying not so readily as those 
nerves serving the instruments of the external 
senses, retain their mechanical powers often a 
long while after all the external avenues to the 
mind are entirely obliterated and done away. 
Here it may not be amiss to take notice of 
the three great nervous mental powers belong- 
ing to the human machine, viz. sensation, 
perception, and reflection. Though it must
be very clear to any person who considers the 
signification these words are made to stand for, 
that they convey very distinct ideas, yet they 
are almost immediately depending on each 
other. Reflection is only a power of the 
mind, by which it revives any former percep- 
tions. Perception is a power, by which the
mind

14 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS
mind perceives any sensation lodged in any 
particular organ of the body; so that sensation 
precedes perception, almost in the same man- 
ner, that perception does reflection, only the 
former is more instantaneous. Hence the rea- 
son, it is said, there can be no perception, 
where there is no sensation; neither can there 
be any reflection, where there is no percep- 
tion. These three powers of the mind, as I 
have before observed, are depending on each 
other, and all on the due modulation of the 
nerves. 
On the 28th of April, 1785, I was con- 
sulted in the case of a young gentleman twen- 
ty-six years of age, whose nerves were debili- 
tated in such manner, as to deprive him of 
perception and sensation; the latter chiefly af- 
fected the parts of generation, causing a per- 
fect impotency. He had a total loss of me- 
mory, and even his hearing was particularly 
affected. 
Though naturally of a florid complexion, 
he was now become pale and sallow, being 
ill near three years. By a course of nervous 
remedies his health was happily re-established,
acquiring 

15 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
acquiring the functions of both his mind and 
body in the most perfect manner. 
Perception may properly be called a power 
in the mind, to apprehend the sensation lodged 
by the contact of bodies in any of the sensible 
organs, whether it be in the hearing, seeing, 
tasting, feeling, or smelling sense. Sensation, 
therefore, is in the part affected, perception in 
the mind, perceiving the affection.
When we consider the uses and ends for 
which nature has destined the nerves, and 
their liquors; the various evils and fatal con- 
sequences that often attend their diseases, need 
not occasion surprize or wonder: for it is evi- 
dent, that these are the same to the animal 
spirits, that the stomach is to the chyle, or 
the arteries to the blood; and as the first dis- 
solves the meats, and changes them into a fine 
chyle, so arteries change the new-received 
chyle into blood. Hence it is evident, that 
when either of these organs gets out of order, 
the human machine will be materially affected, 
and will inevitably decline and languish, un- 
less relief is procured. It will readily be ad- 
mitted, that the cause of many diseases of the 
nerves arises from a deficiency of fine animal 
C spirits

16 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
spirits undulating through them. Hence the 
abatement of sundry functions in the body, 
and the necessity to recover their natural elasti- 
city, in order to revive their faculties. I have 
often observed a natural defect, or impotency, 
in very young people, arising from diseases of 
the nerves distributed to the parts of genera- 
tion, which prevented the parties from enter- 
ing into wedlock, till such time as they had 
regained their strength and elasticity. This 
often arises also from sprains and weakness, 
which sometimes attend an immoderate pur- 
suit of pleasures, arising from the nerves be- 
ing elevated to a surprizing degree above their 
natural standard; from a too great expansion 
and dilitation in the motion of the animal 
fluids following on those degrees of elevation, 
and from the noblest faculties, being surpriz- 
ingly agitated in the different conflicts of the 
spirits. But I must confess, I have seen dou- 
ble the number of the former cases, than those 
arising from the latter causes. 
SECT.

17 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
SECT. II. 
Of the Reality of Nervous Diseases, with 
their Train of Symptoms, and the danger- 
ous Consquences that attend their Neglect.
IT would be in vain to endeavour to discover 
the disposition of body most liable to be 
affected with nervous melancholy. It would 
also be in vain to attempt to support the causes 
of that disposition, upon the different tem- 
peraments of the solids, and the causes of that 
different temperature on the different springi-
ness of the fibres, that communicate a dif- 
ferent impulse, motion, and secretion to the 
blood and juices. If, after all these argu- 
ments and reasonings upon this subject, ner- 
vous melancholy, and the consequences arising 
therefrom, should be accounted (according to 
the opinion of some unthinking people) as an 
imaginary disease, and that has no other sup- 
port than a wrong turn of the fancy. But from 
the experience I have had in these diseases, 
together with the strict attention I have paid 
C2 to

18 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
to the variety of symptoms attending them, 
it is very easy for me to discover the difference 
of constitutions, that so greatly diversify the 
same disease in different bodies, I shall there- 
fore endeavour to remove those vulgar preju- 
dices and mistakes concerning the nature of 
those affections, by demonstrating the regular 
progress of the symptoms, and their fatal ten- 
dency, when not prevented by timely applica- 
tions. 
The world, indeed, has, for a long time, 
been at a loss what to make of nervous di- 
seases; the epithet of spleen, vapours, and 
hypochondriack melancholy, is in general an- 
nexed to them; nor have they been less puz- 
zled to discover, under what class of diseases 
they might most properly range them. Hence 
the reason, why some gentlemen, when they 
cannot reasonably account for those surprizing 
phœnomena that often arise in nervous diseases, 
are so ready to resolve all into whim, or a 
wrong turn of the fancy. But if that variety 
of symptoms that often affect the body, un- 
der those disorders, arise from a wrong turn of 
the fancy, I could wish that such gentleman 
would be so candid as to inform us, from 
whence

19 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.
whence that wrong turn of the fancy itself 
arises, that is supposed to give being to all 
those symptoms: for I deny, that the thoughts 
themselves can ever start from a regular way 
of thinking, without inferring, at the same 
time, a change in the motions of the animal 
fibres; whether the object causing that irre- 
gular turn of thought, was primarily struck 
upon the mind, and so acted upon the body, 
by first acting upon the passions; or was first 
lodged in the fibres, and by affecting the ma- 
terial organs, after that disconcerted the pas- 
sions; and after them the mind: I say, which 
way soever the shock was received, it is im- 
possible that the mind can suffer, and the body 
be unaffected at the same time; and vice versa. 
For it may be perceived in those violent pas- 
sions, or transports of anger, that are big 
enough to raise a temporary mania, if, at the 
same time, they do not disconcert the animal 
organs; upon the abatement of these motions, 
the mind will naturally subside, settle, and re- 
cover its former state of tranquillity again, 
which is far otherwise when the organs, that 
support the passions, are affected; for then 
the mania, or discomposure, holds on, and 
C3 the


20 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
the patient often continues under its influence 
whole nights and days, without the least in- 
termission. 
The criterion, therefore, by which we judge 
when all the motions of the animal fibres are 
regular; that is, when the body is in a state 
of perfect health, is discoverable from the na- 
tural power of our perception, which depends 
on the due tone of the nerves, on the natural 
course of the humours, on the natural secre- 
tions of the juices, and on the natural contrac- 
tions of the solids; for it is impossible that 
any particular secretion can be vitiated, but 
that there will be pain and uneasiness, or that 
there can be pain and uneasiness in any organ, 
but that the mind will perceive it. This per- 
ception arises from the necessary connection, 
consent, and agreement, that all those fine 
springs and fibres, that compose the animal 
machine, hath with the mind and its faculties. 
Hence, every change of the mind necessarily 
indicates a change in the bodily organs; for 
it is impossible for the wit of man to con- 
ceive how the mind can, from a cheerful, gay 
disposition, fall into a sad and disconsolate state, 
without some alterations in the nerves at the 
same


21 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
same time; for the relative gravity of the 
body, that is, what we call lowness of the 
spirits, is no otherwise increased upon these 
changes, but as the body weighs heavier to 
the mind; nor is it possible that the mind 
could perceive any addition of weight, if the 
fluids did not move slower in the vessels, upon 
which their attracting principle is increased 
to a degree greater than is consistent with a 
free circulation, and consequently a regular 
standard of health. 
From the foregoing arguments it clearly 
appears, that whenever the mind perceives it- 
self uneasy, low-spirited, or dejected, it is as 
full a demonstration, as the nature of the 
thing will admit, that the instruments, by 
which the mind directs the powers of its ope- 
rations, are affected; and this holds good, 
more especially if the under faculties produce 
not their regular effects, agreeable to the de- 
termination of the will. 
Here an objection may be started to the 
foregoing arguments. Some, perhaps, may 
say, that it is a common thing to hear men 
declare, that they cannot go, walk, nor stir, 
from the place where they are fixed, although 
C4 they


22 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
they have the perfect use of their limbs, and 
apparently in good health in every respect.
But the languid sensations with which I have 
seen very young men afflicted, in consequence 
of a debility of the nerves, is the cause of 
this general indolence of body. Force, it is 
true, has obliged such to walk, and attempt 
at a little exercise; but where is their com- 
fort? It is true, a dead man may be removed 
from place to place, or to what place you 
please, but no man, labouring under a ner- 
vous malady, can make use of his bodily pow- 
ers with satisfaction, till such time as his 
nerves are invigorated by a course of generous 
medicines. 
On the 4th of April, 1787, a gentleman, 
about thirty years of age, came to town from 
Norfolk for my advice in a case of this na- 
ture, which had afflicted him near five years;
he was tired out with consultations and taking 
medicines, and had resigned himself to fate. 
His symptoms were as follows:—He en- 
joyed sound sleep all night, but when he woke 
in the morning, he found himself more fatigued 
than when he went to bed; his languor was 
such, as often to render him unable to rise 
without

23 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
without help; he had inclination to sleep 
more, but, if he indulged himself, he felt 
still more languid than before. 
His appetite was very precarious, coming 
and going by fits; if you presently got ready 
what he then inclined to eat, it in general was 
good; but if not, it vanished. He often per- 
ceived a faintness to seize his spirits, which 
was succeeded with motes flying in the air, 
backward and forward, before his eyes; some- 
times as if clouds and mists were floating in 
the atmosphere, which interrupted his fight. 
He was sometimes seized with a dizziness of 
the head; his bowels, through indigestion, 
were very much troubled with wind. He 
was often subject to a hissing noise in the ears, 
very troublesome to hear, and which inter- 
rupted his hearing: this I imagined proceeded 
from cold already taken, which, falling upon 
the organ of the ear, so relaxed the drum and 
auditory nerve, that the least diversity of wea- 
ther generally affects it with disagreeable 
sounds, unless a proper remedy is applied. 
He often felt a disagreeable sensation of cold 
down his back-bone, and a pain frequently 
seized the small of his back. His mind was 
dull,


24 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
dull, heavy, and uneasy, though the original 
state of his spirits were gay, merry, and cheer- 
ful. His complexion was wan and pale, his 
eyes appeared rather dull, not unlike those af- 
fected with the first beginning of a consump- 
tion. 
In the space of three months this gentle- 
man’s nerves were so invigorated by a course 
of nervous medicines, that both his body and 
mind had happily acquired their natural powers 
in the most perfect manner, and he now enjoys 
all the blessings of health and happiness. 
It is in vain, therefore, under such circum- 
stances as these, to expect obedience of the 
bodily powers to our demands; we might as 
well bid a blind man see, or a deaf man hear, 
as bid a patient, labouring under these diseases, 
to be brisk, to walk, and be lively, till we 
have, with a course of generous medicines, 
removed the pressure that chains him down, 
and is the occasion, very often, of a most dark 
and gloomy way of thinking. A man per- 
ceives himself sad, dejected, or low-spirited, 
after having taken a generous nervous medi- 
cine his drooping spirits are raised, he feels 
himself alert, merry, and cheerful.
3 From 


25 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
From whence this change, I pray? Does 
the medicine immediately work upon the 
mind, in order to produce this alteration? No, 
certainly; but by first enforcing the motion 
of the nerves that serve the several senses, it 
it enables the mind to see the several objects 
that present themselves to its view with greater 
clearness; so true it is, that the disposition of 
the mind follows the direction of the nerves, 
and is elevated or depressed, in proportion as 
the nervous system is intended or remitted in 
its motions, above or beneath the standard of 
nature. Upon these grounds, then, it clearly 
appears, that neither the fancy nor imagina- 
tion, nor even reason itself, the highest fa- 
culty of the understanding, can feign a per- 
ception, or a disease, that has no foundation 
in nature; cannot conceive the idea of an in- 
disposition that has no existence in the body; 
cannot feel pain or uneasiness in any part, un- 
less there be pain or uneasiness in that part: 
the affected nerves of that part must strike the 
imagination with the sense of pain, before the 
mind conceive the idea of pain in that part:
hence it must be in vain to go about to per- 
suade any man, that he is perfectly at ease,
while 

26 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
while he, at the same time, perceives himself 
in both pain and anguish, from divers affec- 
tions of his body. 
These perceptions are certain evidences of 
what the soul really suffers from the affections 
of the body; and so long as it retains any 
ideas, it certainly knows, that all its percep- 
tions, how irregular soever in the objects that 
excite them, are real impressions made on the 
mind from the organs of the body; so that, 
to them it is, that we owe the most evident 
demonstrations of our beings, and of the ex- 
istence of all other things in the world. But 
here, perhaps, some may start this objection, 
that if our perceptions be such certain indica- 
tions of the existence of a real affection in the 
body, how comes the patient so often mistaken 
in judging of the danger attending those per- 
ceptions in these diseases? 
To this I answer, that it arises from his 
confounding the perception of pain, or uneasi- 
ness, with the perception of danger, arising 
from that pain or uneasiness; and because he 
perceives himself in great pain, therefore con- 
cludes himself in great danger. But the per- 
ception of pain is an idea quite different from 
the

27 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
the perception of danger. The former always 
arises from real causes, and is a certain per- 
ception in the mind, depending on the in- 
ternal symptoms of the bodily organs: but 
the knowledge of danger is to be calculated 
from the circumstances of the parts affected, 
that depend on a chain of consequences, out 
of the reach of the patient to comprehend: 
so that in all cases of nervous diseases we ought 
to distinguish between the perceptions, and 
the knowledge that accompany those percep- 
tions. The perceptions are always real ap- 
prehensions, from an intuitive view that the 
mind has of the degrees of pain and uneasi- 
ness, that, at any time, affect it, through a 
irregular impression of the corporeal organs; 
he, therefore, may certainly perceive his pains 
and uneasinesses to be what they are, without 
perceiving the danger that attends those im- 
pressions, and which has nothing to do with 
those degrees of perception. Hence it fol- 
lows, that every perception of pain is a cer- 
tain indication that the body is affected; but 
every consequence drawn from the degrees of 
that perception is not a certain indication of 
danger, but must be judged of by the prac- 
titioner

28 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
titioner of the healing art, from the visible 
circumstances of the parts affected, and from 
the phœnomena well known to the man of 
experience, incident to affect the several parts 
under this disease. 
Every one, therefore, will claim a right to 
be judge of his own pains, and his own un-
easinesses, though he cannot of the danger 
that accompany those impressions. And as 
no man can transfer the pains and uneasinesses 
he labours under to another, so is it impossible 
that any person can make another sensible, and 
consequently judge of the pains and uneasinesses 
he labours under. 
The pains and uneasinesses are, therefore, to 
every one what they conceive them to be; and 
we must calculate their several degrees from 
the complaints of the patient, the symptoms 
he labours under, the nature of the disease; 
and not from any imaginary whims and no- 
tions of our own brains, and conclude the 
patient feels no pains, because we perceive 
none in ourselves. 
I have known gentlemen, when they per-
ceived a disease untractable, and not yielding 
to the power of their medicines, very ready 
to


29 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
to charge it upon vapours or hypochondriac; 
or, according to their acceptation of these 
words, whim and fancy: but was the case 
of a late celebrated general officer, only 
whim and vapours, when he was rallied out 
of a real disease by a physician of considerable 
same, who assured him, that he laboured un- 
der no disease, and that he would be perfectly 
free by next day from the trifling sensations 
he complained of? The doctor was unfor- 
tunately disappointed; the consequence was, 
that he expired before that period; so that, if 
he was well, according to this gentleman’s 
prognostication, it was in the other world: a 
change that very few of us are willing to 
make, so long as we can conveniently reside 
in this. 
I shall here beg leave to argue this point a 
little more closely, in order to remove those 
vulgar prejudices that too much prevail in the 
world. Patients, who labour under nervous 
complaints, and their train of symptoms, 
often perceive a faintness to seize their spirits, 
which is sometimes succeeded with motes fly- 
ing in the air, backward and forward, before 
their

30 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
their eyes; other times, as if clouds and mists
were floating in the atmosphere. 
Now, that these objects are not there as the 
patient perceives them, I grant, and the pa- 
tient himself is very well apprized of the 
same; but then how comes his organs of sight 
to misrepresent objects, or bring objects into 
view, that have no real foundation in nature? 
I do not mean, does he imagine he sees what 
is not, but is the cause of that imaginary vi- 
sion a mere creature of the fancy, or does it 
arise from the impairation of the optick in- 
struments? From the latter most undoubtedly. 
These motes are nothing less than corpus- 
cles of the fluids attracting each other; which, 
as they pass before the retina, darken the at- 
mosphere in certain points, which points ap- 
pear to the patient as if they were real motes. 
The cause of these phœnomena arises from 
the chrystaline humour being too grossly se- 
creted, which demands the immediate appli- 
cation of some proper remedy that may divide, 
attenuate, and resolve the obstructions of those 
fibres that secrete this humour. Then again, 
what is it that creates that noise in the ears, 
that hissing sound, that frequently affect peo- 
ple

31 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
ple labouring under nervous maladies; is this 
also mere, whim? The patient hears this ring- 
ing noise, it disturbs his rest, and awakens 
him from his slumbers, which certainly is 
more than nothing. Hence I am not at all 
surprized at the frequent complaints we hear 
of so many people losing their sight and hear- 
ing, when gentlemen are so ready to resolve 
the defects of these noble organs, the nerves, 
into whim and fancy; by which means their 
disorders are suffered to gain ground, and the 
patient is often irrecoverably lost. 
But, to go further in this serious business: 
are the pains that often affect the patient’s limbs, 
that affect his back and sides, all imaginary 
whims? And, to come closer to the matter, 
are those indigestions, those severe, racking, 
cholick pains, those purulent discharges from 
the bowels, to undergo the same fate? If this 
be the way of resolving diseases, whose causes 
we may not, perhaps, be very well apprized 
of, I am afraid, in time, we shall come to 
account the most dangerous diseases imaginary; 
and then, if the patient should fall a sacrifice 
through our ignorance, who may he thank 
for his fate? 
D From


32 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
From the foregoing arguments and reason- 
ings on this subject, it clearly appears, that 
to be in health, and perceive it, is the same 
thing; and that it is impossible that any 
man can be in health and not perceive it, and 
that there is a necessary inseparable connection 
between the existence of health, and the per- 
ception of that existence: from which, who- 
ever deviates has a demonstration as evident 
as the nature of the thing will admit, that 
his constitution is starting from its natural 
standard. Indeed I shall not deny, as I have 
already observed, but that the mind may be 
mistaken in judging of the degrees, as well as 
danger, of a disease; but still the cause of 
that wrong judgment must arise from some 
disaffection of the glands of the brain, the 
immediate instrument of regular thinking; 
still there must be some real disorder in the 
bodily organs, some real foundation for com- 
plaint; still the springs, wheels, and pullies 
of the constitution, must, by some means or 
other, be disconcerted, or else the mind can 
never receive the impression of a disease. 
The fancy, we know by experience, is a 
roving faculty, and not easily confined to pro- 
per


33 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
per bounds; but yet, while her organs are in 
order, can see through all those mists that 
sometimes, under a fit of nervous affection,
bordering on spleen, cloud her actions, and 
would persuade us, that our bodies are afflicted,
when they are not actually labouring under 
any disease. But these wrong turns of the 
fancy all arise from the irregular motions of 
the nerves, that make unsuitable impressions 
on the imagination. While the nerves, there- 
fore, are in good plight, the ideas they con- 
vey through any of the senses will be regular, 
just, and clear; upon which the understand- 
ing will judge and determine of objects, as 
they are, by the laws of nature, made to 
exist to a mind fitly disposed, with proper or- 
gans to receive their impression: but if the 
structure or mechanism of these organs hap- 
pen to be disordered, and the springs of the 
machine out of tune, no wonder the mind 
perceives the alteration, and is affected with 
the change. 
Nervous melancholy is a disease that often 
puts a blind on the faculties of mankind; 
whereby persons so affected, think, speak, 
and act, sometimes little different from those  
D2 under

34 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
under a phrenzy. How often may we see the 
greatest philosopher suffering under the weight 
of this disorder, and in vain labouring with 
all his might to get rid of its tyranny? Some 
time ago, I knew a very learned and ingenious 
gentleman, who so far started from his reason, 
as to believe that his body was metamorphosed 
into a quadrupede. I must confess, that all 
the power of language both his friends and 
myself were masters of, could not dispossess 
him of this conceit; till, by the application 
of generous medicines, I restored the discon- 
certed nerves to their regular motions; and, 
by that means, gave him a sight of his error. 
SECT.

35 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
SECT. III. 
Of the different Species of Nervous Diseases. 
WHEN I treat of the causes that diver- 
sify nervous complaints, and other ma- 
ladies arising therefrom, it is necessary that I 
first consider how far these affections differ 
among themselves; after that, I shall proceed 
to discover the material differences between 
them and those diseases; that, by a parity of 
symptoms, they seem most nearly related to, 
as being the properest way to discover as much 
of their abstruse nature as is within the reach 
of human sagacity and penetration to com- 
prehend. 
In the preceding chapter I have endeavoured 
to prove, that the spleen, or nervous melan- 
choly, &c. are real diseases, arising from dis- 
ordered nerves, and no ways depending on the 
imaginary whims of fancy. Hence, if they 
are real diseases, they must have symptoms 
whereby the mind may perceive them when- 
ever they appear; for it is impossible that the 
D3 wit


36 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
wit of man can conceive any idea of a disease 
without symptoms; or that symptoms can 
support themselves in the constitution without 
a cause; or that any cause can disorder the 
frame of the animal œconomy without being 
perceived by the mind; for where there is no 
perception of a change in the mind, there can 
be no perception of a change in the animal 
organs, and consequently no disease in the 
body. But I except here to these diseases 
that deprive the mind of all perception of ob- 
jects, as happens in the apoplexy, epilepsy, 
and sincope. 
In most diseases there is a natural tempera- 
ture, that indicates the constitution more na- 
turally inclined to one disease than another. 
But nervous complaints seems almost a general 
exception to this general rule; because we 
perceive several people affected, more or less, 
with their symptoms, not any ways naturally 
disposed to them. 
The persons that are, by the order of na- 
ture, disposed to be affected with these mala- 
dies, especially that species I call nervous me- 
lancholy, are generally observed of a dark, 
pale, and wan complexion, whose nerves are 
4 finely

37 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
finely strung in the several organs they com- 
pose, which give a most exquisite sensation to 
the parts; and it often happens, that persons 
of this complexion are so sensibly affected with 
every the least recedence of the nerves from 
their natural standard. Hence it happens, 
that persons labouring under a fit of nervous 
melancholy are very apt to be alarmed, and 
sometimes think themselves past all hopes of 
recovery, when, perhaps, no immediate dan- 
ger attends their case; while a consumptive 
patient will scarce believe the least danger, but 
flatters himself with hopes against a possibility 
of hope, and when not the least symptom of 
his recovery appears. 
The reason of this is, that in the spleen and 
nervous melancholy, the nerves and fibres re- 
lax most in those parts that have the nearest 
commerce with our thoughts, that is, those 
nerves start first from their standard that im- 
mediately support the mind in its operation of 
thinking; and as they are the instruments of 
sensation, it is impossible they can suffer the 
least affection, without, at the same time, 
making the mind sensible of the change; so 
that, upon the sinking of the nerves, the
D4 spirits

38 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
spirits themselves must necessarily sink, which 
will give a sinking or sadness to the mind. 
This is what we mean by those lownesses of 
spirits, those fears and dejections of the mind, 
that generally affect us with those uneasy sen- 
sations under a fit of this disease. 
On the 20th of August, 1786, a gentle- 
man, about thirty-six years of age, applied 
to me, who, some years before, had suffered 
a good deal from venereal complaints; but at 
this time he appeared to be perfectly free from 
them. In this, however, it was difficult to 
persuade him: his symptoms were a great de- 
bility of his genital parts, frequent hissing noise 
in his ears, every now and then a dizziness, 
with motes before his eyes; a palpitation 
sometimes about the heart, with a general 
languor of his frame. He remarked, that he 
often, of late, felt an unusual sensation in his 
urethra, which inclined him to think it might 
be some remains of his old complaint: but 
the fact turned out, that he had not the least
venereal symptom about him; it proved to be 
a real nervous case. This was happily veri- 
fied afterwards; for in the space of three 
months his nerves became braced up, acquir- 
ing


39 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
ing their elasticity, so that he recovered his 
pristine health, strength, and vigour, in the 
most perfect manner, by a course of generous 
medicines. 
From the best and nicest observations I 
have been able to make, I cannot discover any 
other difference between the spleen and nervous 
melancholy, than that the former is the latter, 
improved on the constitution through a longer 
continuance of the disease. They are so nearly 
related to each other, that whatever can, with 
any propriety, be alledged of the one, with 
but little variation, may be inferred of the 
other. Both men and women, subject to these 
disorders, are liable to be affected with lowness 
of spirits; both are sometimes subject to ge- 
nerate wind, to a costive habit of body, bad 
recollection, or a loss of memory, a casual 
absence; whereby the regular state of the ani- 
mal œconomy is sometimes greatly interrupted. 
These disorders receive their different natures 
from their affecting different sexes; for what 
the vapours are in women, nervous melan- 
choly is in men; and if the female sex are 
subject to hysterick fits from the vapours, so 
men are subject to be affected with the epi-
lepsy, 


40 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
lepsy, or disorders of the convulsive kind, 
from nervous diseases. 
It is very common to see patients, labour- 
ing under nervous diseases, have the scurvy at 
the same time: the celebrated Galen says, it 
is not possible they ever can be separate; but 
I have seen them separate in many instances. 
Nervous complaints will often take their rise 
from some great passion of grief, that depresses 
the action of the mind and relaxes the nerves; 
and unless the nerves, in such a case, are sup- 
ported by the help of generous medicine, the 
nervous disease will become fixed in the con- 
stitution; and if it continues for a consider- 
able time, will not fail to contaminate the 
motions of the blood and other juices. 
This is the reason why the blood, in all 
nervous cases, is thick, heavy, and what we 
call melancholy blood; for upon a relaxation 
of the arteries the blood will remit of its mo- 
tions; upon these remissions its particles will 
attract each other, and form larger globules 
than can well pass the minute arterial fibres, 
upon which there will be a defect in the secre-. 
tions of the animal fluids, that will conse- 
quently impair the action of the nerves, which 
is

41 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
is the reason why, in some cases of these com- 
plaints, the impulse of the nerves is made so 
faintly on the seat of the common sensorium, 
as scarce to awaken the soul into a sensibility 
of its being. Hence arise that sudden lapse 
of the senses, those failures of the spirits, and 
that casual absence of reason, that often affect 
the patient under any great or surprizing turn 
of affairs. 
It has frequently happened, when great care 
was not taken, that nervous melancholy has 
made a transition into the mania, by which 
word I comprehend all the several species of 
distraction, especially if the constitution be 
bilious; this is a most raging, involuntary 
fury, attended with all the symptoms that are 
fearless, bold, and daring. If the patient is 
phlegmatic, then a settled, fixed, moaping 
melancholy takes place, wherein he revolves 
in his mind all the despairing ideas he possi- 
bly can croud upon his thoughts: and hence 
we may conclude, that the different motions 
of this mania depends on the difference of the 
constitution, prior to the invasion of the di- 
sease. This is that different state of the body 
and mind under these different affections;
both

42 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
both of which have their periods of exaspe- 
rations and remissions. Patients, in such 
cases, are liable to be affected with the dif- 
ferent temperatures of the seasons, or a thick, 
foggy atmosphere clouding the heavenly solar 
beams, which are well known to have a great 
influence over all kinds of those diseases.
SECT.

43 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.
SECT. IV. 
Of particular Symptoms, which I have often 
observed attendant on Nervous Diseases. 
FROM the reasonings and arguments I 
have already advanced in support of the 
existence of these maladies, it next becomes 
the indispensible duty of the practitioner to 
distinguished their marks and characters, by 
which he may distinguish them from a health- 
ful temperament: and also their pathogno- 
monick* signs, or inseparable characters, by 
which he may discover their specific nature, 
and distinguish them from all others that come 
under the same class. Without such know- 
ledge it is but playing at blind man’s buff 
with the unhappy sufferer. 
Hence the essential attributes, or habitudes, 
that necessarily constitute every disease. The 
symptoms give us the idea of change in the 
constitution, the pathognomonicks indicate 
* Pathognomonick is a proper and inseparable sign 
of such and such disease. 
the

44 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
the inseparable symptoms that distinguish that 
change; by which we have certain marks 
both to discover the disease and specify its pe- 
culiar nature: for while the nerves, serving 
the several senses, and the use of the brain, 
that supports the common sensorium, con- 
tinue their proper action, the impression of 
objects will be regular, and the mind perceive 
every thing to be what it is; therefore it fol- 
lows, that whenever the mind begins to en- 
tertain ideas different from what they are in 
nature, or what nature is made to represent 
them to a well-disposed system of organs, 
which is a demonstration as clear as can be 
given, that the nerves are starting from their 
natural standard. 
People, therefore, when they first perceive 
themselves seized with a nervous disease, com- 
plain of a manifest change in the constitution, 
a decline from a better to a worse state of 
health; and though before their spirits were 
gay, merry, and cheerful, they, at certain 
intervals, perceive them to flag, and the con- 
stitution of mind to be dull, heavy, and un- 
easy. This first scene of nervous debility is 
ushered with a languid feel all over the body: 
the


45 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
the disposition becomes indolent to do any kind 
of business; and because these first symptoms 
are rather attended with uneasiness than pain, 
and give little disturbance to the patient, he 
passes them over with very little attention. 
Under such circumstances the complexion 
is sometimes wan, pale, and declining from its 
usual vivacity; the eyes appear dull, and the 
aspect faded. 
If the stomach should suffer under the first 
beginnings of this complaint, (for I have 
known numbers of cases where the stomach 
has not been in the least affected) then the ap- 
petite is faint, which comes and goes by fits, 
and is very precarious. In such a case, un- 
less you presently get ready what they have an 
inclination to eat, the appetite immediately 
vanishes; after which they cannot endure the 
sight of victuals. To these symptoms suc- 
ceed a lowness of spirits, accompanied with a 
faintness, and dizziness of the head: I have 
known some take to drinking of drams, or 
hot, fiery spirits, for relief in such cases; but, 
instead of relieving these symptoms, it only 
hastened on the disease, and facilitated their 
ruin. 
It

46 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS
It sometimes happens, through indigestion, 
or a slowness of the stomach to perform its 
office, the most disagreeable crudities arises, 
and being changed into wind, furnish a great 
part of the symptoms. If the wind finds 
vent by the superior orifice of the stomach, it 
arises in frequent rifts and belchings, and hic- 
coughs, that are hot, sharp, and sour, to that 
degree, as sometimes to set the teeth an edge; 
but if these fumes are unable to force a vent 
this way, then the wind descends into the 
bowels, which passing along that winding 
pipe, we call the intestines, excites a new 
scene of symptoms: hence arise all the strange 
murmurings in the bowels. 
When the foregoing causes, by the pressure 
of the neighbouring parts, are forced into the 
fibres of the muscles, the progress of the di- 
sease is attended with the following additional 
symptom: the patient’s limbs are weak, his 
legs tremble, which, upon walking, seem 
scarce able to support his tottering carcase; 
wandering pains affect his back, loins, and 
ancles; sometimes they run into his arms and 
wrists, and mimick pains, not unlike those 
that accompany the rheumatism: sometimes 
the

47 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
the patient perceives cold, chilly shiverings to 
run down his back-bone, in the same manner 
as in the beginning of an intermitting fever. 
The body is very unequal in relation to its 
natural discharges; for sometimes it is obsti- 
nately costive, at other times the contrary. 
Under these circumstances great profusions 
of pale, crude, and watery urine are dis- 
charged, that greatly depress the motions of 
the spirits, and damp the action of the animal 
faculties. 
When the nervous debility is suffered to
make this ravage in the constitution, it begins 
to attack the head and brain; the temples fre- 
quently are affected with sharp, acute pains; 
some are troubled with a beating or thumping 
in the inside of the skull, which, to them, 
seems as if a hammer was struck against an 
anvil; sometimes this pulsation is felt on the 
sore, sometimes on the hind part of the head. 
Frequently, in the day-time, dark mists 
fall before the eyes, and the atmosphere ap- 
pears crouded with motes waving backwards 
and forwards, and not seldom his sight is 
wholly interrupted; nor are the organs of 
vision only thus affected, but those of hearing 
E often

48 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
often undergo the same fate, and are subject
to a hissing, singing noise, very troublesome 
to bear. 
When the disease has been of any consider- 
able standing, a vertigo, dizziness, and faint- 
ness, are inseparable symptoms, and the suf- 
ferer, upon the slightest motion, is apt to 
break out in moist, cold, clammy sweats, most
conspicuous about the temples and parts of 
the forehead: he starts in his sleep, and often 
awakes from his slumbers terribly affrighted 
with the horrors of his dreams. 
All sudden surprizes greatly affect them: 
they suffer astonishingly under excessive grief, 
or excessive joy; the constitution, under these 
disorders, not being able to bear, through an 
exceeding tenderness of the nervous system, 
the extremes of either grief or joy, without 
a very great shock or emotion of the spirits. 
Thus far of the symptoms that affect nervous 
people, in relation to the habit. I shall now 
proceed to discourse of those that arise from 
the variable temper of the mind; not, to speak 
properly, that the mind ever varies, but only 
appears so to do, from the variable temperature 
and motions of the organs.
We 

49 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
We often find nervous people quick of ap- 
prehension, vivacious, and of a mind finely 
turned to contemplate their ideas; they are 
often forgetful, which does not proceed so 
much from a natural defect of the memory, 
as an impairation of the fibres, on whose rec- 
titude this faculty immediately depends: they 
are subject to very groundless fears, that render 
life not only uneasy to themselves, but greatly 
perplexing to all their friends about them. 
Under lesser disturbances of the imagina- 
tion, they are continually complaining of their 
unhappy state of life; oppressed and overborne 
with calamities and afflictions, which none 
but themselves knows what they feel and suf- 
fer: their tempers are not steady, sometimes 
they are cheerful, gay, and agreeably divert- 
ing; by and by the languid fit comes on, and 
they are depressed to the last degree of despair. 
Thus, in this disconsolate state, are they a 
plague to themselves, their friends, and all 
that have any concern with them, till such 
time as their nerves have acquired their na- 
tural tone and elasticity. 
Although their circumstances are in the 
most flourishing condition, their tables spread  
E2 with


50 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
with all the most delicate dainties that art and 
nature can provide; yet that great blessing 
content is absent from their dwellings, so that 
they eat their bread with greater carefulness 
and anxiety, than those that beg it from door 
to door. Thus far has it pleased the Divine 
Providence to level the greatest lord upon a 
square with the meanest beggar.
SECT. 

51 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.  
SECT. V. 
Of the Symptoms of Nervous Diseases inci- 
dent to the Female Sex. 
THE symptoms that affect women in 
these complaints, are so nearly related 
to those that disorder both the mind and body 
of man, that I should not have treated them 
in separate chapters, were it not that the 
former are incident to convulsive motions of 
the whole nervous system, whereby that op- 
pressive matter, crouded on the organs of the 
brain, lungs, and inferior bowels, is cast off 
in frequent paroxysms. 
I shall, therefore, in a more particular 
manner, confine this Dissertation to the symp- 
toms which harass the animal springs of the 
fair sex under this disease. Those fits, vul- 
garly called hystericks, are more frequently 
observed to affect their habit, either from a 
stronger impulse of their passions, or a finer 
texture of their nerves; though I deny not, 
but that men, under a nervous malady, are 
E3 liable

52 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
liable to be affected with symptoms of a con- 
vulsive kind. 
There is a considerable scene acted, as well 
in the several organs of the body, as faculties 
of the mind, before these fits appear. The 
female patient first perceives herself low-spi- 
rited, is subject to a giddiness or vertigo, a 
lightness or swimming in the head, attended 
with faintness and weakness of all the senses. 
Upon any sudden suprize, the patient is sub- 
ject to frequent sighings, tremblings, and 
palpitations of the heart; convulsive twitch- 
ings of the muscles, tendons, and nerves, in 
the face, back, and loins; a troublesome mo- 
lesting noise, and rumbling in the inferior 
bowels, which often ends in belching eruta- 
tions, and the rising of much wind from the 
stomach. 
The appetite rises and falls strangely; some- 
times the patient is ready to faint, unless she 
be immediately supported with sustenance; 
at other times, her stomach is so full, from a 
distension of the hypochonders*, with wind, 
* Hypochonders, the right and left parts of the lower 
belly. 
that


53 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
that she cannot eat the least morsel of victuals. 
But the unhappiness of these miserable mor- 
tals does not rest here; for besides a decay of 
their bodily organs, sad and gloomy symptoms 
affect their minds, and chain them down to 
the most dismal way of thinking. 
June 17, 1787, a lady about thirty-four 
years of age applied to me, who had laboured 
under the above symptoms for two years and 
upwards: she had suffered much trouble pre- 
vious to this in her family affairs, which, no 
doubt, had increased their violence. 
By persevering in a regular course of gene- 
rous medicines, with some few rules in her 
regimen, this lady happily regained her pris- 
tine health, which she continues to enjoy, 
having seen her a few days ago. 
I have lately had some female patients, who, 
from a bad state of the blood, and irregulari- 
ties peculiar to their sex, were debilitated and 
relaxed. (A remarkable instance of this oc- 
curred in the case of Mrs. L. of Wimpole- 
street:) She had been afflicted for years with 
the fluor albus, and she might, with pro- 
priety, be said to have remained barren; or,
E4 being

54 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
being with child, constantly miscarried about 
the fourth month. 
March 19, 1787, being then pregnant, and 
in this languishing condition, having long la- 
boured under ill health, and was of a delicate 
frame and valetudinary habit of body. She 
had at this time also a troublesome cough, and 
her spittle was sometimes tinged with blood: 
her physician had ordered her frequent bleed- 
ings, and kept her on very low diet; indeed 
she was reduced to the last extreme weakness 
when she began to take the nervous medicines 
I recommended to her. In about three months 
her nerves became braced up, and had ac- 
quired their natural tone, the good effects of 
which were, that her strength, spirits, and 
appetite increased every day, and she was hap- 
pily delivered, at her full time, of a strong 
male child. 
Fear, sadness, and despair, those cruel tor- 
tures of the soul,  so absolutely possess the 
minds of some female patients labouring un- 
der a nervous complaint, that they give them- 
selves up a prey to the most insulting passions 
of anger, jealousy, suspicion, and whatever 
life can disturb the tranquillity of their peace. 
Their


55 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
Their breasts are strangers to joy, hope, and 
gladness; these cheerful exhilarating passions 
seldom find admission within the compass of 
their disturbed minds. 
Thus much relative to the symptoms pre- 
ceding the invasion of the hysterick paroxysm,
improperly called fits of the mother, or womb,
which was the name given by the ancients, 
who erroneously supposed, that they arose from 
a bad ferment, or collection of sharp humours 
lodged upon those parts. But if, through ne- 
gligence of the patient, the foregoing symp- 
toms are suffered to continue, and harass the 
constitution, for any considerable time, they 
then produce a new train of symptoms widely 
different from the former, both in relation to 
their nature and causes; for the spleen, or 
nervous melancholy, arise, in their first be- 
ginning, from a relaxation of the fine fibres 
of the brain and nerves, whereby those instru- 
ments of thought and sensation are let down
beneath their natural standards: hence all the 
symptoms are dejecting. 
The hysterick paroxysm is excited in some
patients through a mechanical necessity in the 
solids, to discharge the nervous system of those 
disagreeable

56 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
disagreeable corpuscles that are the immediate 
grounds of the foregoing symptoms: and as 
this mechanical necessity arises from the mo- 
tions of the nerves exerted at these times to 
restore their contractile powers, so will it fol- 
low, that these fits, or at least the symptoms 
attending these fits, will be different, accord- 
ing to the different temperature of the body; 
the causes producing these symptoms, and the 
different passions to which the patient was 
subject before the invasion of the disease: 
hence these several circumstances will be over 
and above sufficient to excite the symptoms in 
one person, widely different from what they 
are in others. 
I shall therefore, first attempt to explain 
the nature of the hysterick symptoms, or cha- 
racters that form the fits; afterwards I shall 
proceed to assign their causes; and, in con- 
clusion, shall endeavour to demonstrate the 
grounds on which these causes are established, 
and the reasons that induced me rather to solve 
these phoenomena, upon the principles of me- 
chanical reasonings, than any others; for it is 
impossible to discover the causes before we get 
a right knowledge of the symptoms, because
it 

57 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
it is a collection of the symptoms, united un- 
der one common appearance, that forms the 
disease, and makes it what it is. The causes 
support the symptoms, not the symptoms the 
causes: these two principles being cause and 
effect, do always exist inseparabie in nature; 
for wherever there is a disease, there will be a 
cause, and consequently symptoms; all which 
will appear in their proper natures; for the 
causes and effects of disases, arising only from 
the irregular motions of the solids and fluids, 
can have no disguises, but are constantly what 
they appear to be; the causes real causes, and 
the effects real effects, resulting from these 
causes. 
I have, therefore, frequently observed, that 
the access of the fits, upon the invasion of the 
paroxysm, differs very much in different con- 
stitutions: some faint away in the first onset, 
and are affected with a sincope, or swooning, 
in which the action of all the animal faculties 
is highly perverted and distressed: they invo- 
luntary grasp their hands, fix their teeth, and 
stretch out their limbs, as in convulsions, but 
lie still: by and by the patient gives signs of 
recovery, and is almost choaked with rifts of 
3 wind

58 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
wind that they discharge in belchings. They 
weep, laugh, sigh, sob, and cry by turns; 
then, in a little, perhaps faint away, as in the 
beginning. The hands and legs are both 
strongly convulsed, though the trunk has but 
little motion. 
These fits attack them sometimes four or 
five times, with very little intermission, no 
sooner out of one, but into another, at last 
they revive by degrees; and if, as they return 
to their senses, they fetch a deep groan, it is a 
certain indication that the fits are going off. 
These paroxysms generally proceed from 
great grief, disappointments, &c. or some other 
huge passion that was too great for the weakly 
mortal to encounter; they are the worst kind 
of fits, as well with relation to their conse- 
quences as difficulty of cure; for they argue a 
defect of motion in the blood of some prin- 
cipal organ; and that the fits are unable to 
discharge the causes, or at least but partially. 
These paroxysms shew the efforts which 
nature attempts at, to relieve herself, endea- 
vouring to restore an equilibrium in the animal
œconomy. 
To 

59 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
To digress a little from this subject, and 
draw a philosophic comparison. I think the 
same attempts may be exemplisied by a most 
strinking phœnomena in the fabric of the globe 
and its elements, to restore an equilibrium, for 
indeed this tendency seems universal through 
nature. 
Hence the matter discharged periodically 
from the burning mountains of the earth. 
After violent internal commotions there 
issues from these mountains volumes of smoke 
and flame, burning stones, ashes, boiling wa-
ter in deluges, a whole tide of melted minerals 
in the form of what is called lava; after these 
discharges the tumult subsides, and all is 
quiet. 
Are we to suppose, that these grosser entrails 
were the offensive matter which the consti- 
tution of the earth was labouring to get rid 
of? Or was the whole paroxysm owing to a 
violent commotion of the elementary fire, 
which pervades the whole earth in common 
with every part of nature; and the impetus 
of which commotion, at last forcing a passage 
for itself from the body and bowels of the 
2 mountain,

60 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
mountain, carries along with it whatever it 
finds in its way. 
In the course of this Dissertation on the 
operation and importance of the nerves 
being in their just and regular standard, 
towards the production of the phœnomena 
of health, and of disease in the animal 
œconomy, that periodical discharge common- 
ly called menstruation, requires our parti- 
cular attention, being a most important phoe- 
nomena; for it is that on which apparently 
the continuation of the whole human species, 
as well as the health of the female part of it, 
in a great measure depends. 
The absence of this discharge is another 
disease, which affects the powers of beauty 
and youth in a very singular manner; and car- 
ries off that bloom and freshness painted by 
nature, which neither Corregio, Titian, or 
Vandyke, with all the powers of art, could 
ever equal. 
The stoppage of this discharge should first 
be removed; and the better to effectuate this, 
it will be necessary to say what appears to be 
the cause of the evacuation. There has been 
various doctrines for the explanation of this 
subject,


61 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
subject, but they are now all abandoned but 
one, which I think equally fallacious with the 
rest, and is as follows: 
That the fluids in the human body, circu- 
lating in tubes, are under the influence of the 
sun and moon, because the ocean is obedient 
to these powers, is something very extraor- 
dinary; when we see seas, like the Caspian, 
Mediterranean, and all rivers, paying no obe- 
dience to the powers of their attraction. Thus 
it appears to me, that an analogy is made here 
where none can exist; and which, from the 
enquiries which I have made of women in 
hospitals, has not the least proof from expe- 
riment; the catamenia, or menses, appearing 
at all times of the moon, the beginning, quar- 
ters, and full. Methinks the principles of 
vital heat, applied in this instance, together 
with the mechanism of the arteries and veins 
in this part of the human body, where the 
discharge is made, will assist us in explaining 
this phœnomenon. The arteries of the womb 
are very large, and their areas are to the thick- 
ness of their membranes, beyond the usual pro- 
portion: on the contrary, their veins are un- 
commonly small, and their coats stronger in 
this

62 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
this part, than any other of the human body. 
The mechanism, and the increase of blood, 
which is generated in a month, or something 
near that time, will probably explain the 
whole phœnomena. I am of opinion, that 
animal heat is always in proportion to the
crassamentum, or richest part of the blood. 
This crassamentum, or richest part of the 
blood, then increasing, in some small degree, 
adds a greater degree of vital heat, which dis- 
tending the vessels of the whole body, these 
arteries, which are the weakest in their fabric 
and texture, will be distended most in propor- 
tion to the vital heat; and consequently those 
pores, which wore only sufficient for letting 
out the serous fluid to fill the cellutar coat, 
become large enough for the red globules and 
fibrous blood. By this means the increased 
blood mechanically discharges itself; which 
being once effectuated, and the vital heat di- 
minished, the arterial coat, or tunic, becomes 
again sufficiently strong to restrain the blood 
from passing through these arterial pores. 
This I am apt to think would be the same 
in very ardent fevers; but that the adhesion of 
thg fibrous part of the blood being so much 
increased,

63 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
increased, the globules are too strongly at- 
tracted by one another to pass through these 
pores. 
Yet, notwithstanding this phœnomenon has 
happened in ardent fevers, particularly when 
the adhesion has been lessened by drawing 
some blood away, I am of opinion, that this 
way of explaining the menstrual discharge will 
be still more supported by the symptoms with 
which the female is afflicted, both preceding 
and succeeding this evacuation. Before it ap- 
pears, the breasts are turgid, the head achs, 
the eyes have their lymphatics, many of them 
filled with blood, pain in the back, and other 
symptoms of a febrile state. 
These sufficiently express the disposition of 
the blood, which accordingly appears in this 
discharge soon after. The due quantity being 
secerned, the cause of attracting a greater de- 
gree of vital heat than before is at an end, and 
nature is brought a little below the degree of 
health, as is visible in the languid look, the 
dispiritedness and languor of the body, which 
are sure signs of a diminished degree of vital 
fire. Upon these principles the regular dis- 
charge depends; and whatever lessens the de- 
F gree


64 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
gree of vital heat, lessens the catamenia, or 
menses, till they do not flow at all; and all 
the humours become, as it were, a vapid, 
inert, aqueous fluid; which scarce has attrac- 
tive power sufficient to furnish the lowest de- 
gree of that with which the animal faculties 
can be put in motion, and the heart and arte- 
ries continued in their pulsation. The symp- 
toms then, which attend a suppression of the 
menses, are all such as are consequent on a 
diminished degree of vital heat, and a watery, 
vapid, and inert state of the blood. Women, 
under the influence of this disease, have, in 
general, a great dejection in their countenance, 
and a melancholy mind, the pulse is feeble, 
unequal, and an anxiety of heart attends 
them. 
In some irregular cases; instead of a sanguine- 
ous discharge, one of a white colour makes 
its monthly appearance, which, in its effects, 
seems to be equivalent to the other in every 
thing, except in what relates to the continua- 
tion of the species. Women never breed 
under such an irregularity. 
In consequence of menstrual obstruction,
the female sex becomes subject to nervous di-
3 seases;

65 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
seases; and their nervous system seems so re-
markably affected by all that relates to this 
discharge, that I am often led to that quarter 
to look for the cause of it. The follow- 
ing relation is the case of a young lady I vi- 
sited in the month of August, 1787, attended 
with the most surprizing symptoms of vapours 
and hysterick fits I ever beheld in my life. 
She was of a thin, pale complexion, of a 
tall, slender habit, and subject to a sharp, 
acute pain of her head, that was greatly ex- 
asperated at certain seasons. 
Upon the access of the fit she fell violently 
on the floor, and all her body was agitated, 
shaken, and distorted in a most cruel manner: 
her head was violently convulsed divers ways, 
her eyes were contracted inwardly in their or- 
bits, with their whites turned up and fixed. 
To these symptoms followed a light murmur- 
ing noise in the bowels, which was succeeded 
with a great distension of the left hypochonder, 
that terminated in a round globe, swelled pro- 
digiously above the surface of her belly; pre- 
sently after she smiled, and mimicked a laugh- 
ing countenance; then cried, sighed, and
F2 groaned;

66 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS 
groaned; after which she lay still. In about 
five minutes time the convulsions returned in 
the most furious manner; upon which, to my 
great surprize, she was suddenly flung off the 
bed with a prodigious impulse, the whole 
body being darted, as it were, from a spring; 
her abdomen gave the greatest signs of the 
impulsive motion: immediately after this I 
observed the round globe which formed the 
swelling on the left hypochonder vanished, 
though the convulsions continued; and not- 
withstanding there were half a dozen in the 
room, yet much ado had they all to lift her 
on the bed again, so strong was the fit above 
all the natural powers of her body. This was 
a powerful effort of nature to restore (agree- 
able to what I have already laid down) an 
equilibrium in the constitution: she had been 
a long time ill, and upon enquiry it appeared, 
that this tornado of symptoms took its source 
from obstructed menses of long standing; 
which was incontrovertably proved to be the 
cause afterwards; for after she had undergone 
a course of generous medicines, and these 
causes done away, she was restored to a perfect 
re-establishment of health, which she enjoys
better 

67 ON NERVOUS COMPLAINTS. 
better than ever she did before, having seen 
her but a few days ago. 
Indeed, as to the method of treating di- 
seases in both sexes, very little need be said, 
when the cause of them is assigned, and the 
manner in which medicine operates is brought 
to some clearer manner of explaining, than 
hitherto has attended that important subject. 
Matter acts on matter mechanically, but not 
in that kind of mechanism which has hitherto 
been applied in many physical and medicinal 
enquires. 
When I say that matter acts on matter, ac-  
cording to the laws of matter, I wish to be 
understood, that I mean those which hitherto 
have not been sufficiently explained, and which 
are, notwithstanding, as much mechanical as 
those which have been already discovered. By 
this, however, it is not my meaning to ex- 
clude the operation of what, with propriety, 
may be called spirit upon matter; such are the 
effects of the passions on the human frame, 
which it is frequently as necessary to oppose, 
as the infection of a putrid or any other con- 
tagious principle.
Whatever

68 PRACTICAL DISSERTATIONS, &c. 
Whatever lessens or increases the animal 
heat, as some passions do the one, and some 
the other, it is requisite to counteract their 
influence. This is particularly to be observed 
in the female sex, who are actuated by more 
delicate motives, and attended with greater 
sensibility, than are those of the male kind; 
at least it is in general so. 
It is owing to that degree superior to the 
multitude, that an object which proves the 
greatest affliction to one, becomes scarce per- 
ceptible to another; and whilst one is insen- 
sibly wearing away and pining, from some in- 
ternal cause, the other is gay and at ease in 
similar circumstances.
FINIS.