OF NERVOUS DISORDERS.
S 4*
when in a horizontal poilure, her pulfe beat Under 140, by only
fitting up in bed for a little while* it became fo quick that, with',
difficulty, I could count it y but, after repeated trials, round it to
be nearly 220 in a minute.
Is not the quicknefs of the pulfe, in children, chiefly owing tn
the greater fenfibility of their hearts ? and does not the pulie gene¬
rally grow flower with age, becaufe the heart becomes lefs fenfible,
and, in a very advanced age, perhaps, in forme degree, callous ?
Laftly, is not the pulfe, cMeris pariBm^ quicker in fin all than in
large animals, chiefly becaufe the nerves are endowed with a greater
degree of fenfibility in the former than in the latter # l
S;nce, as we have obferved, the nerves in the different organs*
are endowed with various kinds of feeling, and are very differently
affetfed by the fame things, will not morbid humours in the blood
be more apt to produce difeafes in thofe parts whofe nerves are-
moft flrongly affeded by them, than in others which fuffer lefs ?
And may not this be, partly, the reafon why, in certain difeafes,.
fome parts of the body are much more commonly afïèded than o~
thers ? And why, in fome epidemics, the eyes, nofe, or fauces, and,
In others, the bread or inteflines are moil apt to fuffer l This aifo
may, partly, be the caufe why thofe organs which have differed by
fome former difeafesr are mod liable to be attacked, when the bo¬
dy is feized with any new diforder -, for this does not feem to be
owing folely to the weaknefs of the veffels, but alfo to their being
more eafily irritated by any acrimony in the blood, or by its mcreafèd
force. Further, it may be proper to take notice here, that the dif¬
ferent operations of various medicines are not fo much owing to
their powers, either of diffolving the blood, or changing it in o-
ther refpeds, as to the particular nature of the nerves of the dif¬
ferent organs, difpofing them to be very differently affedled by the
fame kind of flimulating fubflances. ' -
Thus cathartic medicines applied to the belly of children, in the
* The flownefs of the pulfe in larger animals is, no doubt, partly owing to the ventricles
of their heart, on account of their greater capacity, requiring a longer time for the perform¬
ance of their feveral motions.