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DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 431
affected with stupor and insensibility. The body is
now turned backward and forward, the limbs are agi
tated, and the hands are so firmly closed, that it is with
difficulty that they can be opened. Wild and irregular
actions take place in the alternate fits of laughter, cry
ing, and screaming; incoherent expressions are uttered,
and a occasionally frothy discharge of saliva issues from
the mouth. At length the fit abates—a quantity of
wind is expelled upward, with frequent sighing and
sobbing. After the patient appears for some time quite
spent, she recovers the exercise of sense and motion ;
but she usually feels a soreness all over the body, with
-a severe pain in the head."
Here is a disease of the will ; involuntary motions,
not altogether unconscious ; a disordered and discordant
state of the nervous system; and a strange jangling of
the animal with the organic. These are not the phe
nomena of health. Here are evidences of great pas
sional and physical disorder.
Chlorosis is the extreme of dyspepsia and amative
exhaustion, with an aggravation of the symptoms of
both. There is general debility and bloodlessness, with
morbid appetites.
I have no doubt that a fit of hysterics might be re
lieved by a thorough cold bath, or dripping sheet, or
wet-sheet pack. The terror and sympathy of those
around the patient evidently protract and aggravate the
fit. As hysterical patients are usually impressible, they
may be controlled to a great extent by magnetic influ
ences.
But the great point in these cases is to give strength
to the system, and harmony to all its functions.