First lines of the practice of physic / [William Cullen].

  • Cullen, William, 1710-1790
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First lines of the practice of physic / [William Cullen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    76/454 (page 62)
    BOOK Itt. OF SPASMODIC AFFECTIONS, WITHOUT FEVER. ORD. Ill. SPASMI. Musculorum vel fibrarum muscularium motus abnormes. INTRODUCTION. 1251. Unorr this title I am to comprehend all the diseases which consist iz motu abnormi ; that is, in a preternatural state of the contraction and motion of the muscular or mo- ving fibres in any part of the body. 1252. It will hence appear, why, under this title, I have comprehended many more diseases than Sauvages and Sagar have comprehended under the title of Spasmi, or than Lin- nzeus has done under the title of Motorii. But I expect it will be obvious, that, upon this occasion, it would not be proper to confine our view to the affections of voluntary mo- tion only ; and if those Nosologists have introduced into the class of Spasmi, Palpitatio and Hysteria, it will be, with equal propriety, that Asthma, Colica, and many other dis- eases, are admitted. 1253. It has been hitherto the method of our Nosologists to divide the Spasmi into the two orders of Tonici and Clo- nici, Spastici and Agitatorii; or, as many at present use the terms, into Spasms strictly so called, and Convulsions. I find, however, that many, and indeed most of the diseases to be considered under our title of Spasmodic Affections, in respect of Tonic or Clonic contractions, are of a mixed kind: and, therefore, I cannot follow the usual general di-