Insanity : its causes, prevention, and cure, including apoplexy, epilepsy, and congestion of the brain. / by Joseph Williams.

  • Williams, Joseph, 1814-1882.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity : its causes, prevention, and cure, including apoplexy, epilepsy, and congestion of the brain. / by Joseph Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    posture, this determining a flow of blood to the head, but the constant motion of the arms and legs, and the continued re-elevation of the head and shoulders convince me that the evil is more imagi- nary than real. Close carriage exercise may suit some, but it is manifestly improper for others ; in many indivi- duals it causes headache, flushed face, injected eyes, and, owing to the pressure on the brain, vomiting soon follows. I know several persons who are always very much excited when riding inside a coach, and this excitability augments as the rapidity of travelling increases ; and I have several times seen epistaxis occur from the same cause ; therefore no one can doubt that carriage exercise is often contra-indicated in those subject to determination of blood to the head. There are some persons, again, who find a peculiarly tranquillizing effect from this very exercise which in others so much disturbs the nervous and vascular systems. The numerous deaths from congestion of the brain and apoplexy, which have occurred in railway car- riages, or at the termini, but more especially within a few hours after a long journey, may be adduced to prove that railway travelling often determines blood towards the head. Many persons never travel a few miles by rail without suffering severely from headache ; and even gentlemen who like the speed, have, after twelve months' daily trial, been compelled to discontinue travelling so fast and far, and to live