Volume 3

The anatomy and physiology of the human body.

  • Bell, John, 1763-1820.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy and physiology of the human body. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Somewhat opposed to the state of apoplexy, is that condition where the imagination is oppressed by some sensation, as in the night-mare; but the powers of motion are locked up. If natural sleep is not profound, the imagination is awake ; but there may be false perceptions, false judgment and associations, and disproportioned emo- tions ; and if sensations are perceived, they do not produce the ordinary associations. If such a state of the intellectual functions occurs during the waking state, it becomes delirium. That this delirium is analogous to the perturbed state of the imagination during sleep, appears from the delirium in fevers uni- formly showing its approach in the patient’s slumbers only. It is a disposition to form false images and as- sociations, which, in the beginning, the excitement of the outward senses has power to counteract, inso- much that a patient can be roused from delirium as he can be roused from sleep; but, by and by, the ex- ternal senses lose their superiority, and their excite- ment is attended with unusual associations ; they no longer convey impressions to the intellect, but be- come subservient to and modified by it, and the judg- ment, which depends on the due balance of memory and imagination, is lost. In fever, the delirium is transitory; in low fevers, it is combined with a comatose state. In melancholy, the delirium runs upon one object chiefly, or trains of ideas, which re- fer to the patient’s health and corporeal feelings. In madness the variety is infinite ; but chiefly consist- ing in a vitiated imagination and perverted judgment, with fierceness and increased power of corporeal exertion. There are five organs peculiarly adapted to convey sensations to the mind ; or as I am more inclined to say, to rouse the faculties of the mind by exercising the internal organs of the senses in the brain ; these may be considered as forming a medium of commu- nication betwixt the external creation and the sentient principle within us; and in some measure the bond