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OF THE PHRENIT1S, OR

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md those whose nervous system is irritable in a high degree, arrfiiost liable to it.

CAUSES. ------This disease is often occasioned by night watch.

ing, especially when joined with hard study; it may likewiseproceed from hard drinking, anger, grief, or anxiety. It isoften occasioned by the stoppage of usual cracuations; as thebleeding piles in men, the customary discharges of women, Ac.Such as imprudently expose themselves to the heat of the sun,especially by sleeping without doors in a hot season, with theirheads uncovered, are often suddenly seized with an inflammationof the brain, so as to awake quite delirious. When repellentsare imprudently used in an erysipelas, an inflammation of thebrain is sometimes the consequence. It may likewise be occa-sioned by external injuries, as blows or bruises upon thehead, &c.

SYMPTOMS.------The symptoms which usually precede a true

inflammation of the brain are pain of the head, redness of the eyes,a violent flushing of the face, disturbed sleep, or a total want ofit, great dryness of the skin, costiveness, a retention of urine, asmall dropping of blood from the nose, singing of the ears, andextreme sensibility of the nervous system.

When the inflammation is formed, the symptoms in general aresimilar to those of the inflammatory fever. The pulse indeed isoften weak, irregular, and trembling; but sometimes it is hard andcontracted. When the brain itself is inflamed, tiie pulse is alwayssoft and low; but when the inflammation only affects the integu-ments of the brain, viz. the dura and pia mater, it is hard. A re-markable quickness of hearing is a common symptom of this dis-ease ; but that seldom continues long. Another usual symptom isa great throbbing or pulsation in the arteries of the neck and temples.Though the tongue is often black and dry, yet the patient seldomcomplains of thirst, and even refuses drink. The mind chiefly runsupon such objects as have before made a deep impression on it; andsometimes, from a sullen silence, the patient becomes all of a suddenquite outrageous.

A constant trembling and starting of the tendons is an unfavoura-ble symptom, as are also a suppression of urine ; a total want ofsleep; a constant spitting; a grinding of the teeth; which lastmay be considered as a kind of convulsion. When a plirenitis suc-ceeds an inflammation of the lungs, of the intestines, or of thethroat, &c. it is owing to a translation of the disease from theseparts to the brain, and generally proves fatal. This shews thenecessity of proper evacuations, and the danger of repellents in allinflammatory diseases.

The favourable symptoms are, a free perspiration, a copious dis'■harge of blood from the nose, the bleeding piles, a plentiful dis-'liarge of urine which lets fall a copious sediment. Sometimes theilisease is carried off by a looseness, and in women by an excessiveflow of the menses.

As this disease often proves fatal in a few days, it requires tK