S20

OF THE HEAD-ACH.

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which may be covered with the end of the thumb, iscalled the clavis hystericus.

There are also other distinctions. Sometimes thepain is internal, sometimes external; sometimes it isan original disease, and at other times only symptoma-tic. When the head-ach proceeds from a hot bilioushabit, the pain is very acute and throbbing, with aconsiderable heat of the part affected. When froma cold phlegmatic habit, the patient complains of adull heavy pain, and has a sense of coldness in thepart. This kind of head-ach is sometimes attendedwith a degree of stupidity or folly.

Whatever obstructs the free circulation of the bloodthrough the vessels of the head, may occasion a head-ach. In persons of full habit, who abound with blood,or other humours, the head-ach often proceeds fromthe suppression of customary evacuations; as bleedingat the nose, sweating of the feet, &c. It may likewiseproceed from any cause that determines a great fluxof blood towards the head; as coldness of the extre-mities, or hanging down the head for a long time.Whatever prevents the return of the blood from thehead, will likewise occasion a head-ach; as lookinglong obliquely at any object, wearing any thing tightabout the neck, or the like.

When a head-ach proceeds from the stoppage of arunning at the nose, there is a heavy, obtuse, pressingpain in the fore-part of the head, in which there seemsto be such a weight, that the patient can scarcelyhold it up. When it is occasioned by the causticmatter of the venereal disease, it generally affects theskull, and often produces a caries of the bones.

Sometimes the head-ach proceeds from the repul-sion or retrocession of the gout, the erysipelas, thesmall-pox, measles, itch, or other eruptive diseases.What is called the hendcrania generally proceeds fromcrudities or indigestion. Inanition, or emptiness, willalso occasion head-ach. I have often seen instancesof this in nurses who gave suck too long, or who didnot take a sufficient quantity of solid food.

There is likewise a most violent, fixed, constant, and